The Masters and U.S. Open champion fired a sparkling four-under-par 66 in the final round at Firestone Country Club to climb into the top 10 at the elite World Golf Championships event.
"Today was a good solid round," world number two Spieth told reporters after racking up six birdies and two bogeys on the challenging, heavily tree-lined layout.
"I had more momentum. I felt more connected too. I liked the course set-up today for a Sunday. You can make birdies, but you can also get into trouble and I’m very pleased with the way that we rebounded.
"Aside from yesterday, I thought I played some really good golf this week, good enough to contend in the tournament. This golf course just may not be the best fit for me."
Spieth had gone into the final round a distant nine strokes off the lead after struggling to a 72 on Saturday.
"But going off of today and that second round (68), that felt like I'd have been at 10-under through those two rounds anywhere else," said the 22-year-old American.
"So that's how I'm looking at it. I'm looking at it as a nice solid week, and I'll really just try and feed off of this round more than anything."
Next week at Whistling Straits, Spieth will be bidding to join fellow Americans Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only players in the modern era to have won three majors in a single year.
While he believes his game right now does not quite measure up to how sharp it was heading into both the Masters and U.S. Open earlier this year, he was happy enough with his form ahead of the season's final major.
"I think it feels pretty similar to how it felt going into the (British) Open championship," said Spieth, who tied for fourth at the last month's British Open.
"Going into the U.S. and going into the Masters, I maybe felt even more confident about my game then maybe right now just in the way I'm striking it, but that can change in a couple of days."
The 97th PGA Championship, held this year at the links-style Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, starts on Thursday.
(Editing by Larry Fine)
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