Attention, Jordan Spieth. Do you hear the soft piano music that accompanies every golf broadcast this particular week in April? Aren’t you by now deep into a familiar three-dimensional dream of bursting azaleas against a field of deep, manicured green?
Well, this is your wake-up call.
It is Masters time and high time you rouse your sleepy game.
To put it bluntly, Spieth has been as ordinary as fried bologna. He has gone from the young genius just entering his prime to just another guy with a real nice courtesy car. One of golf’s lead singers now might as well be at the back of the band, beating on a tambourine.
But the Masters and Augusta National is Spieth’s special place, where the waters of Rae’s Creek are healing, so long as he doesn’t actually take a sip.
Just last year, as he was entering this eclipse, Spieth reminded all of his Masters eminence. He put together a final-round 64 that fell just short of really complicating Patrick Reed’s life while creating a sizable Sunday static charge. He eventually settled into a semi-remarkable third place, tied for the best finish of an unexceptional year. One more example of why when Spieth says, “Well, it's my favorite tournament in the whole world,” there is no room to quibble.
It can be argued that no one has had a more reliably excellent first five years at the Masters than the 25-year-old Spieth. There are players who have won more than he over that introductory period – Jack Nicklaus won three of his first five as a pro, Tiger Woods won twice. But no one can claim a better average finish than Spieth, who has gone 2-1-2-11-3 (3.8 average) in his first five years.
My, how he once again needs a good, cleansing Masters purge. And he is expecting no less.
“My expectations are high this week,” Spieth said. “I feel great about the state of my game right now. I feel like my recent results aren't a tell of where my game is actually at, and I feel I've made a lot of strides in the last couple days in the tee‑to‑green game, my long game, which has been the only separation from being able to win golf tournaments over the last month or so.”
He even found one benefit to not having won since the 2017 British Open
“I feel kind of under the radar, which is really nice,” Spieth said.
“That changes day‑to‑day out here, though.”
The diminishing of a player who won three majors before he was 24 has been one of the great mysteries of the golfing world. Once the world’s top-ranked player, Spieth dropped out of the top 10 at the end of 2018, and the descent accelerated this season. He currently stands 33rd, a high since 2013, his first serious year on the PGA Tour.
This season Spieth has visited depths of the leaderboard mostly unknown to him, as he has managed not one top-25 finish in nine stroke-play tournaments. He ranks 109th in scoring average, 153rd in money winnings. There isn’t an aspect of Spieth’s game that hasn’t suffered, even putting, his once-upon-a-time go-to move when all else failed (he’s 70th in strokes gained putting now, an actual improvement).
As a close friend, peer and interested observer, Justin Thomas is perplexed, but steadfastly supportive.
“It's frustrating to watch from this side of it – everything that's being said and written about him. Because I know he's close. He's going to play well this week. I really do think that,” Thomas said. “He's shown strides all year, just hasn't been able to put it all together over the course of four days. I would say his record at this course speaks for itself and his comfort level. I think he'll be just fine.”
Others watching from a more detached distance believe this week and this place are just what Spieth requires. The prescription: Take four Masters rounds and call us Monday morning.
“Jordan's been caught up in a time where he hasn't played his best. He's lost some confidence in what he's doing. He's worked a lot mechanically on his golf swing. And when you do that, you struggle,” said two-time U.S. Open winner and ESPN analyst Andy North.
“Every single one of us who have gone through those periods struggled dramatically, and sometimes it's a course like Augusta where you have to start thinking about creating shots versus technical golf swing things that freeze you up, and that lets you really play again,” North said. “And with his good vibes there, his short game expertise and the fact that now he can't go around Augusta National thinking about technical stuff in his golf swing, I think will free him up and give him a chance to have a good week.”
Spieth is saying all the right things to himself, at the point now of believing intangibles over any cold metrics. “I feel like I'm on the rise right now,” he said. “That's just the way I feel. I don't think I need results to prove anything otherwise. I know where my game is at and I know that good things are coming soon.”
If not now, when?
For it is the Masters, just the green-velvet-gloved slap in the face Spieth seems to need.
So, snap out of it, already. Rise and shine.
NOTABLE PLAYERS AND HOW THEY DID IN THEIR FIRST FIVE MASTERS AS PROS
Most Wins
Jack Nicklaus – 3
Tiger Woods – 2
Horton Smith – 2
Jordan Spieth – 1
Arnold Palmer – 1
Byron Nelson – 1
Tom Watson – 1
Gene Sarazen – 1
Best Average Finish
Jordan Spieth – 3.8
Jack Nicklaus – 4.0
Tiger Woods – 6.6
Ralph Guldahl – 6.6
Byron Nelson – 7.0
Arnold Palmer – 8.4
Gene Sarazan – 9.2
Tom Watson – 9.2
Ben Hogan – 10.0
