Spieth stumbles on Sunday at Valspar with 73 at Innisbrook

Jordan Spieth couldn’t complete the comeback on Sunday at the Valspar Championship. The world No. 1 shot a 2-over 73 at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course to finish in a tie for 18th place, seven shots out of a playoff eventually won by 2011 Masters winner Charl Schwartzel.

The reigning Masters champion, whose first major title defense starts in less than four weeks, opened with 76 in the first of five title defenses this year. He shot 68 on Friday to make the cut, then 67 on Saturday to get himself on the fringes of contention.

He just didn’t have it on Sunday, and he put some of the blame on the decisions he made with caddie Michael Greller.

“Really poor from both me and Michael today,” Spieth said. “Our decisions cost us a few shots early and all the momentum. We both get the credit when things are going good and we’re going to take the fall today. I hit the shots, but we made a couple decisions that make me look back and think, ‘Wow, we got some stuff to talk about before we get ready to go to a major.’ Bit of a bummer. But it’s OK. We got plenty of time.”

Spieth’s biggest mistake came on the par-3 eighth hole, when he pulled his tee shot well left of the green. It took two more to get on from there and, after a two-putt, Spieth had made a momentum-killing double bogey. Any hopes of clawing back to factor into the final result were crushed on that hole.

The world No. 1 played an even-par back nine, capped off with a 31-foot birdie putt on the last hole. Where Spieth put his focus leaving Tampa, however, is on how he starts tournaments and rounds.

“I need to start my rounds better. It’s that simple,” he said. “Can’t start over par in rounds every single round and expect to do anything with it. Just too hard to turn around all the time. I’m used to getting off to good starts. Unfortunately, this week started black before red quite a few times.”

The resurfaced putting surfaces at Innisbrook also flummoxed Spieth, as well pretty much the entire field. They ran slow – maybe half as fast as Spieth will see at Augusta National. Spieth, who has finished T-2 and won the Masters in his last two appearances, can take solace that he knows the ball will roll fast and true in his next two stroke-play starts, at the Shell Houston Open, which is set up to mimic Augusta National, and off Magnolia Lane.

“I couldn’t trust any of my putts to get (to the hole),” he said. “There’s just no way when you get up there to think I actually have to hit it that hard and that high and so at some point, you know, it’s just not going to happen. That’s rare.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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