Spieth should start earlier

NEWTOWN SQUARE ,P A.» Jordan Spieth shed a little insight on his expectations at the beginning of 2016 when he said his goals start with winning and include “being there” with a chance in a couple of major championships.

Two years later, he failed to win on the PGA Tour for the second time in six seasons. He was there with a chance at two majors, coming from nine back in the final round at the Masters to within one shot of the lead until a bogey on the 18th hole for a 64. At the British Open, he had a threeway share of the lead in the final round, fell back with bad swings and never caught up at Carnoustie.

The disappointment was missing the Tour Championship for the first time.

“I was in control of my own destiny and didn’t have it this week,” said Spieth, the only player from the top 10 in the world who won’t be at East Lake.

It didn’t help that Spieth, for the second straight season, sat out the entire fall portion of the PGA Tour schedule. Setting him back even further was missing nearly an entire month with mononucleosis.

That means he will fall short of the minimum 25 tournaments required for those who didn’t add to the schedule an event they haven’t played in four years. Still to be determined is the punishment. This policy falls under a “major penalty,” which comes with at least a $20,000 fine and a suspension of more than three tournaments, although the commissioner has the ultimate say and any suspension will not be in play.

It makes no sense to punish a player who is guilty of not playing enough tournaments by making him sit out even more.

More than money, what really hits home for a player like Spieth is time.

One option would be to increase the number of new events, and that might not be a problem. Even before Spieth was in jeopardy of missing the Tour Championship, he was contemplating adding as many as two North American stops in the fall. Spieth is getting married after the fall season and is like to pass on overseas travel this year.

That also would solve the problem of not starting a new year feeling as though he were behind. A tournament or two in the fall would give him a chance to make sure the new year starts in Hawaii.

Spieth could use a fresh start. First, he has the Ryder Cup in France, in which he will not have competed in two weeks. More than not winning this year, Spieth was rarely close. In the 17 strokeplay events that he made the cut, he finished an average of 9.6 strokes out of the lead.

Rookie The ballots won’t be due until after the Tour Championship, but Aaron Wise would appear to be a lock for PGA Tour rookie of the year.