Jordan Spieth – Update on The Status of His Game

Jordan Spieth talks about how he’s managing his game and what he’s learned in the last month.

Jordan Spieth, despite his early season victory, has not had the magical year in 2016 that he had in 2015. No one is more aware of it than Spieth himself.  At the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational, he met with the media and explained comments he made Sunday at the AT&T Byron Nelson.

“We really should have won three Masters.” — Jordan Spieth

“I was just saying, hey, look, I’m frustrated over the ball right now because I had a two-way miss, but it’s nice that I’m still in second and I can find something for tomorrow,” he Spieth said. “That was a day (Sunday) that I expected myself to come through, and if I did have control of the ball, I should have won that tournament, given I only had to shoot 2-under and it was not playing that hard.”

For the last few weeks, he and his coach, Cameron McCormick, have been working on gradual improvements while trying not to wear him out. Right now, Jordan Spieth is trying for more consistency in his ball-striking. His irons have been an issue.  His drives have not been perfect.  But he sees a bigger picture a lot of different ways.

“We really should have won three Masters,” he said.

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Carrying that around can be a plus or a minus.  If it’s a minus, that’s a lot to carry. If it’s a plus, then Jordan Spieth knows he can still win the biggest events. To do that he’s working on a specific goal.

“Really getting back to playing one go-to ball flight that I know I can have when I need it and I know that it’s going to be there while still playing to my strength, which is being able to kind of work different flights into pins that help leave myself on the greens if I miss it,” he explained about what he was doing now.

Luckily, this week, he’s in another place he likes to play, Colonial Country Club, and that plus his first three rounds at the AT&T Byron Nelson are a help as far as  he’s concerned.

“I love this place, love this course,” he said. “I was close to having a chance to win, (at the AT&T Byron Nelson) so I can take that into a course that I have had success as far as where I’ve finished and try and take some momentum off of last year at this event and also off of last week.”

Never mind the last round at the AT&T Byron Nelson. It was bad. Jordan Spieth knows it. It was a bad round at the wrong time.

When it comes analyzing his play, McCormick does that with Mark Broadie, author of Every Shot Counts.

“We get strokes gained reports every week from Mark Broadie and Cam kind of asks me more questions on – instead of saying this is what your percentages were, this is your strokes gained, tee to green, out of the rough, proximity from the fairway, whatever it may be, he more asks a question, hey, on 14 on Friday what was your number, what were you trying to play,” Spieth continued.

“If it was a shot that really stood out that may be lower than average or really cost me a couple shots – and it may have been a wind gust, it may have been in between clubs, I chose the wrong club but I put a good swing on it,” he added, going through the kinds of things that can affect a golf shot.

Jordan Spieth thinks the way McCormick puts questions allows him think about whether he just hit a bad shot or whether he caught an unlucky whim of Mother Nature. Both of those, he knows, can happen to anyone.

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In addition, last week Jordan Spieth felt different over the ball.

“I just felt a little more connected in the swing. I felt less loose. By feeling more connected, I actually found out I was actually overdoing – it’s very tough to explain, but in feeling more connected, at least what I thought was more connected, it was actually overdoing what we had been trying to work on the past month or so,” he explained.

On Monday, he and McCormick figured it out.

“I’m at a very – much more natural feeling right now than I was this past Thursday through Sunday in my swing, much more kind of swinging with what my body wants me to do versus fighting it, which is what I felt like I’ve been doing,” he said, adding that it was pretty hard to for him to put into words.

No matter where Jordan Spieth is playing, they approach each course with a plan and a specific strategy.

“My misses are still in a position where you make par at worst, so it may not look like Jason’s high dead-straight ball that goes at the pins when he’s dead on, it may not look that pretty, but we can get the ball in the hole, which obviously he can, too,” Spieth explained. “The point is I don’t hit it the highest or the longest, but we plan what shots we hit into the greens on our approaches to have our misses not hurt us, and that I think is very confident by the way we’ve played the Masters the last few years.”

Jordan Spieth believes he’s close to good form and will try to keep giving himself chances to win, although he said just getting into contention is a lot harder than one would think.  He’s going to be more focused on results with his shots, and, as he said, painting a picture of what kind of shot he wants to hit.

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“It’s a good time right now to really step things into gear, really try and keep putting ourselves in contention these next couple weeks as we get closer to the U.S. Open, try and figure out where everything is performing under pressure,” he said.