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Jordan Spieth may ask Tiger Woods how to remain No. 1

Jordan Spieth appears to have the game of golf pretty much figured out but even the world No. 1 concedes that picking Tiger Woods’ brain about how to stay at the top might be a good idea.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Jordan Spieth seems prepared to remain the world’s highest-ranked golfer for some time to come — especially after kicking off his 2016 season with a dominating eight-shot victory at last week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

But the two-time major champion, who overtook Rory McIlroy to ascend to the top spot for the first time after finishing second to Jason Day at the PGA Championship in August, hopes to lay claim to No. 1 for some time to come.

With that in mind, the second-youngest player ever to reach the top rung (behind only Tiger Woods) may seek advice from the guy who spent a record 281 straight weeks and 683 weeks overall as king of the hill on how to hold off pretenders to the throne.

Day, you may recall, leapfrogged Spieth for a nanosecond back in October after neither player competed in the PGA Tour’s 2015-’16 season opener.

“I think it would be wise to ask more questions than I do,” Spieth told reporters Saturday after posting an 8-under 63 in the third round at Kapalua to sprint out to a five-stroke lead ahead of Sunday’s finale.

Spieth said among those he might seek counsel from would be Woods, McIlroy, and perennial top-10 Phil Mickelson.

“If you’re talking about how to control a lot of the noise on the outside and really stay disciplined and strive towards something else, I’m trying to figure some of that out on my own because everyone is different,” Spieth observed. “But I do think there is something in asking someone like Tiger a lot of questions on how he’s been able to do it.”

The view from here is, that while picking Woods’ brain about just about anything golf-related sounds like a terrific idea, the 22-year-old seems to have figured out the whole No. 1 thing. Because golf may be hard, but with seven wins and another eight top 10s in his last 21 official tour starts, Jordan Spieth has broken the game down to a pretty simple proposition: keep lifting trophies.

“I haven’t received a whole lot of advice on staying there, other than keep on trying to win tournaments,” Spieth said. “I mean the more you win, the higher up in the rankings you’re going to stay.”

If he keeps making shots like that near-albatross at 18 on Saturday, Spieth may soon be giving Tiger-like advice to his own acolytes.

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