Jordan: Over The Masters, Wonders About The Oakmont Bunker Fluffing, Remains Committed To Rio**

Joel Beall with a GolfDigest.com report on Jordan Spieth's Monday press conference at Oakmont, where the defending champion was asked a bit about last year, and a lot about his Masters finish. Spieth sounds over it even if we are not.

Beall lays out how the back and forth went down.

"It was just a mis-hit. I wasn't trying to hit it at the hole," the two-time major winner said about his dunks in Rae's Creek. "Two badly timed swings."

From there, how do you move on?

"I just made two poor timed swings. It happens."

I mean now?

"I did move on. I moved on."

Doug Ferguson reports that Spieth saw huge changes in Oakmont and didn't sound overly thrilled with a stark change in the bunker sand denity.

"When I played it six weeks ago, there was very compact sand, and that meant that if the ball trickled into the sand, it wasn't a bad shot," Spieth said. "Just barely went into the sand, you could hit the green no problem (if) you hit a good, solid shot. They have dumped so much sand into these bunkers, and now it is so tough to get a clean strike on the ball."

At Monday's architecture forum held for select USGA members, Superintendent John Zimmers chalked it up to a fluffing procedure on the sand last week, combined with Sunday's dry wind. The USGA's Mike Davis said some moisture would be added but also said expected rain was part of the thinking.

Steve DiMeglio highlighted the Masters loss discussion with some historical perspective and also rightly noted Spieth's observation about the finishing holes.

“If you don’t hit fairways on the last five holes, you could lose a 4- or 5-shot lead like that. Just not even doing anything wrong. You can hit decent shots that just barely miss the fairway. And all of a sudden, you have to do well to have 10 feet for par. ...

“So as much as I speak to major championships being like two events in one, you have to have the patience for two rounds each round.”

Josh Berhow at Golf.com noted how Spieth left open a slight crack in the door to skipping the Rio games. Granted, it's an opening only a mouse could slip through, but it was a change in attitude toward the Zika issue.

“I’m not sure where I’ll play next, even after this week,” Spieth said. “You never know. Right now I’m pretty confident with what we have heard from not only the PGA Tour but our personal outreach. I think being an Olympian is just an absolute tremendous honor, but does being an Olympian outweigh any kind of health threat? No. If I thought that the threat was significant I certainly wouldn’t go, but based on what’s come to my knowledge at this point it seems like it’s going to be an extremely memorable experience and I look forward to trying to win a gold for the United States.