USA TODAY International Edition
Rested Spieth brings ‘ a little fire’ to his debut at Royal Birkdale
SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND The last we saw of Jordan Spieth, he was doing a midair chest bump with caddie Michael Greller after holing out from a bunker on the first playoff hole, winning the Travelers Championship three weeks ago.
Since then, Spieth has buried his feet in the sand during a oneweek vacation in Mexico, which included a round of golf with Michael Phelps and friends and another round with Michael Jordan and friends.
Spieth had played six of seven weeks before crossing the border, and his holiday was a welcomed breather. Although his intention was to not pick up a club during the downtime, the urge got him, which he gladly welcomed. After returning home to Texas, he quickly went to work in earnest.
“Feel fresh. Feel ready to go,” Spieth said Tuesday at Royal Birkdale after a practice round in which he teamed with Justin Thomas in a match against Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm ahead of Thursday’s start of the 146th British Open. “It was just kind of nice to breathe deeply for a week straight out there and then come back with a little fire and a little longing to get back to work. It was nice to kind of have that fire and then put in some pretty solid work over the last week. The game feels really good right now.”
Spieth, 23, has two wins this season and joined Tiger Woods as the only players with 10 PGA Tour titles before turning 24. He’s No. 3 in the world rankings.
But there have been disappointments, including missing three cuts in four starts in one stretch and collapsing in the final round in the Masters, where he started the day two shots out of the lead and fell to a tie for 11th.
This led some to wonder what was wrong with Spieth. Unfortunately, it’s the price to pay when you deliver a magical 2015 season in which you win five times, capture the FedExCup, win the first two majors of the season and finish in a tie for fourth in the British Open and second in the PGA Championship.
Doubts popped up last year when Spieth won three times. At times he has been irritated with the questions, other times puz- zled by them. Yet he addressed each query, just as he did during his pre- tournament news conference.
“I haven’t been making as many putts as I did that year this year,” Spieth said. “I’ve struck the ball better than I did in ’ 15. I’ve actually been in better position. If you took hole by hole, I’ve been in a better position tee to green than I was that year. If I putted the same as ’ 15, I’d be having a better year right now. It’s hard to do. I think I was top three, top five in strokes gained putting in ’ 15 and ’ 16, and this year we’re just a little down, but we’re close. ...
“I recognize that being five years in now, and five years doesn’t make me a veteran, but it helps me realize kind of how things go. And last year I was pretty caught up in 2015, and this year I’m not. This year I recognize that that kind of year, hopefully we can have another one or two like that. But if we keep on trying to improve each part of the game, stick to the process, then we’ll have the results that we want.”
Spieth is playing Royal Birkdale for the first time. This is his fifth British Open, and he has been here since Saturday working on his game.
“I think we have a good game plan thus far,” he said. “I’m excited to get started.”