Spieth looks to shed Augusta hoodoo

MIAMI, Florida: Former world number one Jordan Spieth says he can’t wait to get next month’s Masters out of the way — because he’s fed up with being asked about his nightmare collapse at Augusta in 2016.

Spieth appeared to be cruising to back-to-back Masters titles 12 months ago after opening up a five-shot lead with nine holes to play on the final Sunday in Georgia.

But Spieth’s bid for history went up in flames with consecutive bogeys followed by a quadruple bogey on Augusta’s 12th, allowing England’s Danny Willett to grab the famous green jacket.

Spieth’s meltdown has been described as the biggest collapse in Masters history, and a year later the 23-year-old Texan is looking forward to the time when he is no longer asked about his implosion.

“No matter what happens at this year’s Masters, whether I can grab the jacket back or I miss the cut or I finish 30th, it will be nice having this Masters go by,” he said ahead of this week’s World Golf Championship-Dell Match Play tournament in Austin, Texas.

“The Masters lives on for a year. It brings a non-golf audience into golf. And it will be nice once this year’s finished to be brutally honest.

“It would be best if I could reclaim the jacket but I believe I’ll be back up there sooner or later because of the way I play the golf course, the success I’ve had and the comfort level I have there.

“Whether it happens this year or not it will just be nice when it’s over, because that tournament, it’s a 365 day thing. There’s no other Masters.

“I won in Colonial three starts later. So as far as affecting me when I’m in a tournament, I think that answer is clear, it doesn’t do that.

“But as far as just having all the questions be done, I’m pretty sure they will be.”

Spieth faces Ryan Moore and Japan’s Yuta Ikeda and Hideto Tanihara in his first round group this week. The American admitted Ikeda and Tanihara represented something of an unknown quantity.

“I’ve got a tough group. I don’t know much about two of my players, which is somewhat of a disadvantage to not know much about their games,” Spieth said. “And I do have Ryan Moore, who I do know about his game. If you had to go down the list of players here, he would be on most of the guys top five most difficult player to play in match play. So it’s going to be difficult just getting out of the group stage this year.”

World number three Jason Day meanwhile is backing Spieth not to be unduly affected by last year’s Augusta collapse when he returns to the course next month.

“He’s young enough and talented enough that it won’t even affect him,” Day said.

“Obviously, it hurt and stung at the time. But I think he’s done pretty good with his career thus far, and I think he’s going to have a lot more opportunities to win Augusta, green jackets and other major championships.

“It goes in there and kind of sits around in your head a little bit but sooner or later it kind of goes off and you’re done with it.”