Jordan Spieth ends 2015 with two majors, the No. 1 ranking and no doubts about his ability to close out tournaments.
That wasn't the case at this time a year ago.
Not only was he winless, but Spieth three times had failed to convert at least a share of the 54-hole lead into a trophy, including the Masters and The Players Championship. With two events left on his 2014 schedule, he rallied to win the Australian Open and then went wire-to-wire for a 10-shot victory in the Hero World Challenge at Isleworth.
"I had four or five leads going into weekend in 2014 in the PGA Tour season, and each time you don't come through you wonder what's wrong. Is it me? Is it my game?" he said Wednesday. "And then you hear the noise of, 'He's a good player but he can't close,' and this and that. Whether you try to hear it or not, it still comes in. And that's a tough thing to get over."
Those doubts are gone.
Those two wins at the end of last year served as a springboard to a spectacular season in which Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open among his five titles, captured the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus, swept all the major awards and showed that he can be tough to beat with the lead.
He was 4-1 this year with at least a share of the lead going into the final round, the exception coming at the Shell Houston Open when he lost in a playoff.
"It just clicked right at the end of that season to lead into '15," he said. "But it was tough. Those Sunday evenings were tough for me when I didn't close them out. Makes you really appreciate now that you can. You wonder, 'How in the world was I not able to back then?' But it's just the way the game is."
Indeed, it's tougher than ever to win on the PGA Tour. The Hero World Challenge, which starts Thursday at Albany Golf Club, is an example of that.
The 18-man field, which does not include injured host Tiger Woods, consists only of players from the top 50 in the world ranking. And yet there are five of those, including three from the top 20, who have yet to win anywhere around the world this year.
One of them is Adam Scott, at No. 10 in the world, who is trying to avoid his first winless year since his first as a pro in 2000.