‘Don’t mention the mud balls’: Jordan Spieth hints at Masters censorship

‘My iron play killed me the last two days and to be brutally honest with you, it was primarily mud balls,’ Jordan Spieth said. Photograph: Harry How/Getty Images

Jordan Spieth has suggested the organisers of the Masters are applying censorship to competitors in relation to a golfing annoyance: mud balls.

Spieth, the champion at Augusta National in 2015, is playing only for a place in 2025 after a third round of 69 moved him to one under par. This marked Spieth’s best round of this Masters by four but the Texan cut a frustrated figure. When mud attaches itself to a ball, a regular Masters feature and primarily from drives, approach shots can be impacted.