Jordan Spieth launched his week at Harding Park in relative serenity. He took swings on the range, did some work on the practice green and then climbed in a cart and hustled to the No. 8 tee to meet Ryan Palmer and Gary Woodland for an abbreviated practice round with only a handful of spectators in tow.
Spieth hopes the serenity vanishes by Sunday.
He enters this week’s Match Play Championship as the most compelling golfer on the planet, fresh owner of a green jacket. And if you want some insight into how Spieth protected his lead from start to finish at Augusta National, becoming the second-youngest winner in Masters history, listen to him talk about the exhilaration of contention.
As he hopped off the cart Monday and stepped onto the tee box, Spieth, 21, was asked about his history of winning: from two U.S. Junior Amateur titles to an NCAA championship at Texas to this year’s Masters. He’s no stranger to final-round tension, in other words, and he savors it.
“I embrace being in the hunt,” he said. “I embrace the pressure. I can’t speak to how anybody else feels, but I believe we play the game in order to live on the edge, to be in the hunt and see how our body and our swing and our putting stroke responds to the pressure.