Jordan Spieth got his ‘gun’ but has work to do before the Masters

When Jordan Spieth was at the height of his powers, it seemed like every shot he looked at was going in. Whether it’s the 50-foot putt to win the 2015 Valspar, the 55-foot eagle at the 2017 Open Championship or 25-foot eagle at the 2015 US Openwhen Spieth was cooking, he was a wizard with the flat stick.

For Golf records, Spieth won two or more strokes on the course to the green in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2019 he gained 2.9 strokes on the green. The PGA Tour average, per Golf Data, is about zero. But after the 2019 season, Spieth’s putting began to go the other way. for PGA Tour StatsSpieth was tied for second in the rankings during the 2018-19 season. In the following six seasons, he was ranked 105th, 33rd, 155th, 79th, 101st and 65th. Three-time major league winner dealt with a wrist injury that affected his swing and has worked to iron out some “bad tendencies” in his delivery that made him less reliable on shorter shots and let him down on his trademark green.

The putter was once a key part of what made Spieth Spieth, when he was a young superstar taking the sport by storm. Now 32, Spieth believes he has recaptured the putting magic that once wowed everyone. It starts with Spieth’s eyes. He’s always been at his best when he’s looking at the hole, and over the last couple of weeks at Pebble Beach AND RivieraSpieth has found that groove again, and it helped him score 5.8 shots on the green at Pebble and 6.1 at this week’s Genesis, where he finished in a tie for 12th. This included 113 feet of putts made in the 2nd round and 97 in the final round.

“Looking at my putt, like looking up, looking at the hole, my putt seems to be a gun that I’ve got back, which is really nice because I feel strong whether it’s broken or fair, anything in the shorter range. Then it frees you up as you start to widen,” Spieth said after his final round on Sunday.

“I hit extremely well inside 10 feet, which is something I’ve struggled with at Riviera in particular, not everyone does. It would be hard for me to believe anyone is better.
within 10 feet this week, and that was huge because those were first saves, those were second shots, things that keep the momentum going, keep the scorecards clean. And I made some outside 10s, which helped in the second and fourth rounds.”

Spieth opened his season at Sony in Hawaii, where he was ranked 35th in the field. He returned to Dallas and worked with his trainer, Cameron McCormick, to adjust his placement. Spieth lost 1.215 shots on the green during a missed cut at Waste Management, but has found his old feel on the greens over the past two weeks on the West Coast, and he believes the good vibe he has with the flat club will flow into the rest of his game as he looks toward the Florida Swing and the Masters.

“It’s a big deal,” Spieth said. “I mean, really, you start as close to the hole as you can, and whatever feels comfortable just keeps going farther and farther into the long game.”

Spieth’s swing isn’t where he’d like it to be. He got plenty of time off during the offseason and used his first four starts of the year to get a feel for what he needs to sharpen up in his swing. With the Masters less than 50 days away, Spieth has a good sense of the work that needs to be done to adapt the rest of his game to the “weapon” he’s rediscovered.

“But overall, I want to hit it a little harder off the tee,” Spieth said after missing 2.4 shots off the tee at Riviera. “And kind of with the iron game, I liked my short game and the wedges and that kind of stuff, and I made big strides, it was kind of C checking and A putting. But I know what I have to do and I feel like it’s only going to get better.”

After three weeks on the West Coast, Spieth will return to Dallas for a week off to work on fixing what’s been bothering his swing. But he leaves California having found something he’s been looking for, and it has him looking toward a friendly stretch — one that ends on a course that gets the best of him — feeling like Jordan Spieth is close to finding the Jordan Spieth of old.

“I feel very confident. I like the stretch coming,” Spieth said.

“I feel like I have momentum.”