HOW SPIETH GOT HIS GROOVE BACK
We examine the rise and fall and rise of Jordan Spieth.
Tall poppy syndrome is an interesting phenomenon in the sporting world. Very few athletes reach the peak of their powers and continue to receive the unwavering support of the general public.
Perhaps that’s because we’ve become accustomed to sporting narratives that are filled with obstacles and hurdles. We’re more inclined to support athletes during their climb to the top or through their falls from grace, rather than their reign at the top. To put it simply, we seem to prefer watching sports stars overcome adversity than seeing them cruise effortlessly from victory to victory.
It’s also why just about everyone is a sucker for a comeback story. We tend to enjoy watching an elite athlete stumble, fall and then pick themselves up again. It’s more romantic that way. Watching Roger Federer win at Wimbledon in five sets, for instance, is invariably more exciting than seeing him dominate in straight sets.
Jordan Spieth is the perfect example of this entire process in the golfing world. The Texan rose quickly, fell slowly with plenty of criticism and is well and truly on his way back to the top again.
Spieth had his “hello world” moment back in 2013 when he won his first PGA Tour title at the John Deere Classic, two weeks before his 20th birthday. He became the fourth-youngest player to win on the lucrative US circuit and would later be named Rookie of the Year.
Spieth then finished runner-up to Bubba Watson at Augusta in 2014 during his first Masters appearance. He would go on to cap an impressive year – which included his Ryder Cup debut – with record-breaking victories at the Australian Open and Hero World Challenge.
There haven’t been many seasons like the one Spieth produced in 2015.
In addition to his breakthrough major victory at the Masters and his US Open triumph, Spieth finished runner up at the US PGA Championship and T4th at the Open Championship. He also won the Tour Championship, two other PGA Tour titles and became World No.1 at just 22 years of age.
The following year saw the Dallas native bag another two PGA Tour titles and a
second Aussie Open, however the story of the year was undoubtedly his monumental collapse on the par-3 12th hole at Augusta National. During the final round of his Masters defence, Spieth arrived at Golden Bell with a one-shot lead before dumping two balls into Rae’s Creek and carding a quadruple bogey. Still, another runner-up finish on one of golf’s grandest stages is nothing to scoff at.
Spieth then completed the third piece of the career Grand Slam puzzle 14 months later when he hoisted the Claret Jug at another iconic layout, Royal Birkdale. He had earlier won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Travelers Championship in 2017. And then … Nothing.
Following his Open victory – which featured one of the greatest recovery shots ever caught on film – Spieth entered into a downward spiral, which lasted nearly four years and saw him slide from No.2 in the world ranking all the way to bottoming out at No.92 earlier this year.
The critics were, of course, like an omnipresence in Spieth’s life during this period and some of the more unfavourable opinions about him would often creep into his media conferences.
“I don’t want to use the word negativity,” Spieth told the press prior to the PGA Championship in 2019. “But the questioning and the wording that’s used to describe me by media or whatever over the past year has only come up because of the amount of success that I’ve had.
“So, it actually could be looked at positively, as well, because if I didn’t have the success that I’ve had, then, first of all, I wouldn’t be in here [answering questions] right now.”
Spieth maintained that positivity right throughout his form slump – at least publicly – and put in the work with his swing coach, Australia’s Cameron McCormick. Gradually, Spieth began to notice small improvements in his game. But then COVID hit and effectively shut down competitive golf from March to mid-June in 2020.
Fast forward to this year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open in early February, when he was in danger of falling outside the world’s top-100 ranked players. Spieth shared fourth place and would immediately back it up with his T3rd effort at Pebble Beach, securing his first consecutive top-five finishes in three years. Suddenly, his tee shots were finding the fairway and his putts were beginning to drop.
Spieth attributed his back-to-back top-5s to hard work, following his missed cut at the Farmers Insurance Open the week prior.
“I was not in a great head space following that missed cut there and just did some really phenomenal work from Sunday through Wednesday of last week that was probably the best period of a few days of work that I’ve put in in a long time,” Spieth said at Pebble Beach.
The 27-year-old continued his good form throughout February and into March – recording another top-five result at Bay Hill – before finally ending his winless streak of 1,351 days in his home state at the Valero Texas Open.
“This is a monumental win for me,” said Spieth after besting Charley Hoffman by two shots to claim his 12th PGA Tour title. “It’s been a long road. There were a lot of times that I didn’t know I would be here. “There’s some key moments here and there, different time periods where I felt like things were turning around. There’s also moments I look back on where I hit balls till my hands bled and I wasn’t doing the right thing and I just went home thought about it. Lost sleep. This sport can take you a lot of different directions.
“There’s peaks and valleys in this sport, but I never expected to go this long. Back then, in between wins, maybe I took things more for granted than I should have. It’s very difficult to win out here and I’ll certainly enjoy this one as much as I have any other.”
Spieth followed his victory in Texas with another top-five result at Augusta and a share of ninth at the AT&T Byron Nelson, before finishing runner-up to Jason Kokrak at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
The three-time major winner may never reproduce his phenomenal 2015 season. But it’s fair to say he is well on his way to recapturing the type of form that saw him become a consistent presence on Sunday leaderboards – and the game is all the better for it.