COMEBACK FOR SPIETH
He shoots 61, shares the lead at Phoenix Open with Xander Schauffele
Moving Day turned into Statement Day for Jordan Spieth.
Winless in his 78 starts since the 2017 British Open and having plummeted to No. 92 in the world, Spieth torched TPC Scottsdale on Saturday, shooting 10-under 61 and grabbing a share of the 54-hole lead with Xander Schauffele at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Spieth tied his lowest score on the PGA Tour with a combination of chip-in birdies and longrange bombs and ignited a flurry of support from his gallery. When one fan yelled, “Jordan Spieth is soooo back!” another argued back, “Don’t call it a comeback!”
To playing competitor Billy Horschel, it felt like old times.
“It was vintage Jordan to a certain degree,” he said.
“Momentum is a crazy thing,” said Spieth,
who improved to 18-under 195 for the tournament. “Just seems when a couple of them go they all start to go, and the hole starts looking bigger and bigger.”
Spieth carded four birdies on the front nine to claim a share of the lead, but every time he did so Schauffele answered immediately with a birdie of his own. The Spieth fireworks kicked up another notch when he chipped in for birdie from 68 feet at No. 10. After driving the ball left into the desert, Spieth drew a dicey lie and caddie Michael Greller suggested he might need to take his medicine and try to minimize his mistake.
“I was like, ‘I think I can get enough club to get it left of the green and over,’ ” Spieth said.
He did just that. Of the chip he said, “Once it left the blade I knew it was the right pace.”
That birdie was stealing in broad daylight. One hole later, he stuck an 8-iron to kick-in distance for another birdie. In a round when he seemingly made birdies from all over the joint, he actually settled for birdie at the par-5 13th, missing a 6foot eagle. But his putter would redeem itself soon enough. Spieth reached the par-5 15th in two and made birdie to get to 16 under.
He hit a middling tee shot to 37 feet at the par-3 16th, but he gave the fans something to cheer for by pouring in the birdie putt and lifting his putter in celebration.
“I told Michael the only downside of the birdie putt on 16 is that it would have been arguably the loudest roar I’ve ever had if it were last year,” he said. “But it was still loud.”
Spieth wasn’t done yet. He fanned his 3-wood right of the cart path, recovered with a pitch to 30 feet and drained another long-distance bomb.
“If they happen to drop, they happen to drop,” he said.
Drop they did. He made 126 feet in putts for the day.
“You get him on the greens and he thinks I can make it from anywhere,” Horschel said.
It has been a long time since Spieth has shot a round like this, let alone three consecutive rounds in the 60s. On the 50th anniversary of Alan Shephard’s moon shot, Spieth took one giant leap in his journey back to golf relevance.
“I feel really good about the path I’m on,” he said. “I feel good about what the long-term ahead looks like for me. And sometimes that’s been in question. To myself.”
It was a round that validated all the hard work he’s been doing to eliminate the bad habits that invaded his swing. PGA Tour veteran Mark Wilson, working as an analyst for Sirius/XM’s PGA Tour Network Radio this week, said, “Something tells me he’s going back to what worked in 2017 when he was really closed with the clubface, flat left wrist and able to rotate through really hard and hit little draws.”
For the last few years he battled a block to the right and a weak cut.
“When you’re playing like that you don’t feel powerful, you don’t feel like you’re going to conquer the world,” Wilson said. “If Jordan’s back to the draw again and those thoughts I think it is really good for him.”
Spieth said he’s committed to the process and gave his swing a grade of Band his patience an A. It doesn’t seem to matter that he ranks dead last in driving accuracy this week and hit only 6 of 14 fairways on Saturday. His iron play has been dialed in. For the second straight round he hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation.
“He’s really close to his swing being automatic,” Horschel said. “The golf world would be very pleased and very happy to know that maybe the old Jordan could be coming back here soon.”
It almost doesn’t matter what happens to Spieth on Sunday. This week already has been a victory of sorts. But he has a chance on Sunday to collect his 12th Tour title and end his victory draught.
“I’ll be nervous,” Spieth conceded, “but not because I feel extra pressure to have to do anything. Just because I haven’t been in the last group holding the lead in a while. That’s something you get more comfortable with the more times you do it.”
The last time he played in the final grouping on Sunday? It happened to be at the 2018 British Open when he also played with Schauffele, who is trying to get back in the winner’s circle for the first time in more than two years. Schauffele, 27, got off to a shaky start with a bogey at the second, but he responded with seven birdies, including four in the last six holes, en route to posting 6-under 65.
“I looked up and I saw 61. I knew there were a lot of birdies out there, but I didn’t know there was that many,” Schauffele said. “I knew I needed to hang tough and kind of birdie the holes I needed to coming in. Fortunately we did that.”
Spieth and Schauffele are three strokes ahead of Scottie Scheffler and K.H. Lee. South African Louis Oosthuizen tied his career-low-round with a bogey-free 8-under 63 and is tied with World No. 2 Justin Thomas in fifth place. Former tournament champ Brooks Koepka is lurking at 13 under along with Steve Stricker, who is attempting to become the Tour’s oldest winner at age 53.
“Just got to be within three on the back nine,” said Koepka, noting a 63 on Sunday would go a long way. “Something like that. It’s doable. You just got to get off to a good start on the front nine. Anything can happen those closing four or five holes.”