Where have you gone, Jordan Spieth? The golf world turns its lonely eyes to you.
OK, apologizes to Simon and Garfunkel, but what has happened to Spieth? In 2014-17, the young Texan was the obvious slam-dunk successor to Tiger Woods as the most dominant golfer in the world. Now, he’s a guy who can barely make a 36-hole cut.
Spieth will tee it up at the Masters this week, because he won the season’s first major in 2015 and gets a lifetime invitation to the annual tournament as a result. His track record at Augusta is outstanding (T2, 1, T2, 11th, 3 in the last five years).
After his 2015 Masters title, Spieth cemented his status as the best young player in the game by winning the U.S.Open two months later. He won the Tour Championship that year, won two tournaments in 2016 and three more, including the British Open, in 2017. He stood well above the crowd of young talent seeking to fill the Woods void on Tour — ahead of the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka.
But since then? Deterioration. After winning that Open Championship win in July, 2017, Spieth has gone dry. His putting is erratic, his driving is sloppy. He’s thinking too much, say some observers — “paralysis by analysis.”
He went winless in 2018, with thirds at Houston and the Masters his best finishes. He has five missed cuts in his last 17 starts, with only one top-10 finish. His world ranking, once a luminous No. 1, is now a so-so 30th.
He’s still a 14-1 Vegas pick to win this year’s Masters (behind only Dustin Johnson, McIlroy, and Woods) but his recent play makes him a lousy selection, even though his track record at Augusta National, as noted above, is terrific.
“I feel pretty patient with what’s coming because I know I’m working on the right things,” Spieth told golfdigest.com.
Spieth will be playing the Masters under the radar this year, quite a change from the past when he was constantly in the spotlight. Fame can be fleeting, and it can absolutely vanish when the drives are landing in the trees, the irons are off target and the putts aren’t falling. At 25, Spieth is certainly young enough to find the solution and right the wobbly ship. It couldn’t happen at a better time than the second week of April in 2019 amongst the Georgia Pines.
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