Would Spieth have melted down had the course setup not been so severe

[Matthew Petersen]

AG,

Fair enough, the spectrum is fairly wide between The Shark and Woods, but they are both clearly legends of the game and Hall of Famers, so maybe not as wide as one thinks...

Perhaps I should detail a little bit more of what I saw.  I saw a lot of second guessing, a lot of little nervous ticks, a lot of wiggles like what Sergio dealt with, a lot of over-analyzing, just a lot of little signs that could add up to something significant the next time he's in contention at a major.  And my reference point is....I don't recall him doing these kinds of things during his win last year and previous big tourney wins.  He was just full of confidence and never in doubt, so at least to me it seemed fairly alarming to watch him pulling a Norman...

P.S.  I still do hope I'm wrong on this one...go Spieth!!  (Just hurry the hell up OK!) 

It may simply be that he was playing really good golf and trusted his swing last year ... and hasn't this year, with the possible exception of Kapalua.


He said he was working with a B-minus swing during the Masters and having watched a lot of his play, it's not an overly harsh grade. He hit some really abysmal shots over the week. Some he paid for, some he was lucky to get away with, others he was able to get out of just with a virtuoso short game and putting. I think he'd be much less twitchy over shots when he's feeling more confident in his swing.

[Kalen Braley]

Matt,

I guess I'm just having a hard time buying his swing is off that much.  In 11 tournaments this year, he has 6 top 10s, with 4 of those being top 5s.  He's also #1 on Tour in putting and top 5 in Birdies and Scoring average. Given the ultra competitive state of the Tour and global golf in general, I don't see how things are as bad as he says they are.

I think the difference is, at other courses he can get away with a few wild ones, but at Augusta you pay big time...and  knowing that frayed the nerves.