IRVING, Texas – Even though four years doesn’t seem very long ago, Jordan Spieth thinks his initial start at the Byron Nelson Championship feels like it.
“I was working out this morning and on the TV it showed a flashback from 2010,” he said. “I looked like I was 9 years old.”
Actually, Spieth was 16 – and after seriously contending for the title well into the weekend, he finished in a share of 16th place that week.
On Wednesday, in advance of his fourth career start at this tournament, he was asked the difference between him at 16 and 20.
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“I don’t even remember what I was like back then,” he said. “I’m less emotional, believe it or not, by far. I’m able to, I think, I think through entire holes ahead of time a little better and I have more shots and most of all a higher comfort level of hitting different shots. I think that’s the difference.
“When you’re a teenager and you’re in high school and developing your game versus when you’re doing it every day, hundreds and hundreds of times you start to develop a comfort level to play. If you need to play a flop‑shot from here, you need to hit that bunker shot right at the ball to carry it 30 yards, I don’t have this, ‘scared’ mentality that on certain shots you have back then, even though I was an extremely aggressive player, certain shots you bail out of that you don’t anymore because you practice them enough.”
