"It really bugs me when people are trying to take that maybe away from him or shoot it down, and the questions have been asked to Danny: 'Do you think this will go down as you winning or him losing?'?" Spieth said.
"And that's absolute bull; because Danny won it and he earned it."
This is also Willett's first appearance since the Masters and although it will be intriguing to see how he fares, the brunt of the spotlight will inevitably fall upon Spieth when he ventures out with Jason Day, the world No?1, at 8.43am this morning.
Experts such as Johnny Miller have expressed the view that the experience will "haunt Jordan for a long time" and that the next time he is in contention he will be thinking "I hope I don't fall apart like I did at Augusta".
However, in dismissing the notion that the infamous island-green 17th would be the ideal hole on which to prove himself, Spieth declared there will be no Augusta ghosts to exorcise.
"If it catches a gust and goes in the water, it's not because of the Masters," Spieth said.
"It's not something that was in my head. It takes a lot of nerve to hit the right shots down the stretch here. You have the second shot on 16, tee shot on 17, tee shot on 18. Yeah, sure, if I can get into contention and stay committed and put the right swings on those three shots, then I will take confidence away from that. But, to be honest, I don't really care what anybody else will take away from it. I'll be pleased because I'll feel like we're back to hitting the right shots under pressure."
Spieth finished in a tie for fourth here in 2014, but missed the cut last year in the wake of his Masters glory and, of course, it is as easy to suffer a hangover from agony as it is from ecstasy.
Yet having taken four weeks off - during which he went on a boys' trip to the Bahamas with Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Smylie Kaufman - Spieth feels recharged and refreshed.
However, he clearly does not feel the urgency to stage a resurrection.
"I mean, it's behind me. I'm ready to move on and work back into contention. After a month off, it felt like a bit of a off-season, so it's almost like a new year starting this week," he said.
"But I don't think I have anything to prove. I think I've already proven what we're capable of doing when the pressure is on. So I don't believe there's anything that'll come up where I feel like I need to get revenge. As of right now, I'm just ready to be out on the course, trying to work my way up the leaderboard, and trying to win The Players against, what I think is the best field in golf, [with 46 of the world's top 50]. This might technically be the hardest tournament to win in the world, so I've got a tall task ahead of me this week."
McIlroy is one who does not expect Spieth to suffer a reaction.
"Jordan will be just fine - he's very resilient, he said. "We've all seen that over the last number of years. He's coming back to a place here where he played well a couple years ago and had a chance to win. I think it was smart to take those four weeks off to decompress and then come back fresh for this."
In contrast, the Ulsterman boasts match-fitness, having finished fourth in Charlotte on Sunday, and, after missing the cut in his first three Players Championships, he also has top-10 finishes in the last three years in his favour.
But he must overcome a remarkable statistic if he is to win his first title of the season. Since 2013, McIlroy is 12-over for the front nine of the Stadium Course - and 36-under for the back nine.
"Why the difference?" McIlroy said. "There's nothing I can put my finger on."
As Spieth would testify, it is just golf.
