Spieth eyes Open defence

Jordan Spieth is looking forward to defending his Open Championship title and taking a break from the US PGA tour for a week.

The American, who won his third major at Birkdale last year, has been out of sorts on the PGA tour, missing three cuts out of seven since he finished third at the Masters back in April, and is looking forward to playing some links golf at Carnoustie.

“I was dragging along, playing cut-line golf and a heavy schedule and I needed to get away from the game,” said the world number six, who is a three-time major champion.

“An Open Championship requires a lot of feel and imagination, and that’s what I needed a bit of in my game.”

Spieth also missed the cut at the US Open, and believes the challenge of links golf is just what he needs right now.

“I had got very technical and into making everything perfect instead of the way I normally play,” he added. “This week provides that opportunity where you don’t know how far the ball is necessarily going to go off the tee.

“You need to play the spots and then use your imagination from there – hold the ball, ride the wind. You’ll see guys playing the golf course with a lot of different strategies.”