World No. 1 Jordan Spieth finds himself in a unique position this week as the Valspar Championship is the first of five tournaments in 2016 he will tee-up as defending champion.
Two of those events also will be next month’s Masters and the U.S. Open.
However the young Texan admits after winning the opening event of 2016, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii by eight shots, he raised his expectations for the remainder of the season far too high.
In fact, it has resulted in a downturn of form in the 22-year old finishing T21st in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, missing the cut in the Northern Trust Open and then making hardly any impression in last week’s WGC – Cadillac Championship where he finished T17th at Trump Doral.
Jordan Spieth primed to put another layer of winning varnish on this week’s Valspar Championship
“I do agree my expectations were inflated after winning the Hyndai and it’s really something I haven’t had to deal with it before,” he said.
“But I think it was going to and then I started to get so frustrated when it wasn’t the case in the events that followed.
“I did a pretty good job last week of not setting the expectations high but that course is going to make you — it’s really bad for player/caddy relationships as well as a player/golf club relationship. You don’t like your clubs or your caddy after that week (laughter).
“So I set lower expectations given I note the course isn’t a great fit for me. So we come into this week, we both knew it. Went into the final round and said you know what, we just want to hit good shots. If it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to turn out at least we hit it where you want to and that’s going to work out in the long run. Just so frustrating.
“But until then, the four tournaments maybe that I played in between Hawaii and Doral, I certainly think the expectation that I put on myself were too high because of Hawaii and I kind of needed to dial it back a little bit. Obviously you want to set high end, borderline unrealistic expectations for yourself because if you get anywhere close to it you’re going to be there.
“I know there’s a balance that I needed to find. It’s been a learning experience this year.”
