Jordan Spieth shares his scoring secrets

Routine is crucial

I like to do a couple of waggles behind the ball just to get my arms moving while I’m talking to Michael (Greller, caddie) about the shot. Then I step back, visualise the shot I want to hit and picture myself hitting it recently on the range or the course. As I’m stepping up to the ball the club goes down first, square to my target. I look up to align my feet and body square to my clubface and I like to have one swing thought.

From that point I like to be solely focused on the target

…and have a ‘trigger’ before I start my swing. Then it’s a case of trying to rotate the clubface, rolling it open as I load into my right side in the backswing, and trying to get it back to square. That’s been my thought process for my good ball-striking going back to Hawaii in January and, to be honest, I haven’t reached a level where I don’t have to think about it yet. It’s a good thought for me.

When I’m chipping I try to keep my left wrist dead square through the ball

I’m comfortable hitting a 60° wedge on chip shots, being aggressive through the strike and taking a little divot. But on the basic chip and run, lots of amateurs would be better off hitting an 8-iron or similar, with the ball back in their stance.

The best tip I’ve ever had is tough to narrow down

But I also always remember Ben Crenshaw telling me how crucial it is to work on my speed on the greens. Putting with him was very special and he stressed not to worry about my stroke, but focus on the speed. That’s good advice.

If I had to give amateur golfers a single tip it would be play to your strengths

You swing one way, there’s one ball flight. Don’t make things too complicated. My dad is a prime example: he finds the fairway just about every time with a little pull cut, but because he keeps on trying to hit a draw for whatever reason, maybe for added distance, he wrecks his scorecard! So stick to your strengths. If you’ve played golf virtually your whole life, but you’re not a low handicapper, I’d say make sure you stick to what works for you even if you can’t pull off a certain shot and somebody in your fourball can.

Work out where you need to improve

We got reports from golf statistician Mark Broadie on all the strokes gained from everyMark Broadie on all the strokes gained from every category, from driving to putting. Coach Cameron narrows them down and asks questions before I even look at them, like what do you think about your play, your mid-iron play, what do you think about how you were off the tee, your wedge play and so on. I said I felt like my wedge play was average last season, and it was as average as any category that we had. We went over them all and figured out that specifically my wedge play needed to get better, proximity to the hole and up-and-down percentage, from 60-140 yards or so. We just nailed down specifics on what I needed to work on each week, and we picked a plan to go through each week.

How do I practise?

Thursday through to Sunday I’d go to the putting green first and typically hit putts of six-eight feet dead straight, which gets me into a good rhythm. Then I hit putts a bit further from the hole and then chip shots and bunker shots before heading to the range. Finally, I’d come back and hit more mid-range putts from all over to get the feel of the green speed before going onto the course. So I’d go putt, chip, hit balls and putt again. I probably put the same amount of time into putting and chipping/wedges as the longer clubs, a third of my time for each.

Do results-based practice on the range

On the range, if I feel good about the way I’m hitting it, it’ll be about results-based practice – finding a target with any club. It’s important to work with all the different ball flights; I’ve got six – low, medium and high draw and low, medium and high fade. If I can fit all of those into that area, great. As I say, it’s results-based and often I set a goal – depending on the width of the target – on how many I can hit with 10 shots or so, though I’ve got to make sure I hit all those different shots within the 10.

It’s not all about distance

I know I’m not such a prodigious hitter as Rory or Bubba, but power and distance is not everything. The be-all-and-end-all is who signs for the lowest scores at the end of the day. In order to continue to improve, distance is obviously something we would like to make moves on, but at this stage in the season it’s not worth me trying to hit a big phase in the gym. I do some of that, strength and fitness Monday through to Wednesday, and during tournament rounds I’ll hit solid warm-ups to get everything activated.

Based on everyone I play with, I’d say we hit it quite a bit further than average on the PGA Tour and I don’t have an issue with it. It’s not a problem that has hurt me; it’s more that some guys have a significant advantage on par 5s and on certain golf courses here and there. It’s worth looking into… but it’s not something I am hurt about.

My mental attitude has changed quite a lot since I turned professional

I was feeling confident, like I could close out tournaments because I had gone up a few levels in that season. I’d got a job, got secure in the world rankings and could get into all the events I had dreamt of playing as a kid plus, of course, the opportunity to win them. At the same time, now I feel like we have an edge if we’re in contention. I wouldn’t have felt like we had an edge in 2014. Now I feel like we have an edge based on other players in contention, knowing we’re capable of closing it out.

Being world number one feels the same 

Being top of the world rankings feels like any other points position. I don’t wake up in the morning with anything different happening to me. That’s about the extent of how special it is. You always want to stay on top and push yourself a little bit further. Sure, I reflected on how fantastic last season was, and then I sat down with coach Cameron McCormick and we looked at how we can improve, and we did that strictly by going over my playing statistics with every club in the bag.

What’s a great year for me?

Well, I wouldn’t mind repeating what I did last year!

Certainly I’ve got to be there in a couple of the Majors come Sunday and have a chance to do what we did last year – we had a chance on each of the four on Sunday. So if I can get there at least a couple of times again, that means that our plan building up to the Majors is working. I’ve been close a lot and closed out a few, but you’ve got to have the breaks go your way.

It would be great to create a golfing legacy

I hope I’ve got about 40 years out here. I’ve just had my first half of my career, so there’s a long, long way to go. We’re just continuing on the long road – the month has changed, the year has changed. That’s all I’m thinking about.

You can’t rest on your laurels

The competition all around me is pretty fierce. It’s only a matter of time before Rory starts winning again; Jason is back on track; Rickie and Bubba are both playing well, while Adam Scott has achieved early-season back-to-back victories, so it’s extremely fierce. You’ve got the younger group to contend with plus the guys who are now in their 30s but are as experienced as anybody, so it’s going to be very tough to stay on top.