Jordan Spieth finds his putter, goes low at THE PLAYERS Championship

Jordan Spieth finally found his groove at THE PLAYERS Championship. After struggling just to break par for three years, he posted a career-best 65 on Saturday to climb inside the top ten. Does he have one more big round this weekend?

Jordan Spieth did all his damage before the telecast, but he brought his game back from the wilderness of the last two days and posted a 65 to jump into 8th place before the leaders teed off. He finished tied with Tiger Woods, who matched the low score.

"“I think I was perfect inside of 12, 15, 10 to 15 feet today and anywhere inside, which was probably the first time this year that it’s been the case,” Spieth said to media after his round. “I actually drove the ball unbelievably well the first two days, and I hit my driver really poorly today and shot 7-under. So, it just shows you where it actually matters and that’s on the greens.”"

He was right about the stats. The first two days his driving accuracy was more than 78 percent, but he was minus in strokes gained putting. Today, he was only 48 percent accurate off the tee, but his irons and putting were the difference according to pgatour.com shot tracker.

To leave himself 12 to 15-footers, he had to be hitting the ball closer to the hole than he was the first two days, and that was true, as he demonstrated at the 17th and 18th holes.

However, in the third round, Spieth stayed out of trouble and avoided three putts.

“My approach game was really solid too,” he noted about round three. “I hit a few in really close, and when I made mistakes I made mistakes on the greens.”

Spieth’s putting setup key to his PLAYERS comeback

A mistake on the green is usually one shot, but a mistake into a hazard can be more than one shot on this Pete Dye golf course. In round two, he three-putted three times, or it would also have been a brilliant score. In the first round, he had bad everything. Three penalties and two three-putts leading to significant aggravation.

“If you don’t miss a putt inside of 15 feet, golf is pretty easy,” he continued. “But when you are making half of them, like I was the first round, then it’s a harder game. So, I felt like I had the freedom in the stroke, I didn’t feel like I had to force anything.”

More from Pro Golf Now

The culprit, he noted, has been his putting set up which has dogged him for the last year.

“I didn’t have to worry about that for 10, 12 years, but the last year or so it had gotten off with my eyes and it’s just — I’m on the right path now, and I really just wanted a weekend tee time here,” he explained. “Every tournament round I play, I feel like on the right path.”

He said he still feels like he can win the tournament, and, although he didn’t say it, he will definitely need some help from the leaders. But the putting, he thinks, is solved, at least temporarily.

“Once I kind of get this putting setup there, I’m ready to win golf tournaments,” he insisted. “I’m as good tee to green as I’ve been ever, this year, it’s just a matter of knocking in six to 20 footers and starting to get closer to that.”

Next: Webb Simpson ties course record at THE PLAYERS Championship

He’s going to approach the final round with the attitude that he has nothing to lose, as he did at The Masters.

“I was 14 back starting today and anything inside a top-10 is an incredible feat over the weekend from that far back. And I’ve got a chance to potentially make more noise than that,” he concluded.

Home/Golf News