Spieth drops out of hunt
Short game falters to stop momentum
ERIN, Wis. — It is a measure of how high the expectations are for Jordan
Spieth that it is being said he’s having both a bad season and a bad U.S. Open. Yesterday that assessment would be half right, just like his game seems to be at the moment.
When you have a win, a second, two thirds and six top-10 finishes in 14 starts, it’s difficult to see how someone can be said to be off his game but such has been the success rate in Spieth’s four-plus years on the PGA Tour that such a season would be a letdown. He would argue otherwise and he would be right but when it comes to how things have gone this week at Erin Hills, it’s another story.
Spieth scrambled and struggled to even par after the first two rounds to put himself 1 shot under the cut line but within 8 shots of the lead going into yesterday’s third round but his 4-over 76 killed any thought he might have of a stirring late rush to his third major championship today.
Golfers, by both nature and training, see the cup half-full even when the ball fails to drop. They are always only a tick here or there away from a birdie run. It is how they always talk because golf is as much mental as physical.
Often they sound like the great pitcher who has just been lit up and talks about what great pitches the opposition drove onto Lansdowne Street. Yesterday, Spieth was that pitcher.
“(Yesterday) was an offday,” Spieth said after a round littered with four bogeys and a double bogey on 18 in which his chip out of a greenside bunker hit the lip and rolled back to his feet. That last shot is every duffer’s all too familiar nightmare and Spieth knew it.
“Pitchers have good days and bad days and I took an L (yesterday) so I’ll come back (today) and try to finish this strong going into next week (at the Travelers in Cromwell, Conn.). I’ve been striking the ball well. It’s just been figuring it out on and around the greens.”
That has been a significant problem for Spieth all week. Friday he claimed to have had 15 birdie putts of which he made one. That may have been an exaggeration but not by much.
Yesterday his putter and wedges again seemed a mystery to him and that is a serious issue for Spieth because he is far from the longest off the tee and thus relies on deft work with his wedges and arguably the best putter in golf when it’s hot.
“I feel like once the cannon gets open I’ll start pouring them in,” Spieth said. “It’s trying to get them open. Trying to have a round right.
“Out here I’m just thinking a lot about my stroke, stance, stuff you would rather not be thinking about. You’d rather think about the line or pace but I can’t do that yet because I haven’t figured out the other part.’’
Stricker: Local hero
Wisconsin’s golfing hero, Steve Stricker, recorded a round of 3-under to give hope to cheeseheads in pink golfing pants. Although he remains well behind the tightly bunched leaderboard, he gave himself a chance to at least be in the conversation today at 2-under for the tournament but had he not bogeyed 18 this might have been an even more joyous afternoon for him and for Wisconsin golf fans.
“I’ve been feeding off the fans all week,” Stricker said. “I really haven’t felt the pressure like I used to in the early days when I used to come and play in Wisconsin. I feel way more relaxed.
“I feel I don’t have anything to prove anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a little more nervous and I want to play well but I’ve taken on a different attitude about it. I enjoy it a lot more. The ovation I got going up 18 (which he bogeyed, by the way) is unbelievable.
“I feel like I’ve got some game. It’s coming a little harder, it seems like, on a regular basis but I still feel like I do a lot of good things to compete out there.”
Club humor
Brooks Koepka said the longest club he had in his
bag this week was a 7-iron. When Stricker heard that he laughed ruefully before saying, “That hurts. That was the shortest club I had in probably.” …
Zach Johnson came up with some unique motivation. Well back in the pack the Iowa native said his reason to push hard was not fake news but real news. “My motivation was the Cedar Rapids Gazette because they came up here when I was teeing up second (today).”