Jordan Spieth will keep it simple to stay on course for Grand Slam

With a Masters Green Jacket in the wardrobe, it might be understandable for Jordan Spieth to kick back for the rest of the season and consider his year’s goals had been achieved.

Yet since winning at Augusta National in April, the 21-year-old world number two from Texas has mentally set his clock back to January and given himself fresh challenges starting this week at the US Open.

Spieth is determined not just to push for back-to-back major victories this week but to complete the next leg of a Grand Slam of all four majors in a year.

“I’ve now told myself I have a chance to make history in many ways. But in order to do that, I have to really focus on this week, focus on the major championships and how I’m going to prepare for them. There are certainly a lot of goals left for the year.

“It’s never even crossed my mind to let it kind of sink in that it’s been a great year, and that it would be a great year at the end. If I didn’t do anything the rest of the year, I’d be pretty frustrated at the second half.

“There’s also, you can’t win a Grand Slam unless you win the first. So I’m the only one with that opportunity this year. So I’m going to go ahead and focus on this week and see if I can put myself in contention.” The Texan returns to Chambers Bay five years on from his first visit at the 2010 US Amateur, when as a teenager he failed to qualify for the final knockout rounds of matchplay. He described the course as “inventive” but would not apply that word to describe the play needed to win here.

“I’m going to keep things simple. I’m going to use clubs that I know. I’m not going to adapt different shots for this week. I’m going to stick with my putter and my two wedges that I use to chip with, I’m not going to do much else. I can get it close with one of those three with the right shot. I’m just going to take away the complications and try and completely simplify things around the greens. You can use your imagination a lot here. You can take different lines on chip shots to get the ball fed closer to the hole. But you don’t have to do that using a shot that you’ve never practiced. So I’ve only been working shots that I know.”