Golf

Jordan Spieth: Loss of No1 ranking could help Masters defence

He will contest next week’s Shell Houston Open before defending his title at Augusta

Jordan Spieth of the United States hits his tee shot on the 10th hole during the round of 16 in the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play at the Austin Country Club. Photograph: David Cannon/Getty Images
Jordan Spieth of the United States hits his tee shot on the 10th hole during the round of 16 in the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play at the Austin Country Club. Photograph: David Cannon/Getty Images
Sun Mar 27 2016 - 12:05

Jordan Spieth believes losing his position as world number one could work to his advantage ahead of his defence of the Masters at Augusta National.

Spieth's defeat to former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen in the last 16 of the WGC-Dell Match Play in Texas allowed Jason Day to replace him at the top of the world rankings by reaching the semi-finals at Austin Country Club.

"To be honest, it could be a good thing for me going into the Masters," Spieth told reporters before Day beat Brooks Koepka in the quarter-finals.

The 22-year-old Masters and US Open champion had not been taken past the 16th hole in any of his three group wins, but admitted he feared the worst against Oosthuizen after struggling with his game on the range.

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”I didn’t make it very hard on Louis today, which is unfortunate,” Spieth said. ”I was off from when I hit my first 10 shots on the range.

“The ball was slicing off, which is very odd. I’ve had incredible control of the ball this week and of my wedges. I’m not exactly sure what happened, I still don’t really know.

”And it could have been something as simple as ball position or alignment. I tried to figure it out for the entire range session, but I just couldn’t grab a shot that I knew I could go to the course with. And on the first hole I sliced it off the tee there and kind of went from there. It was just a very off day.”

Spieth, who will contest next week’s Shell Houston Open before defending his Masters title, added: ”The good stuff is there when I have control.

”As long as I can hold it together four, five, six rounds in a row then we’re in good shape. I feel like it was a big improvement this week off of the last month.

“If I think about it that way we’re going to be in good shape in a couple weeks and I think we’ll get in contention next week, and hopefully hold a little more consistency there come the weekend.

“From Tuesday to now I feel much more confident than I did about Augusta. I played very, very solid the last few days and most importantly I made a lot of birdies, and that’s something I haven’t been doing as of late.“