2 weeks Ago
HILTON HEAD ISLAND — There was no great unburdening for Jordan Spieth on Saturday when he walked off Harbour Town’s 18th green. This isn’t the venue or the event for that. No, he wrapped up his third round of the RBC Heritage with a nice 7-footer for birdie to go 7-under par for the tournament before calmly strolling off the course.
That ball never wavered, either, despite an eager boat captain in Calibogue Sound blasting a horn as Spieth drew back his putter. “I think somebody was trying to get it after I struck it,” Spieth said, “and I think they didn't.” He smiled and brushed it off — round-closing birdies have a way of lifting every golfer at every level.
And a Saturday 69 makes for a happier Easter morning, even if he left a few opportunities on the course. He’s eight shots back of Si Woo Kim . Having 15 golfers ahead of Spieth (along with the seven others he’s tied for 20th with) extend the odds of him winning for the first time in three years.
But, all in all, he’s got a lot to hang his hat on from this week in the Lowcountry. Still, despite his pleasantness and spotless manners, you wonder what he’s toting around inside. Spieth isn’t necessarily golf’s forgotten hero, though it sometimes appears that way.
How he burst onto the scene feels like a lifetime ago. Spieth was an all-American youngster with mad game, a golfer who won major championships as if collecting carnival prizes and had learned at the feet of Ben Crenshaw about how to behave while doing it. He was the answer to a praying PGA Tour seeking a hero after Tiger Woods hit a tree and all the skeletons fell out.
Spieth won three different major titles in as many years and had nine other top-four finishes during the first six years of his career. He was golf’s compass while everyone else seemed to be struggling to figure out their place. All before he was 23.
Spieth is married now, has kids. It's been eight years since he last won a major, that being the 2017 Open Championship. Certainly his priorities have shifted just as his life has shifted.
The goals and dreams of a 20-year-old kid rarely align with those of a 31-year-old man. It’s usually bad news when they do. The last few years, it’s felt as if he’s hovered on the periphery of the game’s marquee players, a group currently consisting of peers (a Justin Thomas), newbies (a Viktor Hovland) and some of the older guard (a Rory McIlroy).
That’s a heckuva thing to say about a player with three major titles and 13 wins during his 20s. And oh-so-many close calls. It’s almost like his greatness has been blanketed by something unexplainable or filed away to a completely different era of golf.
It’s a tough code to crack. After all, the hype and hoopla leading up to, during and following McIlroy’s Masters victory could easily be directed toward Spieth, as well. As with McIlroy, Spieth has stood for years one win away from the career grand slam (since winning the 2017 Open Championship).
And he’s had ample opportunities to get the one that eludes him, having finished second in the 2015 PGA Championship and tied for third in 2019. Yet that narrative has been lost or ignored. Part of it could be how things evolved because of an injury to his left wrist.
A tendon popped out of place, first in May of 2023 while in the family’s swimming pool with his son, then again that October. He waited more than a year before conceding to August 2024 surgery ; struggling in the meantime with a winless streak going back to 2022. Spieth, after his round Saturday, extended and rolled his left arm to expose the repaired area.
It remains swollen and “thick and tight” each morning. A customized routine relaxes it so he can go through practice and a round unencumbered. “It has different cadaver tissue on it now, so it's never going to be the same” Spieth said.
“But they say about one year post-surgery, you wake up and you stop feeling the difference.” "Never going to be the same" and "difference." He referring to his wrist.
You wonder if he’s also regarding his game. And not just prior to the surgery and injury, but before that even. It’s a friendly environment for Spieth at Harbour Town .
His last career victory came here after a single playoff hole with Patrick Cantlay in 2022; he lost here to Matthew Fitzpatrick in a three-hole playoff the next year. Nevertheless, Spieth is probably not winning this week. That doesn’t take any luster from what he’s done here, especially when paired with last week’s tie for 14th place at the Masters.
His game’s in tidy shape with the PGA Championship only a few weeks away in Charlotte. But what then? What unfolded at Augusta — the sight of McIlroy kneeling in relief and then screaming in joy — probably won't repeat at Quail Hollow even with a Spieth victory. It's just different.
Unlike with McIlroy, there’s no black cloud of doom looming over Spieth when it comes to the PGA. McIlroy aged like an American president over the past 14 years — Spieth still looks 21. Doom sells; stoicism doesn't.
He’s had opportunities, sure, though nothing like what haunted McIlroy in Augusta. The irony is that place has also given Spieth fits, yet he has a green jacket (He would have more if not for two balls dropped into Rae’s Creek for a quadruple bogey 7 in 2016 ). So it’s not the same.
But he figures if McIlroy can holster his own demons when it comes to one event, then he can, as well. “It was inspiring, obviously, especially because it just doesn’t come easy,” Spieth said. “And for me, with the PGA, I’ve had a couple looks.
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Out of all the PGAs, there's a few that I'd say, ‘Hey, this gives me a really good chance.’ And I think it’s one of ’em.” All that’s certain is that Spieth, who’s now up seven spots to 58th in the Official World Golf Rankings, has a chance to claim a long-awaited piece of golf immortality — one we proclaimed was his destiny a decade ago.
And he’s demonstrated pockets during the last few days here, as well as a week ago at Augusta, to remind us. It simply feels like we might've already forgotten..
