AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Jordan Spieth admittedly felt a little panic last month at the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Florida.

Spieth shot a 6-over 76 in the opening round and missed the cut the following day.

"I made big strides in the last two weeks to get from kind of a panic place to a very calm, collected and confident place," Spieth said two days before the Masters. "It's difficult to do in two weeks. Sometimes it takes years. And I feel like I've been able to speed that process up a lot over the last couple weeks."

Spieth believes he got off to a slow start in 2018 partly because he was sick for most of December. Taking a few lengthy flights in January didn't help him recover. He missed the cut in Phoenix in early February and reached a low point — especially with his usually steady putter — in the Tampa Bay area two months later.

He says, "You're like, 'What the heck happened?'"

The 2015 Masters champion feels like he found his previous form last week at the Houston Open, when he finished tied for third.

Spieth says his "iron play and off the tee (have) been fantastic, just like it was last year."

He says, "It's just been about just finding the (putting) setup that I had for a couple years that I kind of got a little stiff and away from recently. So settling into that from round one will be important, but I feel like last week was a tremendous stepping stone in the right direction."

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