Jordan Spieth’s U.S. Open spat with Michael Greller is least of his concerns

Jordan Spieth gave his caddie, Michael Greller, a proper chewing out in the first round of the U.S. Open. Here’s why that is the least of both of their problems.

Jordan Spieth has been in solid form over the last few weeks leading into the 2019 U.S. Open. In fact, he’s been playing so well that he got many of us – yours truly included – believing that he could be a serious contender at Pebble Beach. Thus far, through 18 holes, that isn’t exactly happening, but that’s also not why he’s trending all over social media right now either.

No, Spieth is getting ripped online for, well, ripping his caddie, Michael Greller over a pair of poor shots that cost him pretty dearly. It all went down on the par-4 8th. The famous tee shot requires a player to control their distance, lest they fall off a steep cliff at the end of the fairway.

That’s exactly what happened to Spieth, who took a penalty to the drop circle to lay 3. His approach was struck cleanly, but bounded through the green and into the deep secondary cut of rough. He was able to get up and down for bogey, but that brought him to 1-over on the day.

Fox Sports hasn’t exactly drawn a lot of love from golf fans since they took over U.S. Open broadcast duties, but credit to the audio guys for catching this line from a clearly frustrated Spieth following the approach.

“Two perfect shots, Michael,” Spieth said. “You got me in the water on one and over the green on the other.”

Wait a second…”you”? This coming from the perfectly-mannered Spieth, who has made a point to basically always say “we” instead of “me” when he’s sat in front of the press for the last five years? Is there trouble in paradise between Spieth and Greller?

Well, maybe, maybe not, but that’s not really going to be the primary problem for either of them anytime soon.

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Let’s get the obvious one out of the way here: for at least one more day, these guys both have a job to do, and a paycheck to go make. Sure, one tournament isn’t going to change either of their lives in the bank account department, but this is still business, and they’re both pros. Even if there’s serious beef, they’ll be able to bury it for the next 24 hours, at least.

But let’s dig a little deeper for each of them. First, for Jordan. No, this wasn’t a good look, but people on Twitter are blasting him like this is the worst thing they’ll see. He was clearly letting off some steam, and there may have even been some merit to what he said.

There’s a fine balance in the player-caddie relationship, and if Spieth did defer his preference to Greller, then there’s some truth to this. It’s not necessarily a fair way to do things, but it lets him get it out and move on.

And Greller, the former high school math teacher who is something like 15 years older than Jordan Spieth…are we supposed to think that he’s made it this long without ever hearing a cross word? He’s a big boy, and he’s more than capable of taking a little bit of blame, deserved or not, especially if it’ll help his guy move on.

We don’t have any direct comments from Jordan Spieth yet, and we certainly won’t have any from Michael Greller. But I can’t imagine this will fester at all. In fact, it was probably done the second the words left Spieth’s mouth.

They’re struggling after the first round of the U.S. Open, with Spieth at +1 and tied for 58th place. Seven shots off the lead, the dynamic duo of Jordan Spieth and Michael Greller need to be on the same page if they want to see Saturday at Pebble Beach.