Wednesday 16 May 2018 11:33, UK
Jordan Spieth believes “everything is starting to fall in place” as the American targets a 12th PGA Tour title at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
The three-time major winner suffered a frustrating quadruple-bogey finish to his final round of the Players Championship to plummet down the leaderboard, after an encouraging seven-under 65 on Saturday.
Spieth, without a win on tour this season, is making his eighth start at this week's stop, which is being held at Trinity Forest in Dallas, Texas - a links-style new venue for the tournament - and the 24-year-old is buoyed about his game.
"I've stayed the course. Had a lot of patience recently. Everything is starting to fall in place."
"I feel as good about my game right now as I have this entire year and even a lot of last year - good things are coming," Spieth, a founding member at the new host venue, said at his pre-tournament press conference.
"I've stayed the course. Had a lot of patience recently. Everything is starting to fall in place.
"Everyone goes through kind of peaks and valleys with different parts of their game.
"I got a little off in set-up in alignment with short game shots and putting and really starting to progress nicely, starting to see my lines better. Whether putts have gone in or not I've had better strokes."
Spieth finished in a tie for 41st at TPC Sawgrass last week but enjoyed playing alongside 14-time major champion Tiger Woods, who continued his resurgence with a share for 11th place.
"I was very comfortable on Sunday with Tiger. I felt like I didn't get a lot of good numbers," he said.
"I had a lot of in between numbers on shots. Some putts that were -- the speed was a little off or the line was a little off.
"I was as comfortable as I've been in a pretty relatively uncomfortable type of situation this entire year, including even playing well at the Masters."
The Dallas native first played at the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2010, as a 16-year-old, after being granted a sponsor exemption and went on to finish tied for 16th.
With next month's US Open at Shinnecock Hills, from June 14-17, the next major on the horizon, Spieth his set for a busy preparation with him scheduled to feature at next week's Fort Worth Invitational and expected to play at Memorial at the end of the month.
"I feel good about the way things are. This is a fun three weeks coming up," Spieth said.
"Obviously this course [Trinity Forest] I feel like I'm at an advantage, and the next two weeks have been good to me as well."
Watch Featured Groups coverage from the AT&T Byron Nelson, live on Sky Sports Golf, on Thursday from 5pm.
