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Spieth’s Defeat More Mental Than Physical

Jordan Spieth may still be feeling the pain today from his final round disaster at The Masters. When you’re an elite golfer with his resolute mindset and you don’t preform it can sting for awhile.

But he’ll be doing himself an great injustice if he continues to beat himself up for more that a day or two.

Golf is hard. Tournament golf is harder. Major Championship golf is the hardest of all.spieth masters mental

And if he can remember back before the twelfth hole yesterday he can see that he has two major championships, a near miss on the ’15 Grand Slam, a bunch of victories and a golf game that is the envy of all the golf world.

He needs to remember, in his last three Masters he has a second, a win and a second. He wouldn’t be Jordan Spieth…World Class Golfer if he wasn’t peeved about his play. It’s that determined attitude which demands excellence that got him where he is.

But what he needs to realize is that his “B” game had him owning a five shot lead with nine holes to play. That in itself is a miracle.

Spieth struggled with his swing all week, for the past few tournaments actually. And Augusta National isn’t a place where you expect to win when you’re off your game.

But Spieth was doing just that. He had willed himself to the lead because like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods he has developed an on course mental strength that was far stronger than all his competitors.

We all were shocked when Spieth started to win that he played like an experienced champion and not a rookie feeling his way around the course. He was wise and focused unlike other players his age.

Spieth honed his mental advantage with a 2015 for the history books. A walk in the park win at The Masters, a testing win at Chambers Bay, a near miss at the Open Championship and a second place finish at the PGA have given Spieth an edge, a mindset that when he is on his game he is the best in the world and unbeatable.

The problem was that his game wasn’t on this week. He tried to camouflage it by hitting less than driver off the tees and playing different shots than he normally would. And of course his putter helped him out but even that wasn’t the tried and true magic wand it hand been.

On Sunday even with two bogeys on ten and eleven he was in command. But then we saw a side of Spieth we haven’t seen before. He lost his edge, his mental strength and in his own words we saw “a lapse of concentration on twelve.”

When one part of your game isn’t working you try and use other parts to compensate. His physical game was off so he needed his mental game to pick up the slack. And it did…until the twelfth hole.

He and his caddie, Michael Greller agreed to hit it over the greenside bunker. That was Nicklaus’ method:aim over the bunker and the middle of the green. But Spieth said when he got over the ball he backed off his thought of a draw at the bunker and tried to hit a cut fade. The fade turned into a slice that hit the bank and bounced into Rae’s Creek.GTY 520304576 S SPO GLF MAJ UMG USA GA

His head had to be spinning as he and Greller made another mental error. He said he wanted a shot of 80 yards but had not practiced the shot from there. He could have used the drop area or hit from tee again. And that may have been the best option as later he did say it was the right club, just the wrong swing.

With that he hit a big time chunk from 80 yards with just enough behind it to splash into the creek. In a matter of minutes and two swings he had given away his second Masters title.

But although it was his physical self that executed those poor shots, and he knew that his swing was problematic, it was his mental game that cost him this win.

He needed to “take a breath” as he said but he didn’t. He needed to rethink his position but he didn’t and he needed to rely on that mental strength and it failed him.

Few golfers can play well when their physical and mental game aren’t working in perfect harmony. Spieth like Nicklaus and Woods had been able to get around the course, even major championship courses with one of those factors not preforming.

It was just that for a few minutes Sunday Spieth had both a physical and mental breakdown.

It was tough on him. It was tough to watch but it’s not the end of the world. Nor is it the end for Spieth.

After his disappointment settles I can imagine him using this as a learning experience. He uses that phrase often, like on Saturday when he finished with two bogeys to let his lead slip to one stroke.

We all feel for Jordan Spieth right now but like the true champion he is he’ll get over this. He’ll win again and win more majors and he’ll lose again and lose more majors.

But when he loses it won’t be due to a mental error. He has learned that lesson already.

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