Is the Jordan Spieth reclamation project complete or does it remain a work in progress?
Was winning the Valero Texas Open two months ago, ending a winless drought edging toward four years, enough?
What about finishing in the top four in six of his last 11 starts?
There’s a good case to be made that Spieth has played as well as anyone since February.
But then …
He had chances to win both the AT&T Byron Nelson and the Charles Schwab Challenge recently and couldn’t find the magic on Sunday. Spieth rarely looked in control of his game in the final round at Colonial where he finished second to Jason Kokrak.
On Sundays, Spieth ranks T126th in scoring average on the PGA Tour, not good but better than the previous two seasons, Certainly nothing like 2017 when he led the tour in final-round scoring, his best season by his own estimation.
Considering where he was to where he is now, Spieth’s reclamation seems nearly complete.
Just don’t say he’s back.
“I hate the word ‘back,’ I hate that, ‘He’s back.’ I never went anywhere.” – Jordan Spieth
“The only thing that I care about looking backwards is mechanically matching up to what I was doing. As far as any kind of comparisons to years or results, it’s literally the last thing that’s on my mind,” Spieth said Tuesday at the Memorial Tournament.
“I hate the word ‘back,’ I hate that, ‘He’s back.’ I never went anywhere. This is all part of what happens in a career. There’s ups and downs. And I like looking forward to what are the pieces that I need to put together for this kind of jump start, this new kind of way that I want to be playing golf week-in and week-out.”
When Spieth missed the cut in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January, his first event in 2021, he slipped to 92nd in the world rankings and the emergency lights were still flashing.
Fast forward to today and he’s second in FedEx Cup points, in contention virtually every week and the question has gone from “Will he win again?” to “Why didn’t he win?” It’s a tough grading scale but a testament to Spieth’s tenacity and doggedness that he’s judged that way again.
There are still ragged edges to Spieth’s game but it’s always been that way. He works like a chef who takes the ingredients he has and turns them into a spectacular dish. Collin Morikawa plays clean golf. Spieth plays gritty golf.
He still doesn’t repeat his swing the way some of the machine-like players can methodically produce the same Trackman data swing after swing. He’s getting better at it but there are times, like last weekend at Colonial, when he can feel the separation between what he intends to do and what he’s actually doing.
“I was set up to easily win that golf tournament and so it’s really frustrating when I play that poorly. And it didn’t matter that it was Sunday, it wasn’t the situation or the day that had anything to do with it,” Spieth said.
“It was the fact that I was kind of going a little bit (the wrong) way as the weekend went on and I couldn’t quite flip it around. And that was kind of the goal coming into (this week), to kind of hit the reset button, tighten things back up, see if I can go back kind of on the upward trend on a course that demands it.”
Spieth’s ultimate talent is his ability to play the game rather than execute the game. He sounds like a technician when he’s self-evaluating shots while they’re still in the air but his gift is in getting the ball in the hole. His artistry isn’t hitting every shot pure but he didn’t win three majors just by putting well.
In 2017, he was second in strokes gained on approach shots. In 2015, he was 15th in strokes gained off the tee and 11th in strokes gained on approach shots. It wasn’t until things went off the rails in 2019 that his wildness became a serious problem.
In a season sprinkled with good “comeback” stories – Brooks Koepka winning in Phoenix, Rory McIlroy winning again at Quail Hollow, Stewart Cink winning twice – Spieth’s return to form may be the most compelling.
He still drives it crooked too often but he’s 20th in strokes gained on approach and eighth in strokes gained around the green. That’s why he’s resumed being Jordan Spieth.
In a season sprinkled with good “comeback” stories – Brooks Koepka winning in Phoenix, Rory McIlroy winning again at Quail Hollow, Stewart Cink winning twice – Spieth’s return to form may be the most compelling.
Asked Tuesday where he is in relation to his best years and his worst years, Spieth opted for the middle.
“Probably right in between,” he said. “Hopefully continuing to work toward obviously the earlier years, but I’m trying to match up things to even before that timeframe with the kind of better mobility, speed and I guess knowledge that I have now to become a better striker, but … swinging in a way that’s kind of the easiest way to be as consistent as possible.
“I know what I need to do, it’s just reversing tens of thousands of swings the wrong way and there’s a few different pieces to it. And, unfortunately, sometimes in tournaments right now I still revert back to what’s been knocked in versus what I’m trying to work on, on the range and that’s kind of the battle that I’m going through.
“But I would say certainly way better off in a lot of ways than say the last couple years and then not quite in the level of freedom as when I was just really on. But I believe that it will get there and be able to stay there more consistently for a longer period of time.”