The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Spieth set to return from long break with high hopes
Jordan Spieth returns from his longest break during a calendar year hopeful that a fresh start will end his longest drought.
Spieth hasn’t won since the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale, a span of 54 tournaments worldwide. He last played in August at the BMW Championship, where he failed to advance to the Tour Championship for the second straight year. Spieth is at the CJ Cup in South Korea and plans to stay in Asia another week for the PGA Tour’s first event in Japan.
“I certainly want to get back in the winner’s circle,” Spieth said. “It’s been a little while, and I would like to be more consistent this year, being able to tee it up on Sundays with chances to win more consistently, and that comes from better ball-striking.”
Spieth said he has spent time at home working on his tee-to-green game. He is coming off one of his best years with the putter — and there have been some good ones — and believes once he gets the rest of his game in order, he’ll have more chances. He had only four top-10 finishes last year, often hurting himself with poor final rounds. The closest he finished to the winner was four shots behind in The Northern Trust.
“I know that I’m capable of doing it,” Spieth said. “It’s just a matter of the normal ups and downs of the game and addressing them.”
WORLD CHALLENGE: Except for the location, the “World” in Hero World Challenge seems to
be lacking this year. Tournament host Tiger Woods released the names of the 16 players who qualified for the 18-man field on Dec. 4-7 in the Bahamas. With two sponsor exemptions still to award, all but two players are Americans — defending champion Jon Rahm of Spain and Justin Rose of England.
That would be the fewest international players since 2012 at Sherwood Country Club in California.
The field has two of the major champions in Woods (Masters) and Gary Woodland (U.S. Open).
It doesn’t help that the Presidents Cup in Australia is the following week, and International captain Ernie Els is encouraging his prospective players to compete in the Australian Open the week before, opposite the Hero World Challenge.
LPGA ROOKIE: South Korea has made it five in a row thanks to a player named Six. With five tournaments remaining in the LPGA Tour season, Jeongeun Lee6 has wrapped up the points-based Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year, the fifth straight year a South Korean rookie will win the award.
DIVOTS: No one has turned his season around like Bernd Wiesberger of Austria. He was No. 389 in the world in late May but with an Italian Open win Sunday, he reached a career-best No. 22 . ... Steve Stricker finished No. 4 on the PGA Tour Champions money list despite playing nine tournaments, none over the past three months.
STAT OF THE WEEK: Scott Harrington earned $787,464 in 195 events on the Korn Ferry Tour. In four PGA Tour events of his rookie season, he has made $779,372.