HAVEN, Wis. -- Here is what some consider among the problems with professional golf: It never ends.
A stirring major championship season came to a conclusion Sunday with Jason Day's victory at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, where Jordan Spieth finished runner-up to cap one of the most impressive major runs in the game's history.
Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open, missed a playoff (and finished fourth) by 1 stroke at The Open and was 3 shots back of Day at the PGA.
Now come the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Spieth might be excused if he wanted to take a long slumber after an incredible summer. He has won four times this year and has a stunning 14 top-10 finishes in 2015. He just moved past Rory McIroy to become No. 1 in the world. He leads the FedEx Cup standings by a whopping 1,710 points.
Now what?
This is a guy who said his goals for the year were to make the cut in all four major championships and contend in one. Spieth surpassed those goals by miles. Now he's supposed to get fired up for the playoffs?
"This year isn't over,'' Spieth said after a final-round 68. "I've got a lot of big tournaments coming up. But the four biggest are finished now until April. And when I look back, I'm just going to look back at those first two and be, obviously, extremely pleased.''
Therein lies the difficulty of finding motivation for the rest of the season: A letdown is inevitable, even if Spieth has never seemed inclined to have one.
Recent history suggests it won't be easy. McIlroy was the clear player of the year in 2014, but he had difficulty summoning energy in any of the FedEx playoff events and finished second to Billy Horschel, who won two and the FedEx Cup title.
Even though Tiger Woods won five times in 2013, Henrik Stenson got hot in the playoffs and claimed the FedEx Cup. In 2012, McIlroy had gone to No. 1 and claimed the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second playoff event, but he didn't take the overall title.
The grind of the playoffs -- four tournaments in five weeks this year, starting just two weeks after the PGA Championship -- makes the process difficult for those who have had great success to this point.
While the overall playoff winner will receive a $10 million bonus, there is so much prize money ($8 million purses at all four events) offered that it can make you numb. Spieth, 22, has already banked a considerable sum and is just $600,000 short of becoming the first player to surpass $11 million in season earnings.
Then there is the volatility of the playoffs. Spieth has a big lead, but that can be gone in one event. The winners receive five times the number of points given at regular events -- 2,500 compared to 500 -- and the winners of majors receive 600 points. Success will be skewed.
That said, Spieth has shown remarkable resilience. He could have been content after winning the Masters. He could have gotten down after missing the cut at the Players Championship. Instead, he got on a roll starting at the Memorial, hasn't been out of the top 10 since and won twice in that span.
Who is to say he won't keep cruising through the playoffs?
Spieth has shown a strong ability to keep finding motivation.
"As long as I look at it that way, there's still a lot to work hard for and play for and reset,'' he said.