Jordan Spieth’s long and winding path back to the top of professional golf has been largely attributed to his putting woes.
What seemed like the strength of his game when he burst onto the PGA Tour scene as a 19-year-old has seemingly abandoned him as he navigates the world of superstardom in his mid-20s.
Having fallen to 34th in the Official World Golf Rankings, Spieth has been preaching that his game is coming around and he’s close to getting back into the winner’s circle again.
Despite that positivity publicly, Spieth’s results have told a different story. He hasn’t finished inside the top-20 yet in the 2018-19 wraparound season, and after an even-par opening round at Harbour Town in this week’s RBC Heritage, needs to put together a solid weekend to buck that trend.
"I got Augusta'd."
Jordan Spieth led the field in greens in regulation on Thursday, but his 33 putts left him at even for the day.https://t.co/H2ABRNB6gX
— Golf World (@GolfWorld) April 19, 2019
Again, his formerly-trusty putter is the bane of his issues.
“I really got Augusta’d out here,” Spieth said. “What I mean is, I was still putting to the speed of Augusta. I haven’t fully made the transition away from that. And as we are expecting high winds I’m sure the greens will slow down even more to make it fair. I’m really going to need to dial in my speed on the greens. Just tough out there coming off last week to this week, to get yourself to pop it harder than you really want to.
“I felt like I hit my lines. Again, it was just the speed control on a couple of my misses or at least trusting to play them high enough that they’ll actually break that much. It’s good.”
Trusting those lines and the speed seemed to help him in the weather-delayed second round as Spieth was able to string together four birdies in his first five holes.
He would go on to shoot a 5-under par 66 in the second round, which concluded on Saturday morning thanks to a 50-foot bomb he made from just off the 18th green.
He enters the weekend in a tie for 10th place, four shots behind 36-hole leader Shane Lowry.
