Spieth stays patient amid worst slump
MEXICO CITY — For a brief moment, Jordan Spieth had reason to believe he finally caught a good break with a bad shot.
He was trying to hit a hard, low draw on the fifth hole of the final round at Riviera into a strong wind and a light rain. Instead, it caught the heel of his 3-wood and spun out to the right, smacked off a tree and went further back next to a fence, just beyond a white out-ofbounds stake.
Good news: The rules official said the stake was left there by accident.
“He said, ‘That’s not supposed to be there.’ He literally picked up the white stake and said, ‘This isn’t ours,’” Spieth said. “So I got it out.”
Bad news?
“I still made triple,” he said with a laugh.
Spieth can still find humor amid the worst slump of his career, or what amounts to a slump for a 25-year-old who already has 14 victories worldwide, including three legs of the career Grand Slam.
Coming off the first win- less year of his pro career, Spieth made a last-minute decision to play the Sony Open in Hawaii to shake off the rust from a busy offseason that included getting married. He missed the cut. Since then, he has opened with rounds of 65 at Torrey Pines, 66 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and 64 at Riviera. He has yet to break par on the weekend.
His best result was a tie for 35th at Torrey.
The game is progressing.
The results — the ultimate measure in golf — are still a work in progress.
It’s one thing that Spieth is at No. 24 in the world after starting 2018 at No. 2. It’s another to realize he has played six tournaments this season and is No. 175 in the FedEx Cup standings.
Spieth pays little attention to any form of media, social or otherwise, and would prefer to keep it that way. He shared as much in Hawaii when he said, “I know what’s wrong with Jordan Spieth, and I know what’s right with Jordan Spieth. I know how to get where I want to go with my golf game and have fun doing it.”