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Jordan Spieth: A Golf Game in Trouble

By Stephen Nixon

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA - APRIL 21: Jordan Spieth walks down the eighth hole during the final round of the 2019 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on April 21, 2019 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA - APRIL 21: Jordan Spieth walks down the eighth hole during the final round of the 2019 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on April 21, 2019 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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For the first time since 2013, Jordan Spieth is ranked outside of the top 50 in the official world golf rankings. 

If you were to tell the average professional golfer that they would end their career with 14 world-wide wins and three major championships, I think they’d take it. However, for the 26-year-old Jordan Spieth, it feels like his world is crashing down.

For someone so talented on pace to be the next best golfer of his generation, Spieth has not won a tournament since the 2017 Open Championship. After he finished his last six holes in five-under-par to outduel Matt Kuchar for the claret jug, Spieth looked unstoppable.

Only 24 years old at the time, the golf-world pictured Spieth contending for every big tournament for the next decade, but it hasn’t worked out that way.

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And that brings us to Jordan Spieth now.

Although it was only one golf swing, his shot on the famous 16th hole at The Waste Management Phoenix Open in Thursday’s opening round showed exactly what’s wrong with him.

The announcers on broadcast mentioned that Spieth had never missed that green going 12-for-12 before entering the round. With the hydrated crowd excited to see Spieth hit another green, he tugged it left in a very non-confident swing, leading to boo’s filling the arena.

Spieth may have got up-and-down for par, but it was a swing that two years ago you never would’ve seen. He would have lived for that pressure, hit the green and probably would’ve made the putt for birdie.

When you watch Spieth play, it’s easy to see that the confidence in his swing is lost. For any PGA TOUR player, confidence is excelled with their driver. Any player can get hot and make a bunch of birdie putts, but if they’re driving the ball well, they’re more likely than not going to have a good round.

Although it’s early into the 2019-20 season, Jordan Spieth is ranked 239th in driving accuracy, and 117th in driving distance. The distance isn’t as worrisome because he’s averaging 295 yards off the tee, but the accuracy is a huge concern.

By not being able to hit fairways, it’s resulted in him not being able to hit greens. Coincidentally, he currently sits 232nd on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation.

As every Sunday golfer knows too well, the fewer fairways and greens in regulation you hit, the harder it’s going to be to make birdies; and even pars. If it wasn’t for Spieth’s ability to get up-and-down so much (he ranks 5th in putts per round with 28), he could be in even more trouble than he currently is.

It’s not like Spieth is in danger of losing his PGA TOUR card anytime soon, but with so many other young talents beating him every week, it looks harder and harder that he’ll be contending for tournaments anytime soon.

The talent pool on a weekly basis is so tough that unless Jordan Spieth can magically solve his driver issues, don’t expect the Spieth of 2015-2017 to arrive anytime soon.

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