Jordan Spieth: Is he closer to success than we’re giving him credit for?

Jordan Spieth isn’t the world-beater we grew to love over the last five years, but is he closer to getting his game back on track than we’re giving him credit for?

All golf fans were utterly surprised when Jordan Spieth, the kid who seemed to be the next Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus, lost total control of his game at the end of the 2017 season. After four years in the PGA, where he won eleven tournaments, three majors and became world No 1, the 2018 season was a horrible nightmare and he went the whole year without winning a single tournament.

The nightmare continued at the start of the 2019 season where he couldn’t make the top 20 in any of the 13 tournaments he participated in.

Most of the fans and the press started to lose interest in Jordan, and it seemed like his best days were already way behind him. The kid who was destined to replace Tiger and set a new era in golf was gone.

But at the PGA Championship in May, where the main story was the impressive performance of Mr. Major Brooks Koepka, Spieth played solid golf, with an impressive game over the green that helped him finish tied with Cantlay and Wallace for the third place. It was his first top ten finish in almost a year.

The good result in the second major of the year was a huge confidence boost and he recorded two back to back top-ten finishes (T8 at the Charles Schwab and T7 at the Memorial). In just three events, Spieth jumped 85 spots at the FedEx Cup rank and put himself in position to qualify for the playoffs.

He continued his improvement finishing tied for 20th place at the Open Championship, with a horrible final round, and he went back to the headlines with a tie for sixth at the first event of the playoffs.

Right now he has been relying on his short game, he ranks in the season third overall in putting and twenty-first around the green. His long game was his nightmare for the last two years, and it may still haunt him, but as he said to the press last week he has improved immensely in his ball-striking and the during the last two months he has been able to find a decent amount of greens in regulation.

We haven´t seen 2015 Jordan Spieth yet, but it´s exciting to see the star from Dallas saying goodbye to his horrible slump and establishing himself, again, as one of the most exciting players to watch. If he continues showing this performance he even might be able to qualify to the Presidents Cup as a captain´s pick.

Right now he sits just fourteen places away from qualifying for the Tour Championship, so he needs a great result in this week tournament. His first round was a solid 2-under par, trailing the leader by five shots. Another good round on Friday might get him on top of the leaderboard and with a hot putter, he can be one of the favorites to clinch the title at Medinah on Sunday.

Jordan Spieth has that distinctive quality that only the great champions of all time have and it´s just a matter of time before he wins again and hopefully returns to the top of the world ranking.