Nothing merely happens nowadays. It has to be accompanied by a hoopla.

Even the genteel process of the Open champion handing the Claret Jug back to its custodians at the R&A is now a made-for-television event. 

It wasn’t that long ago that the previous year’s winner probably gave that cherished clump of silver a quick once over with some Brasso and a lint free cloth and thrust it back into the hands of a high heid yin at the clubhouse door amid very little ceremony. But now there is a ceremony. 

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“Jordan, we’ve just been going through the traditional returning of the Claret Jug,” said the communications director at the R&A of a strained, contrived spectacle on the first tee that has timeless traditions dating back to a couple of years ago. 

The Jordan in question, of course, is the defending champion Jordan Spieth. And he hardly gave the ceremony a ringing endorsement. “It wasn’t an enjoyable experience what you guys made me do out there, but it’s done,” he said with a wry grin. “Hopefully, it’s only out of my possession for a week.”

Spieth, who captured the Claret Jug in a quite astonishing fashion at Royal Birkdale a year ago, was clearly reluctant to hand it back. 

“I thought somebody would meet me in the parking lot, I’d give them the case back and we’d move on,” he added. “But it was this ceremony and because of that, it actually hit me harder. I was like ‘man, this was in my possession’.

“It’s the coolest trophy that our sport has to offer and having to return that was certainly difficult. It hit me a bit on that first tee.”

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A year has birled by at a fair old lick. That enthralling denouement at Birkdale 12 months ago will go down as one of the Open’s most spell-binding Sundays as Spieth produced the kind of complicated salvage operation not seen since they raised the Mary Rose. 

After a potentially ruinous, wayward drive into the dunes on the 13th, Spieth took a drop following 20 odd minutes of deliberations and decision-making and played his blind approach to the green from the practice range. 

The bogey he conjured must have felt like an eagle as he limited the damage and, from there, Spieth was simply inspired. The impending calamity provide a catharsis and Spieth covered his last five holes in five-under to thunder to a jaw-dropping victory. 

The great Arnold Palmer once described a particularly turbulent round of his as “having moments of ecstasy and stark raving terror.” Spieth could probably empathise with those words.

Spieth is no stranger to drama – remember that crushing Masters collapse? – and he’s been asked to replay that Birkdale moment again and again over the last year. Here at Carnoustie, the 24-year-old wouldn’t mind a more tranquil time of it as he prepares to mount his defence.

“I’ve had plenty of tournaments where I’ve made it very boring down the stretch and I’ve had plenty of tournaments where it’s been exciting, good and bad,” he said. 

“If could go back and do it [Birkdale] again, I would make three 
birdies, no bogeys and just walk up the 18th and win the Claret Jug.”

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By his very high standards, it’s not been a vintage spell for Spieth. He hasn’t actually won since last year’s Open but has been energised by a three-week break. 

He admits that the mechanics of golf have got in the way of his natural instincts but the forthcoming links test, with all its various nuances, has given him a fresh outlook.

“Coming to an Open Championship requires a lot of feel and imagination, and I think that’s what I’ve needed a bit in my game,” Spieth said.

“I’d gotten very technical and very into making everything perfect instead of the way I normally play. I was overdoing it one way and overdoing it the other way and I was just trying to find a middle ground.

Getting away from the game allowed me to come back with a 
natural set up. This week provides that opportunity where you don’t know how far the ball is necessarily going off the tee. You need to play to spots and then you have to use your imagination from there.”

Despite his recent toils – he missed two of his last three cuts and has not been inside the top 10 since the Masters in April – Spieth is not one for pressing the panic button.

It may not have been a great year so far but there’s plenty of time to make it a great one. If the 13th hole at Birkdale teaches us anything, it is that Spieth has terrific powers of recovery and an admirable ability to rebound from adversity. That continues to be one of his strengths.

“I feel like I’m in a position now with every part of my game to win,” he said.

“I attacked the places that really needed some strong work. That combination with an Open Championship, the way it needs to be played, makes for a really good spot for me to kick back into shape.”

The rest have been warned.