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Spieth on Phelps and faster starts

Cape Town - Jordan Spieth believes he can learn a lot from Michael Phelps and is also keen to get out of the blocks quickly at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Spieth played with Phelps at the Phoenix Open pro-am on Wednesday and the former world number one golfer said that the decorated Olympian has offered to help him in any way possible.

"It was great spending time with him," Spieth said.

"He's offered to continue to advise or help any time I want to reach out, which is just incredibly kind, to have that kind of opportunity. It's humbling for me and I certainly should take advantage of it."

Spieth was most interested in trying to tap into Phelps’ brain to devise a way of dealing with the pressure that he will be presented with this week at the raucous par-three 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale.

"I was just asking him, walking up there, and he said, it's different," Spieth continued.

"He gets into the zone, he has his hood on and headphones on, he's looking down and doesn't notice anybody, which is a similar experience, for the most part, when big crowds come.

"But 16 here is a different animal, too. All of a sudden, now it's stacked up. You feel like you're hitting a shot in a football stadium. He said, 'Yeah, I'll be much more nervous here than I would in an Olympics.”

“So it wasn't much in-depth mental state. It was more just, “Hey, I'm interested, where's your heart get pumping?"”

Following back-to-back third-place finishes at the SBS Tournament of Champions and Sony Open in Hawaii, Spieth admitted to being happy with where his swing is at but stressed that he needs to get off to faster starts if he wants to start winning tournaments consistently again.

"State of the game is pretty good," Spieth added.

"In Hawaii, struck the ball extremely well. Tee to green, improved on what I was trying to improve on from all of 2016 and really back into 2015, same kind of move I was trying to do.

"I didn't get off to great starts the last couple of events in Hawaii and had to back-door my way into the finishes.

"I'd like to jump out a little more aggressive."

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