Jordan Spieth has to bring his green jacket back to Augusta

There is little detail or nuance that escapes Jordan Spieth’s attention.

Sitting before the media at Augusta National Golf Club on Tuesday, the reigning Masters champion was asked about the viability of achieving a single-season Grand Slam.

Stumped for a quick answer and searching for something meaningful to say, Spieth produced a contorted expression while rubbing his hand over his face and under his cap. He quickly realized what that must have looked like to his audience and laughed at himself.

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“Me doing that for the camera is going to haunt me some day when I have a bad round,” Spieth joked, drawing a round of laughter.

To notice and think about such a goofy thing says a lot about Spieth self-awareness, and it gives him the ability to express as well as anyone what it’s like to be a first-time Masters champion.

Over the last year, Spieth did all the usual stuff while wearing Augusta National’s green jacket — Wall Street tour, lighting up the Empire State Building, the talk-show circuit.

As good as all that was, he said it didn’t compare to those precious few off days at home in Dallas, where Spieth gathered with a few close friends, slipped on the green jacket and flipped burgers on the grill.

He had the best apron money can’t buy.

His buddies thought it was cool, of course, but they weren’t going to fawn over Spieth. They know him too well for that.

“They are just going to give me crap, and I’ll give it to them,” Spieth said.

He admits he could have shown the jacket a bit more of a good time on the town — “Next time I’ll do a little bit better,” he said with a grin — but keeping it safe in the closet didn’t lessen his appreciation for it. If anything, Spieth realized how much the coat meant to him when he had to pack it up a couple of weeks ago.

The champion has possession of the jacket in the year after his victory. It stays in Augusta’s Champions locker room after that.

Of pulling golf’s most valuable threads from the closet, Spieth said, “I was, like, ‘Wow, there’s a possibility that I don’t have this back at my house anymore.’

“It kind of fired me up a little bit. Just the jacket itself provides a little motivation. … It’s not easy to get.”

Winning the Masters one time is difficult enough. To do so in back-to-back years is extremely rare. Only three players in 79 years have pulled off a repeat — Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02).

It’s more common for players to win, skip a year, and then win again. Seven have done that.

Among the five immediate champions before Spieth, none posted even a top-10 finish in the year of his defense.

In Spieth’s case, he has his own spectacular act to follow. Last April, in only his second Masters, he made a record 28 birdies in tying Woods’ 18-under-par winning mark.

Ranked second in the world behind Jason Day, Spieth insisted Tuesday that he goes into the start of the tournament Thursday with his game in better shape than last year, though his results might say otherwise. Since his rout of a limited field in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in January, Spieth’s best result in stroke play is a tie for 13th last week in Houston.

His golf has been consistently inconsistent. Some have blamed his heavy travel schedule. Others shrug and say Spieth couldn’t possibly maintain the level at which he won five times last season, including two majors.

“I think he’s probably a little tired, but as the year progresses … there’s nothing wrong with his game,” said Curtis Strange, former U.S. Open champion and ESPN commentator. “I sense he’s just not making the putts he made last year. Let’s not forget, last year was a phenomenal year for any player, much less 22 years old.”

After throwing some notable tantrums about a few shots on Saturday in Houston, Spieth went out Sunday and birdied five of the first seven holes. The old Spieth was back.

Until he wasn’t. He made three bogeys in four holes, a double bogey at 18 and finished in an unsatisfying tie for 13th.

“I think recently I’ve been trying very, very hard — almost too passionately — to make birdies to get on these runs like I did early Sunday in Houston,” Spieth said.

When he becomes too aggressive is when he gets into trouble, Spieth reasoned.

At Augusta, he said, “You let the birdies come to you. I just think that this place brings that kind of mentality into me and Michael [Greller, his caddie]. I don’t know why; it just does. I’m very pleased that it does.”

Much like Woods did in his four victories, Spieth has figured out how to dominate the par-fives. He is 17 under on them in eight rounds, and six under on the other holes. Woods: 150 under on the par-fives, 61 over elsewhere.

Oddsmakers have chosen Day as the slight favorite this week, followed by world No. 3 Rory Mcilroy, and then Spieth. The Texan has one unquestioned edge on both of them: He’s now sharing a locker with Arnold Palmer at Augusta.

“How often,” Spieth said, “do you get to go and see your name in the Champions Locker Room at Augusta National for the first time?”

tod.leonard@sdtribune.com