In his first event since Masters meltdown, Jordan Spieth is ready for the Players

The last three holes of TPC Sawgrass make the finishing stretch in the Players Championship among the most nerve-racking in golf.

The par-five 16th demands a pinpoint accurate approach. Any slightly pushed ball will find the water. The treachery of the famous island 17th is obvious. And more wet stuff beckons the drive and second shot at the narrow 18th.

Water, water everywhere. Welcome to your redemption or your nightmare, Jordan Spieth.

In the month since his early back-nine collapse on the final round of the Masters — punctuated by two badly struck short irons into Rae’s Creek on Augusta’s 12th hole — that resulted in a devastating loss, Spieth has hit the weight room, hit the beach, and hit the range to put the experience behind him.

The 22-year-old Texan insisted Wednesday that he’s over it, and beginning Thursday he will be fully tested in that assertion on one of the tour’s most difficult tracks, against arguably the best field he will face the entire season.

In a news conference in which nearly half the questions were geared toward having Spieth process what happened at Augusta, he said, “People have moved on already — at least I thought so until I came in here today.”

Spieth smiled and everyone laughed with him, but he had to know the queries were coming. What Spieth suffered through — blowing a five-shot lead over the final nine holes so that Danny Willett could overtake him with a stellar 67 — remains the biggest buzz in golfing circles.

“That one is going to haunt him for a long time,” NBC and Golf Channel commentator Johnny Miller said on a conference call last week.

“He’s going to be thinking with the lead on the back nine, ‘I hope I don’t fall apart like I did at Augusta.’ It’s significant. Not that he can’t overcome that, but he’s going to have to go through that thought that will haunt him for a long time.

“It was an amazing meltdown; it really was.”

Spieth faced the media Wednesday with his usual aplomb, but wiggled in his chair and seemed slightly annoyed when a second question was posed about his ability to mentally overcome the Masters.

“I’ll just tell you that I’m not affected by it,” Spieth said. “It was the wrong miss [at 12] at the wrong time. If I hit a good shot [now] and it catches a gust and goes in the water, it’s not because of the Masters. It’s not something that was in my head. I put a bad swing on it.

“I don’t think I have anything to prove,” Spieth said earlier. “I’ve already proven what we’re capable of doing when the pressure is on. We’ve been able to succeed in close finishes and to stretch out leads to win by four to eight shots,” he said about last year’s U.S. Open and this year’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

“I don’t think there will be anything that will come up that I’ll need to get revenge.”

What likely is most concerning to Spieth is getting his old swing back. He admitted he hasn’t found the same groove he had last summer and fall. Miller said last week that Spieth’s left arm has become too bent at impact.

“I’ve put in a lot of hard work,” Spieth said. “It’s there on the driving range. It’s a matter of being able to trust it on the course. It’s getting closer.”

This will be Spieth’s third appearance in the Players. He tied for fourth in his first effort but missed the cut last year before going on to capture the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.

Rickie Fowler scored a hugely popular Players win last year. In what many described as the greatest finish in tournament history, he birdied the 17th three times Sunday and prevailed in the playoff.

Currently ranked fifth in the world, Fowler hasn’t won since on the PGA Tour, while No. 3 Rory McIlroy doesn’t have a U.S. victory since the Wells Fargo Championship last May. Among the top 10 in the world, No. 1 Jason Day and No. 7 Adam Scott have two wins in 2016, while No. 2 Spieth, No. 9 Willett and No. 4 Bubba Watson have one.

“What is it, May?” Day said. “Things can change pretty quickly. I was talking earlier this year about the process and trying to get better each week, and everyone was asking me why I hadn’t won yet.

“And then I won two tournaments in a row, and that was the end of that.”

tod.leonard@tribune.com