PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fl. -- The Jordan Spieth experience is almost never boring. Its main character, however, would really like it to be.

"I'm obviously very aware of what I'm doing," Spieth said. "But I feel like I'd like [my game] to be boring."

After carding an opening round of 2-under 70 in the first round of the Players' Championship that was anything but dull on Thursday, Spieth was pleased but not satisfied with his performance, which included two chip-in eagles, three birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey thanks to a ball in the water on the 14th hole. It was the kind of performance the 13-time winner on the PGA Tour has come to be known for, the kind where chaos is a feature, not a bug.

"You like to see that there's firepower. If I made 16 pars and two birdies, I would be like, oh, what do I need to do to make more birdies?" Spieth said. "But if it was from hitting every green to 15 feet and you hit good putts, then you know it's coming. So sometimes it's easier to get rid of bogeys when you know you're going to make enough birdies."

One could argue that no one is as good at erasing bogeys with birdies more than Spieth, who attributed at least some of the up-and-down nature of his game to his health. After undergoing wrist surgery last year, he finally felt ready to return to play at this year's AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, where he finished tied for 69th. Since, he's played in three tournaments and had two top-10 finishes and a missed cut.

"I'm still in a position right now where I'm still not at the place I want to be and just trying to work my way there," said Spieth. "So when that happens there's going to be volatility. I do feel like I'm on the right path and I've had a number of tournaments where I've played boring towards the end and I've had plenty where there's volatility too."

Whenever Spieth is going through his self-created roller-coaster, the internal monologue that often becomes external is as much a part of the experience as the golf itself. During Thursday's first round, the Spieth chartes his way around TPC Sawgrass in typical fashion. After his chaotic first nine, he settled in and shot even par on the second nine, but it didn't make any one of his scores any less thrilling.

On the first hole (his 10th of the day) he begged for the trees on the left side of the golf course to spit out his ball after a pulled tee shot. They didn't. He still made par and was less than an inch away from a birdie. His par on the sixth hole was preceded by a shot from the pine straw that landed and stayed on the lip of an awkward green side bunker. For Spieth, it ended up being just a routine up-and-down. On the seventh, his driver found the bunker and a chunked bunker shot kept him in the sand. He made bogey and, after the fact, continued to talk to himself while practicing his putting on the nearby pine straw.

"I would still hit the driver," Spieth told his caddie, Michael Greller.

In some ways, Spieth is trying to will his game back into form and eradicate what he referred to as "bad habits" from before the surgery, in part because he has no other choice. He's the first to admit that some of what's missing from his game right now is the confidence to hit the shots he's used to hitting with the authority required.

So, how will Spieth know if he's fully back? It won't be a score on the card that will tell him. Instead, it will fittingly be a feeling.

"When I stand over it and I'm not trying to avoid things," Spieth said. "Instead, I'm picking a target and I'm very confident it's going to start on that target and move to where I want it. So pretty much wherever these guys are playing from, I would like to get there. I'm doing a really good job of battling it."

Thursday was another small reminder -- be it over 18 holes, four days, one season or the five years since his last victory, the promise of what Spieth can do remains as fascinating as what it's like to watch him try to get there.