The Masters: Top 10 power rankings at Augusta National
There are a still a lot of folks out there throwing big bucks on Jordan Spieth to win the 2019 Masters. But there probably a lot of wagers that he’ll be leaving Magnolia Lane come Friday.
I couldn’t quite put confidence in Spieth to finish top 10, but he can’t go ignored here.
If this was just about anyone else in the world playing like Spieth has in 2019, I wouldn’t touch them. But this is the one major played on the same course annually, and damnit does Spieth have this figured out at a young age.
"“At this point we have got‑‑ we have done it so often that it’s just kind of remembering stuff or it’s just checking our fall lines that we have in our books from the reads,” Spieth said before the 2018 tournament. “(Caddy Michael Greller’s) done a fantastic job of knowing where those are, where the creek is, on each green, and you could ask me to a certain pin on any green right now and your ball’s located here and I can probably tell you what the putt’s going to do. So that’s really fun for us.”"
The record speaks for itself. By the age of 25, Spieth has a win in 2015 and a pair of T2s in 2014 and 2016. Even with his “C” game last year, Spieth scratched and clawed to get in the hunt on the back nine Sunday en route to solo third. He also finished T11 in 2017 for his worst Masters finish.
Spieth showed some promise last week at the Texas Open, but it was another example of his sporadic play this year. The Texan fired opening rounds of 68-68 to get into the hunt before fading with 73-72.
That comes on the heels of a 1-1-1 record at the WGC-Match Play which netted his high finish of the year, a T24.
Spieth isn’t doing cartwheels about the last two weeks, but he’s sticking with the company line that his game is truly trending upward.
"“…it was disguised on scoring this week. I actually hit the ball better on the weekend than I did the first two rounds and I feel like I putted better, I just for some reason scored way worse, kind of a weird one,” Spieth said Sunday. “Progress for the week. Kind of an average week, but progress nonetheless.”"
Spieth’s putting has improved this year from 123rd in strokes gained to 70th.
If you’re a Spieth disciple, you’re probably loving the odds you’re getting for him. In that case, go for it. But if you’re the type who prefers players in form, there are plenty of better options to ride with.