The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Spieth looking for a spark
AUSTIN, Texas — Seven tournaments into the year, Jordan Spieth has two top 10s, two missed cuts and no serious chances at winning.
He also sees no reason to panic just yet. Certainly not this week. His stretch run to the Masters begins Wednesday with the Dell Technologies Match Play, and while Spieth has made it out of group play just once in three years of this format, it’s the first time all year he won’t have a scorecard in his hand.
It’s about winning matches, not posting scores. That might be just what he needs.
“This match play could free me up a bit to play more aggressive and putt more aggressively, and it could be a trigger for a successful rest of the year,” Spieth said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to.”
Spieth has spent most of the year watching everyone else win and build momentum toward Augusta National.
Dustin Johnson smoked the field at Kapalua to win by eight.
Jon Rahm, Jason Day, Justin Thomas and yes, even Phil Mickelson, all won in playoffs. Rory McIlroy joined them last week with a flawless finish at Bay Hill to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
McIlroy had gone 18 months since his last victory, and on the Wednesday before the tournament began, he was looking ahead to the format at Match Play and said, “It can change your year.”
It also can be a very short week.
Spieth has drawn former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel in the opening round Wednesday at Austin Country Club. More attention is on his final match of round-robin play on Friday when he faces Patrick Reed, an annoying figure for opponents in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, and Spieth’s partner in 11 cup matches.
The winner from each of the 16 groups advance to a weekend of single elimination.
Spieth has played plenty at Austin Country Club from his three semesters at the University of Texas, though that didn’t help him much the first year when Louis Oosthuizen took him out in the fourth round.
He has the Match Play and the Houston Open before getting to the Masters, where he won in 2015 and was runner-up twice. Last year he tied for 11th, and he still was within two shots of the lead going into Sunday.