Quad burner
Spieth tormented by another quadruple bogey on back nine
AUGUSTA, Ga. — He’s Texas tough, so he’s not going to let you see him sweat, especially when there’s potentially three more rounds of the Masters to play.
And it’s not Jordan Spieth’s nature to think the golf gods have turned against him or that the second nine at Augusta National is suddenly his kryptonite. Instead, Spieth is hoping he can eventually figure out a way to get through a round of golf at the Masters without posting a round-wrecking quadruple bogey on his scorecard.
A year after a quadruple bogey at the par-3 12th cost Spieth a chance to win a Green Jacket, the 2015 Masters champion took a quadruple bogey nine at par-5 15th on Thursday to stain what otherwise was a solid first round. His trouble began when his third shot, a wedge from 98 yards landed just on the green and immediately spun back into the water.
After a drop, Spieth hit his fifth shot from about 78 yards about 10 yards past the green. He tried to play a bump-and-run on his sixth shot. But he hit the ball too hard and rolled it 30 feet past the pin. His first putt was so bad, Spieth started walking toward it as soon as he hit it. The ball stopped about 5 feet short of the cup. He two-putted from there and signed for a nine. He went from evenpar to 4-over. He would birdie the par-3 16th and par the 17th and 18th to finish at 3-over, though he had another adventure on 18 when he had to take a drop after his approach landed in a woman’s lap.
Spieth said he used the wrong club and the wrong approach on what should have been a routine third shot into the green.
“Unfortunately, I still thought of it as a birdie hole today and it really isn’t when you lay up,” he said. “So I didn’t take my medicine and hit it about 15 feet right with a club that takes the spin off. Instead, I was stuck in the 15-is-a-birdie-hole mentality. It kind of bit me a little bit. I struck the shot well. I just hit the wrong club.”
After taking his drop, Spieth thought he’d get more resistance from the wind gusts that were persistent during the opening round.
“I clubbed down and t hat one j ust didn’t hit the same wind,” Spieth said. “I obviously wasn’t going to hit it in the water again, so I went over and from there it’s very difficult.”
At least Spieth got through the 12th hole without much of a problem. It was there during the final round of the 2016 Masters he put two balls into Rae’s Creek and wound up blowing a five-stroke lead entering the second nine. It cost Spieth a chance to win back-to-back Masters and one of the storylines coming into the tournament was whether there would be any mental residue from last year’s meltdown.
But Spieth reached the 12th safely landing about 35 feet from the hole, prompting a cheer from the patrons.
“I was a bit surprised at how loud the cheer was when my ball landed,” Spieth said. “But I was relieved to see it down and on the green. And I guess everybody else felt maybe more than I did on it. But it was nice to make a 3 there and capture 4 on the next [the par-5 13th]. I really thought we had it going there.”
Then he took bogey at the 14th and butchered the 15th, putting Spieth in the unenviable position where he has to play really well Friday if he’s going to make the cut.
“I’m going to probably need to play something under par tomorrow, which puts a little extra bit of pressure that I wouldn’t have,” Spieth said. “I was thinking even par for the two days was a good score. Obviously now 3-over, I feel like I need to snag something [Friday], but do it through patience and taking advantage of the par-5s.”
He should also figure out a way to avoid the quadruple bogeys.