It seems like a no-brainer, and Jordan Spieth is saying the same thing now. He’s a lifelong Texan who lives in Dallas and has been playing incarnations of the CJ Cup Byron nelson since he was a 16-year-old high school junior who got a sponsor’s invite. Given that, you figure that at some point before competing in the Nelson this week, he would have driven over to the newly renovated TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney to maybe play some holes or at least have a look.
But time and spieth’s schedule just got away from him–he’s played 13 weeks out of 16–and his first look came while playing the front nine of Wednesday’s pro-am. By Thursday evening, Spieth said he was kicking himself. He opened the tournament with a middling 68 that put him six shots off the lead in benign conditions, and he felt could have been better if he has just put in some on-course practice time.“With a new golf course, if you’re going to play a tournament, you’ve got to be prepared,” Spieth said on Friday.
“I legitimately felt like I lost a couple of shots yesterday on the back nine because I didn’t come out here and see it That was eating at me a little bit last night Like, ‘Why would you play if you’re not going to prepare the right way?’”Luckily for Speith, between being a quick learner and his putting coming together in timely fashion, he scorched Craig Ranch with a second-round, nine-under-par 62 in the morning wave that vaulted him 44 spots up the leaderboard and into contention for the weekend.
He happened to be trailing clubhouse leader Sungjae Im, his playing partner over the last two days who fired a 61 on Friday that included a hole-in-one with on the 224-yard seventh hole.“I was hurting my head trying to figure out what our best ball was,” said Spieth, who thought it might be 57, though the best ball was actually 58. (He may not have calculated the one bogey on their card by Im at the 18th. )Playing the back nine first, Spieth shot only two under, but he then reeled off six consecutive birdies from No.
1 on and finished with a birdie at the ninth for an inward nine of 29. He said he drove the ball “horribly” in missing six fairways, but was picked up by his work on the greens, where he gained the morning’s best 3.63 strokes on the field. The success came after he did extra work on Thursday night with his putting.“It was putting today,” he said.
“I’ve been driving the ball the best of my life, and I drove it horribly today. But putting was the best.“I felt fluid with it. … I’ve been trying to put it all together.
I know what needs to happen, but putting it all together into a fluid stroke and then being able to be outwardly focused has been the goal.“Frankly … I’ve been telling Michael for a while I just feel like one lips in instead of lips out, and I feel like the lid comes off,” Spieth said. “I lipped out a few yesterday.
I had one on No. 10 go across the lip today. But then the one on No.
1 could have been short and fell in It was like, oh, wow, there is a hole there.“Sometimes I’ve certainly shown that I can get streaky with it and was able to kind of get on the right side of that today.”2277700336Stacy RevereIf Spieth can get his putting truly worked out, there’s every reason to believe he can win again Once one of the game’s best with the flatstick–he ranked second in SG/putting in 2018-19–the three-time major winner has fallen so far away from top form that he’s only once been among the top 50 putters on tour over the last six years.
Spieth, 32, is trending better this year at No. 42. The results are showing, with four top-12 finishes and a pair of T-18s recently, including at the PGA Championship.
Offering some keen insight on Friday, Spieth said, “I got pretty off for a long time I’ve been trying to build it back, and then I’d compensate and do what worked.“This last off-season I said no more compensating because, to be consistent, I’ve got to get it back to a certain place, and it’s been work from then to try to get there It’s all in mechanics and health.”If he’s feeling this good, why not a victory this week, which would be his 14th on tour and first since the 2002 RBC Heritage.
He’s no stranger to the course now.
