PGA Championship: Jordan Spieth sees light at end of long golf tunnel

Jordan Spieth made a lot of noise to jump into a tie for second on Friday at the PGA Championship. And despite his deficit, his confidence is as high as ever.

It’s beginning to happen again for Jordan Spieth. He’s seeing light at the end of a long, dark, golf tunnel, and it’s not a double bogey train headed directly toward him.  At least not after the second round of the PGA Championship.

Flying a little under the radar due to his lack of on-course success for the last 18 months, Spieth is getting back to what he calls “aim small, miss small” golf.

“Confidence-wise, I’ve been there,” he said after firing a 4-under par 66 at Bethpage Black. “I’m seeing tighter targets the better I’m hitting it.”

He thought the 17th was important for his round. He flushed a 6-iron to eight feet and made birdie.

“That birdie was big, because it got me to even par on the nine holes,” he said. ‘The back nine, you shoot even par, it’s a good score.”

But there were other shots that gave him confidence that his game is returning, like his second shot on the 12th hole.

“I hit a 4-iron into 12, my third hole of the day, that had no business hitting the green earlier this year,” he added. “Shots like that are nice because they allow me to start seeing tighter targets. I get the feel through my hands and recognize what I did to produce that.”

The ball landed inside 10 feet from 227 yards.

The back nine, Spieth noted, offers fewer birdie chances than the front, and his score reflected that belief.  His back nine was even with two birdies and two bogeys.  On the front side, he had four birdies.

His play at the 7th was certainly indicative of improvement.

“A few of the tee shots I hit today, like No. 7, was just a shot that I had no chance hitting this entire year, and I — I just absolutely pummeled one, just a tight draw on my line when there was trouble right,” he explained.

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The 7th is a par four, 488 yards.  His tee shot went 307 yards to the left fairway, and his second shot, 177 yards to five feet.  It was a much-needed birdie.

At the 8th hole, there was a return to the long-distance putting that had become a Spieth trademark. As their threesome of Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm approached the green, the gallery started yelling that nobody had gotten a putt to the hole from the location of his ball and that it broke less than it looked.

Fortunately for Spieth, Johnson had a putt along a line similar to his.

“I just went off a little bit lower line than what DJ had,” he explained. “You just try to get the right speed for the green, and certainly it’s a bonus when it drops.”

While there’s certainly a lot of luck involved in making that length putt, it’s indicative of the progress he believes he’s making. In addition, his putts from 10 to 12 feet are going in more frequently.

“My eyes are seeing where the putter is pointed so I can be reactive to the correct line. It seems easy, but when that gets off, golf is pretty difficult, and that’s where I’ve been the last year and a half,” he admitted.

Will he be able to tighten everything up for success this weekend?  Well, even if he does, he and the rest of the field still have to contend with the Terminator that is Brooks Koepka.

“You don’t expect Brooks (Koepka) to fall at all, so I thought I needed to be within five or six or seven to feel like I had a chance on the weekend,” Spieth added.

He’ll be within that margin when – albeit on the highest end – when he goes off with Koepka in the final group on Saturday. This PGA Championship isn’t over just yet, but Jordan Spieth will need a bit more magic, and maybe just a little bit of luck, to make things interesting.