Jordan Spieth won for the first time in nearly four years on Sunday, at the Valero Texas Open, and now the 2015 Masters champ and former world No. 1 is ready for his favorite tournament

The striking revival in the career of Jordan Spieth reached new heights on Sunday when he won the Valero Texas Open, to send his confidence skywards just in time for the Masters.

Spieth’s timely win is the 12^th of his PGA Tour career, and the first for the 27-year-old Texan since he lifted the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale in July, 2017. And it has been on the cards. After a torrid three years, Spieth recorded top-10 finishes in four of six appearances prior to the Texas Open, he worked himself onto contention almost every week, kept working, kept believing, kept improving, and at long last the perseverance paid off in his home state.

“It was a lot of fun being in contention and to have a lot of putts go in,” said Spieth on Monday at Augusta National, where he won as a 21-year-old in 2015, finishing on 270 to match what was at the time the record low score set first by Tiger Woods.

“As I have mentioned a number of times over the past six weeks, if you put yourself in that position enough times, the bounces will go your way. That’s kind of the motto I’ve always lived by: just try to be in form as often as you can and be consistent as you can, and you end up holding the trophy at the end, every once in a while.

“I have to soak it in but also get refocused for the year’s first major.”

Spieth has an affinity with Augusta National and the Masters. On his Masters debut in 2014 he finished runner-up behind Bubba Watson, and Spieth was heading towards a successful defence of his Green Jacket in 2016 until he put two balls in the water on the par-3 12^th hole in the final round. Spieth’s record after his first three Masters read: 2^nd-1^st-2^nd.

“This is my favorite tournament in the world,” he says. “I have expressed that many times.

“I’ve really fared well on the greens. Whether I’ve come in putting well or even in tough putting years, the ball seems to find the hole here, when I get on the putting surface. I think a lot of that has to do with speed control. I think mid-range and even long-range putting is more important here than it is just about anywhere else.”

Spieth begins his 2021 Masters campaign in the final group in Thursday’s first round, teeing off at 2pm (Eastern) with Cameron Smith of Australia and reigning PGA Champion Collin Morikawa.