JORDAN Spieth is truly a golfer of Gen Y. When time and distance tells him he can’t play the Old Course at St Andrews to prepare for the British Open later this month, he says “I’ll just do it virtually.”

Spieth will tee it up this week at the John Deere Classic – the tournament he claimed for his maiden US PGA Tour victory two years ago, instead of opting to head across the pond for the Scottish Open.

But the 21-year-old showed his youthful tenacity by practising the Old Course on his full-swing golf simulator in his Dallas home. Spieth reportedly increased the firmness on the fairways and greens to get a feel for his lines off the tee, as he has only played the ancient links once before.

“Obviously, it’s not the same as being there,” he told the Golf Channel. “But at least I get to see some of the holes so when I get there I’m not too surprised.

“I made the fairways and greens firm and I was able to kind of see some of the lines off the tee.”

Spieth says the key to winning the third Major of the year – thus putting himself three-quarters of the way to golf’s elusive Grand Slam – was being on the leaderboard the week before.

“The best prep for me is getting myself into contention the week before,” Spieth said. “That’s what we did at Augusta—second place in San Antonio and Houston, but I had a chance to win, and finally capitalised with everything firing at Augusta. The Memorial—I was in contention there before the US Open.

“I’ve got an important week [this week] where I want to get my game right, get everything firing on all cylinders and then adjust to the conditions at St Andrews.”

WATCH this exclusive video of Jordan Spieth putting from 90 feet indoors