Pretender or contender? Examining Jordan Spieth's Masters aspirations in 2024

The 2024 season has been quite interesting for Jordan Spieth up to this point.

What started off so well has quickly turned into a bumpy road. Spieth opened the year strong in Hawaii at Kapalua with four straight rounds in the '60s leading to a solo 3rd finish, just two shots behind the winner, Chris Kirk.

After a winless 2023 season, many Spieth fans left that week feeling a lot of optimism. It was a great start to the year and showed that Spieth appeared to have his game back.

Spieth's next event came 3 weeks later at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. After a rough opening round, Spieth improved the next couple of days and finished with a T39 finish. The ball striking looked very solid, and his putting was the only thing that held him back.

He continued to trend upward the next week with a top 10 at the WM Phoenix Open. He finished T6 and was in contention with a chance to win on Sunday. He gained strokes in every category that week apart from his approach play, so it appeared as if Spieth had his entire game in a good place, it was just about getting it all put together at the same time. He needed the approach play, off-the-tee play, around-the-green play, and putting all to come together simultaneously.

The next week at the Genesis Invitational, it looked as though that may be happening as Spieth fired an opening 66 to put himself just 2 back of the lead. He was right in the thick of the tournament after day 1, and it appeared that he had all things clicking.

However, the next day was when things started to go sideways. Spieth woke up feeling pretty sick on Friday, he played through it and got himself into the weekend it appeared, until later that afternoon it was announced that Spieth had signed an incorrect scorecard and was disqualified from the tournament.

This is rarely seen in professional golf, but it does happen. It was a very unfortunate exit to the event for Spieth after such a strong start.

Obviously, we have no way of knowing how the scorecard incident affected the confidence and momentum that Spieth was feeling, but we can look at the next 3 events and assume that it definitely didn't help matters. He would finish T30 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational a couple of weeks later before missing his next two cuts at The Players Championship and the Valspar Championship. It appeared as if all the early-season momentum was gone.

However, the PGA Tour now arrives in San Antonio this week for the Valero Texas Open. It's a chance for Spieth to get back on track at a course he has had success at. If you remember, Spieth won this event back in 2021.

So what are Jordan Spieth's Masters chances looking like?

Well, typically, when Spieth goes into Masters week in good form, it leads to a good result. And when he goes into the Masters in poor form, it has led to some of his worst Masters finishes. But here's a reason for Spieth fans to believe, Spieth has always had a knack for putting all distractions aside and playing well on the biggest weeks of the season.

Even during his slump (2018-2020), Spieth did not miss any cuts at the Masters. He always looked like he had a chance when he stepped foot at Augusta National. He even recorded a T3 finish in 2021 and had a real chance in the final round on Sunday.

Spieth has talked about how much he loves Augusta and how it brings out his creativity around the greens. Something about it just suits his game and gives him confidence.

So has Spieth had the perfect season up to this point? No. Are there a ton of reasons to think the golden child is going to win his 2nd green jacket next week? Not really. But hey, it's Jordan Spieth. And it's Augusta National. I wouldn't rule him out.