Jordan Spieth’s ’10-year’ breakthrough and Vijay Singh’s magic

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this weekend 9. Think of it as a place to warm up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will have thoughts. We will have advice. We will have tweets. But only nine in all, though sometimes perhaps more and sometimes perhaps less. But who am I? The following paragraphs tell some of the story. It can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

I heard Drake’s “One Dance.” yesterday.

AND The Lumineers’ “Ophelia.” AND The Weeknd’s “Starboy.” The earworms of a decade ago. The ones where after flipping through the car radio and listening to them, they went about your normal business. (Sing it with me now, grocery shoppers: Oh, Ophelia, which way is the turkey meat?)

I found the songs after listening to a few others as part of the 2016 social media challenge where people have been sharing photos and such from back then. It’s cute. me? Ten years ago, my wife and I were in Omaha – for 11 months. It was our most enjoyable year yet. We left work. He was employed in new. Sold a house. Two cars for sale. We saw in the rearview mirror the life and routine we knew. And on December 30th, two lifelong westerners and two cats somehow ended up in Brooklyn. Life happens like that sometimes. There was a plan. But mostly no. It was a near-goal. Just keep moving.

world away Jordan Spieth was doing some of that too.

Do you remember that then? He held the golf pro in his palm like you would a golf ball. The year before, he had won the Masters, the US Open and the Tour Championship, before following it up with two wins in 2016 and three in 2017. How many more majors could he win? Any number seemed doable. But zero was what he got. Hmm. A drought came. The injury. Research. Questions, chief among them:

Would he ever come back?

To some extent, he has. He has won twice since 2021. He also feels he has fully recovered from surgery on his troublesome left ankle. Thursday, after he opened his ’26 season at Sony OpenSpieth sounded upbeat. He thinks he can trust his swing. However, there is more. He has also given some thought to the last 10 years. And the next 10 years. He thought about what he should have done.

And what he wants to do moving forward.

“Trying to enjoy myself more…” Spieth said. “It’s been a little rough the last couple of years, and if I’m not having fun here — I mean, I know in 10 years I wish I had these 10 years back. I certainly wish I could go back 10 years.

“Generally, if you’re not having fun, what are you doing here? All of this together should really help.”

MUSTwhich means we’ll find out. But if you’re looking for real signs of a resurgence from Spieth, and if you want to believe that Spieth can be Spieth again, this is what you’re hoping to hear.

To quote “One Dance”:

Honey, I like your style.

“I’m saying if you’re not present,” Spieth said, “and you’re not enjoying the fact that you’re living your dream and if it seems like work and hard work and all that, and I’m telling you it is and it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t need to be.”

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the 9th weekend.

2. From the same interview, video below it was good too.

3. This story hereBY Fried eggs Kevin Van Valkenburg, was good too. It’s about Spieth — and nostalgia.

A meal for the weekend

4. Vijay Singh didn’t use just one PGA Tour career money exemption this year.

He cashes checks with it. The 62-year-old is two rounds through two at the Sony Open and he will play at the weekend.

He also posted it on his Instagram account THIS:

A throwback to the week that was

5. Brooks Koepka is returning to the PGA Tour. And Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Camerson Smith they are not – for now. OK. And okay.

So when does the civil war end?

Will he do it?

Is Koepka’s move crushing LIV? Or is it just like a free agent transaction, of which baseball has seen several? (Apologies to anyone who has no blood Dodger blue.)

I’m sure you have thoughts. For me, a couple of quotes are worth mentioning this week. On Wednesday, during an LIV preseason event, LIV executive vice president of team business operations Katie O’Reilly had this to say when asked when LIV’s 13 teams would begin selling shares:

“Our goal is to build $13 billion franchises. That’s our goal. Are we there yet? No. But now we’re building the foundation for that.” (David Rumsey of Front Office Sports wrote more on this topic, and you can read his story here.)

Then there are Rory McIlroy’s thoughts on LIV after the Koepka news. He was interviewed at the PD World Tour’s Dubai Invitational by Of the Telegraph James Corrigan, and you can read his story here:

“It’s not like they’ve made any big signings this year, have they? They haven’t signed anyone that moves the needle, and I don’t think they will. I mean, they could re-sign Bryson for hundreds of millions of dollars, but even if they did, that doesn’t change their product, right? They’re just going to pay for the same thing, so they’re going to lose the same thing. And…”

Another takeaway from the week that was

6. The video below it is good. At this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Bahamas Golf Classic, Roger Sloan’s round went like this:

— Began as a substitute

– Moved the field as players retired, including Noah Goodwin

— Arrived in the Bahamas the day before the tournament, but the tournament hotel was booked and he didn’t have a caddy

– I got a text from his regular caddy saying, “Hey, I got a guy” – and that guy could caddy and he had a room

— Wait, why was Goodwin singled out a few lines above? Because the “guy” who could help was Goodwin’s father, Jeff

— Sloan finished runner-up

A golf story that interests me

7. The video belowstarting at 22 seconds, it was good. It’s golf. It’s college football. It’s Nick Saban.