Charlotte: Jordan Spieth enters the PGA Championship more relaxed than he has ever felt before a major tournament, saying Wednesday a victory this week could make this a better campaign than his breakthrough 2015 season.
The 24-year-old American, who captured his third major title at last month’s British Open, could become the youngest player to complete a career Grand Slam with a victory in the showdown that starts Thursday at Quail Hollow.
And that liberating sense of achievement from his victory at Royal Birkdale still resonates with Spieth.
“I’m free-rolling. And it feels good,” Spieth said. “I’m about as free and relaxed at a major than I think I’ve ever felt.
“Almost like I’ve accomplished something so great this year that anything else that happens, I can accept. That takes that pressure, that expectation away.”
World number two Spieth, the 2015 Masters and US Open champion, could become only the sixth man to sweep the four major titles in a career after Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen.
Spieth admits this year offers the rare chance to top his 2015 run, when he won the year’s first two majors and nearly captured the British Open.
“It’s not likely to match a season like that, maybe ever again, but I’ve got an opportunity this year,” Spieth said.
“If I can get the job done this week, and then run into the playoffs with the same kind of momentum, then I would consider it as good or a better year than even then, which is pretty cool. But I understand it’s not as easy as I just said.”
Spieth recognises changes in his game from then to now.
“I feel like around the greens and on the greens, I was stronger in 2015, but I feel like my ball-striking, especially my iron play, is better now than it was then,” Spieth said.
“The British, I won without really feeling like I was putting well at all. The last five holes, six holes was by far my best putting the entire week. But to feel like you can win a major and feel as uncomfortable as I did for a lot of it over the putter is extremely confidence building.”
No ‘robot’ wins like Tiger
Adapting to how he is playing has been a key factor in his major triumphs, Spieth said, saying he won’t have a familiar routine style like that of 14-time major winner Tiger Woods.
“You very rarely have parallel wins,” Spieth said. “Tiger had very parallel wins in the way that he got it done, but that was almost like a robot. Don’t really expect that to happen with myself. It’s just about being able to adapt to situations quickly and use that to my advantage.”
The move of the PGA Championship to May starting in 2019 could open the way for the first major tournament since 1969 in Spieth’s home state of Texas.
“The scheduling changes going forward, I think players overall are extremely pleased with it,” Spieth said. “It opens up a lot more venues. For me to think of playing in my home state in a major championship, that would be incredible.”
Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, says he has nothing to prove this week as he chases his first major title in three years on a Quail Hollow layout where he has two wins and the course record.
The world number four will be the favourite when the 99th PGA Championship tees off Thursday even though the 28-year-old from Northern Ireland hasn’t won since last September’s US PGA Tour Championship.
“I’m not putting that much pressure on myself. I don’t feel like I need to prove anything to anyone,” McIlroy said Tuesday. “I never lost faith. I’ve always believed in my own abilities. I still do.”
It was a contrast from how four-time major winner McIlroy felt in 2015, when he fired a third-round 71 to break his own course record on the way to victory while world number one, saying he needed to show how well he could play.
“I definitely don’t want to be in the mind-set this week of wanting to make any type of statement or go out and prove myself. I’m past that point,” McIlroy said. “I’ve proven myself enough over the last nine years of my career.
“Obviously I wouldn’t have won as much as I would have liked this year, and there’s been a few components to that, injury-wise, changing equipment and stuff. It has been a bit of a transitional year. But I feel like everything has settled. I just want to go out and play my game and hopefully that will be good enough.”
McIlroy, the 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship winner who also took the 2011 US Open and 2014 British Open, could become only the third player to win five majors before turning 30, joining Nicklaus and Woods.
