Jordan Spieth Gets Shoe Deal; Changes Attitude for Future

Jordan Spieth has had a happy new year with Under Armour, which announced the Spieth One, a signature golf shoe debuting next week.

After the Sony Open, where Jordan Spieth is now, he will start a four-city tour where the shoe will be unveiled. It begins in Tokyo on January 17, continues to Seoul, South Korean on January 19, returns to the Americas in Los Angeles on February 13, concurrent with the Genesis Open, followed by Mexico City on February 28, just before the WGC-Mexico event.

“I’m going to be heading into Tokyo from here early next week to release my first shoe,” Spieth said to media at Sony. “It’s been a year in the making, a year or over a year in the making. Really excited about what it’s going to be.”

After those four cities, according to Spieth, there will be another announcement in London, but the date has not been specified.

“Really excited about Under Armour’s commitment to allowing me to kind of help make this with them and to spread it around the world,” he added. Jordan Spieth has often mentioned his love of travel. But as he has said repeatedly in the last two years, he has learned to schedule it a little better so he is not as tired at the end of the season or the beginning of the next.

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“Playing two PGA Tour events here and then going back to the States with a couple weeks off coming up is going to be really nice,” he said, “and I feel like it’s really, really going to help me come middle of the summer.”

This week, however, he is focused on the Sony Open, which he and his caddie, Michael Greller, decided is a good course for him.

“I think it’s a bit of carving the ball both directions. I think the smaller, trickier greens are better for me. Requires a little bit more touch around the greens and certainly putting,” Spieth explained, adding that the Bermuda is trickier to read, but he likes that.

“We tend to putt well on those types of greens at Colonial, Hilton Head. These are the same style of green, and same style of golf courses,” he added. “We feel comfortable on those types where it’s not necessarily the longest, risk/reward, kind of figure out how you’re feeling, what kind of chances you want to take.”

He expects to be in positions at Waialae Country Club where he has to hit the ball around a tree or where the ball will release farther than he thought it would.

“Being forced to play different trajectories and ball flights, I think, plays into our hands,” he said. “Here it requires a lot greater ball flights, as well, off the tee. Tighter landing areas. You have to have smaller misses. I think that kind of plays into our favor.”

He said it is completely opposite the course at Kapalua where the SBS Tournament of Champions is held.

“There are a few holes that are tight. But for the most part, massive fairways, massive greens, and the way it played this year, was just kind of target practice with it being softer,” he explained adding that he expects Waialea to provide a bigger challenge on approach shots.