Jordan left to bemoan his struggling form on the greens as Willett also suffers
JORDAN SPIETH was left to rue how his putting had deserted him after a third day of frustration around Royal Troon.
The over-riding memory of golf in 2015 was Spieth holing putt after putt. It won him The Masters and US Open and took him to within one shot of a play-off at The Open at St Andrews.
But this week, the magic wand has not been working. The young American has missed a host of short putts that have cost him dearly – much to his and the galleries’ surprise.
Having only scraped in for the weekend on four-over-par, Spieth was out early yesterday looking to move up the leaderboard.
He was doing exactly that on the front nine as he birdied four of the first seven holes to get back to level-par – and it could have been even better.
But Troon hit back around the turn as those four shots were handed back with a run of bogey, bogey, double bogey between the ninth and the 11th.
Another shot went at the difficult par-4 15th leaving Spieth having to settle for a one-over 72 and struggling to contain his frustration.
“I’m really struggling on the greens this week,” he rued. “I missed four putts inside of five feet today and that is not normal.
“I left everything short. I’m finding it very challenging and I was telling myself no more
short putts. I hit it faster and it was still short.
“I’m hitting the ball great, which is pleasing. I hit it well enough to shoot four or five-under.
“I could have shot sevenunder on the front nine really easily. I just can’t quite get it in the hole, but that happens some weeks.”
Spieth won’t be winning The Open today and it will leave him with the US PGA which starts a week on Thursday as his only chance of Major glory in 2016.
But even if he doesn’t win that, he still thinks that with two victories, he is having a good year.
“It’s tough to convince myself that I’m having a good year when the questions I get asked make me feel like I’m not,” he reflected.
“I think that’s a bit unfair, but don’t feel sorry for me. I’ll still be OK.”
Of course, Spieth should have won The Masters until his meltdown on the back nine at Augusta.
Danny Willett was the beneficiary that day but it’s not been a good week for the current Masters Champion.
He shot a three-over 74 to finish at seven-over-par and a very early tee-time today.
“You never enjoy it when you don’t play well,” he said.
“It has been a frustrating week, a grind from start to finish.
“I’m struggling with my swing. We’ve been working hard and there’s been a lot of range work but it’s different taking that to the course, with the conditions being as they are.”