Jordan Spieth has had it with all the negativity about his golf game

Jordan Spieth, after scoring over par in a 10th consecutive major round, blamed his recent struggles on his ball-striking and some bad luck of the draw at Royal Troon. Then he made a plea to convince reporters that, despite their “negative” questions, it’s not all that bad.

“Most of the questions I get are comparing last year and therefore negative because it’s not to the same standard,” Spieth told reporters after posting a 1-over 72 in Saturday’s third round of the Open Championship. “So that’s almost tough to then convince myself that you’re having a good year, when nobody else really -- even if you guys think it is, the questions I get make me feel like it’s not.”

Reporters’ queries about what’s wrong with his game (“Everything,” Golf Channel analyst Nick Faldo said earlier in the week) have put Spieth on the defensive — and the optics are not ideal for the former world No. 1.

“I think that’s a bit unfair to me but don’t feel sorry for me; I’ll still be okay,” Spieth continued. “But I would appreciate if people would look at the positives over comparing to maybe, hopefully what would happen a few times in my career, a year like last year.”

Spieth, who was so close to notching the third leg of the grand slam last year at St. Andrews after breezing to victories at the 2015 Masters and U.S. Open, ended Saturday at T37.

“Or I would say it’s happened less than a dozen times to anybody in golf ever in a year,” he added. “So it seems a bit unfair, at 22, to be expecting something like that all the time.”

Spieth, who has gone 71-75-72 in three outings at Royal Troon, unfortunately went on. “I set the expectations high for myself but I feel like I’ve been getting a little more frustrated off the golf course than normal,” he said.

After saying his game was “rounding into shape,” he said his ball striking had “really let him down,” as if it were a foreign entity.

“If [my putting’s] there this week and I’m on the right end of the draw,” he said, “I’m hitting it well enough to be at or really near the lead.”