Farmers Insurance Open: The top ten performances at Torrey Pines

You’re probably old enough to remember when Jordan Spieth was the next dominant force on tour. That was the mid part of the decade.

This deep into the 2019 season, the fates have not been kind to his comeback effort. The Farmers Insurance Open was his fourth start of the season and also his best finish, a tie for 34th. The others included a tie for 55th and a pair of missed cuts. Did Spieth give any indication in San Diego that he is close to recovering his winning form?

We can answer that question by comparing Spieth’s Farmers showing to his numbers from 2015, the year he won the Masters and the U.S. Open.

The 2015 version of Spieth carried about a half stroke advantage off the tee, added another six-tenths of a stroke via his iron game, complemented that with  a four-tenths of a stroke advantage around the greens, and finalized the picture with a six-tenths of a stroke putting advantage. He was, in other words, a complete player.

At the Farmer’s, every facet of Spieth’s previous skill set had diminished, a couple beyond the point of mediocrity.  Relative to the field, he gained only about one-quarter of a stroke per round off the tee, and added only about one-tenth of a stroke approaching the greens. Around the greens, Spieth seemed confused, surrendering six-tenths of a stroke per round. His putting game was essentially field average, leaving him at a net disadvantage of about one-quarter stroke relative to the field.

Given those numbers, the wonder isn’t where Spieth’s game went but how he managed to make the cut.

For Spieth fans, the hope is that if he can’t get back to his 2015-16 form, maybe he can at least recover his 2018 form. Last year he was about one-quarter stroke better than average off the tees, about a half stroke better approaching the greens, and about one-quarter stroke better around them. Those numbers combined to more than offset the tenth of a stroke he gave back with the short stick.

Spieth finished 18th on tour in scoring average last season, a ranking that doesn’t sound very good by comparison with his 2015-16 performances. Its sounds a lot better, though, than his 2019 rank to date, which is 82nd.