Rozner: Heading into Masters, Spieth facing questions
There is a single question dominating golf with just hours remaining until the Masters begins Thursday morning.
What is Jordan Spieth really thinking?
Spieth has spoken repeatedly about his collapse at Augusta a year ago, when he appeared a cinch to become only the fourth player to go back-to-back at the Masters.
He took a 5-shot lead through the turn but dropped 6 strokes over the next 3 holes and hit a pair of shots into the creek on No. 12 for a quad, finishing 3 shots behind winner Danny Willett.
It was one of the worst Round 4 disasters in major championship history.
Spieth did win again at Colonial in May 2016, but his next three majors saw him finish tied for 37th, 30th and 13th.
Still, after a second, a first and a second in his three starts at Augusta, Spieth ought to be no worse than a cofavorite before anyone tees off, but the kid who once sounded so confident about his game now sounds tired of discussing the Masters.
"No matter what happens at this year's Masters, whether I can grab the jacket or I miss the cut or I finish 30th, it will be nice having the Masters go by," Spieth told reporters in Texas at the Match Play 10 days ago. "The Masters lives on for a year. It brings a non-golf audience into golf.
"And it will be nice once this year's Masters is finished, from my point of view, to be brutally honest with you."
Spieth's knowledge of the usually impossible greens at Augusta - a gift from Ben Crenshaw - ought to give Spieth a huge advantage, but it's entirely fair to wonder where his head is at after answering questions about No. 12 for 52 weeks.
"It would be best if I could reclaim the jacket," Spieth said. "But I believe that I'll be back up there sooner or later, just the way that (I) play the golf course, the success (I've) had and the comfort level I have there.
"But it will just be nice to get past that tournament. It's a 365-day thing. There's no other Masters. As far as just having all the questions done, I'm pretty sure they will be."
Rory McIlroy, however, says those questions will never go away.
McIlroy, a four-time major champ who has never won at Augusta, had a 4-shot lead going into the final round in 2011 and hit the turn in command. But he made triple on 10 when he hit his drive so far left that those on hand said they had never seen a ball there before.
After a 4-putt double on 12, McIlroy was on his way to a final round 80 and finished 10 shots behind winner Charl Schwartzel.
"It's not as if it's going to be the last year he gets questions about it," McIlroy told reporters in Texas two weeks ago. "That might be the way he's approaching it. But if he doesn't banish those demons or win this year, the questions will still be there.
"I still get questioned about the back nine at Augusta in 2011. It's just something you have to deal with. It's something that happened. It's not going to go away. It's there, and it always will be."
Spieth, meanwhile, is aware of what's happening around him, most notably that World No. 1 Dustin Johnson has won three straight and looks unbeatable at the moment.
"I think he is the guy to beat in golf no matter where you are," Spieth said of Johnson, who withdrew from Houston to rest after winning Match Play. "Put him anywhere. I think just about anybody would agree with that.
"I believe that I can take down anybody, and you have to believe that. But I think that right now he is the guy that everyone is saying, 'He's playing the best golf in the world.' "
Right now it's Johnson and everyone else. The only others who can compete with Johnson physically are McIlroy, Jason Day and Jon Rahm, but Spieth still has the course knowledge and one item that the others don't.
He has a green jacket.
"He can console himself by opening up his locker," McIlroy said, "and seeing one hanging there."
Good point.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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