It didn't take Jordan Spieth long to master Augusta National.
In four attempts, Spieth has a win and two runners-up finishes at the Masters, with his worst finish — a t11 — coming last year. Fresh off a t3 at the Houston Open, Spieth is ready to return to Augusta National, a place he feels brings out the best in his game.
"I think this course brings out the feel aspect of my game, which is the better side of me on the golf course," Spieth said in his press conference. "It's not a technical driving range golf course, you have a lot of uneven lies and very slopey greens, and so you have to play a lot off of feel and what that lie gives you.
"I think that that's helped me kind of settle in and not overthink things out here and get into a nice groove, and it's led to some success at this event. So it is my favorite tournament in the world. I've certainly made that pretty clear going back the last five years.
"So excited for this week."
Despite enduring some putting woes this season, Spieth said he feels confident entering the week after the success he enjoyed in Houston.
"I feel better coming into this week than I did in 2016 and 2014 where I came off of missed cuts in Houston," Spieth said. "There's a lot to be said of the previous week, the previous week's momentum. And being able to work my way last week into contention and hit some putts under pressure that I felt."
This year's tournament has gained a significant amount of hype as one of the most anticipated Masters of all time. While Spieth certainly understands how Tiger Woods' return could fuel that claim, he hasn't felt any different.
"I think it probably is," Spieth said of it being among the most anticipated Masters. "I think the addition of Tiger being healthy and playing well, no matter what else happened, was probably going to make it as anticipated as any going back five, six, seven years. So that in its own.
"But then Phil (Mickelson) winning recently, Rory (McIlroy) winning recently, Bubba (Watson) winning recently, Justin (Rose) playing well, D.J. playing well, I mean, yeah, there's just a lot of guys playing really good golf that create story lines in general. And then when you put it at kind of the biggest stage in our sport, I think that creates that anticipation. But for me personally, I mean, it's just — it doesn't feel any different to me."
Lengthening the par-5 13th hole has been one of the intriguing storylines entering this year's Masters. The reachable par 5 has already been lengthened, but some players want it to play more like a three-shot hole.
"I would hope it would be lengthened," Spieth said. "To take away certain players being able to cut off a lot of the hole and require pretty much everyone to hit it around the same line. That's advantageous to me because I don't fly it 310 yards up in the air with the right‑to‑left turn like Bubba does, Rory does, some of the guys can do. So that hole would be better for me if it were lengthened, I think.