‘Welcome back!’: Resurgent Spieth vaults into contention
Texas Open champion is two shots off the lead after second-round 68
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jordan Spieth was walking down the 17th hole at Augusta National on Friday when a voice from the crowd lining the fairway cried out, “Welcome back!”
Spieth turned his head in the direction of the sound, but it appeared as if he didn’t hear it clearly.
The salute was repeated, only louder: “Welcome back!”
This time Spieth waved and looked over his shoulder with a smile and a grateful expression that seemed to say: It’s good to be back.
Spieth vaulted up the Masters leaderboard with a 4-under 68 that moved him to 5 under and left him two strokes behind leader Justin Rose, who struggled to a second-round 72 after going
7 under Thursday.
The two players right behind Rose were thrilled just to be at the Masters.
One of them was Brian Harman, barely inside the top 100 in the world a month ago until two good weeks changed his fortunes. The other was 24year-old Will Zalatoris, who just over a year ago was toiling in the minor leagues and still doesn’t have a full PGA Tour card.
“I wanted to be here my entire life,” Zalatoris said after birdies on his last three holes for a 4-under 68. “Some people shy away from that, but I’m excited to be here. There’s no reason to feel intimidated now. I made it to here. And obviously, the job is not done by any means.”
As for Spieth, he arrived at his first Masters in 2014 as a 20-year-old less than three years out of high school. Back then, he played with flushed cheeks and a hop in his step that sent a jolt of youthful vitality through the typically middle-age Masters galleries.
When he took a two-shot lead through seven holes in the final round of the 2014 tournament, Spieth appeared to be on the verge of becoming the youngest major golf championship winner in 83 years.
When he tied for second instead, the Augusta National fans were no less
smitten. A year later, at the 2015 Masters, he became only the fifth champion to lead after all four rounds.
On Friday, it was clear his fans from those days had not forsaken him.
Spieth, a three-time major champion, may have not won a tournament from 2017 until last week’s Valero Texas Open, but at Augusta they’ve been eagerly awaiting his rebound.
The number of spectators at this year’s tournament is limited, although there are still several thousand on the grounds, and the biggest throng by far Friday was following Spieth. It didn’t hurt that his junior golf friend of nearly 15 years, Justin Thomas, was playing one group ahead of him.
Asked if he noticed the extra attention Friday, Spieth joked about how he completed his Thursday
round in obscurity. In the last group of the first round, he finished as the sun was setting.
“It was such a slow round that I think people decided not only to have dinner but maybe go to bed by the time we finished,” he said with a laugh.
But Spieth, 27, is modest enough not to openly acknowledge that he had an enthusiastic following. At best, he conceded: “Yeah, we had a lot of people last week, and so maybe — I mean, I didn’t feel that it was any more than yesterday.”
Spieth’s appeal is no doubt tied to his success at a young age and an unassuming public image, but sports fans also love a comeback story.
After the 2020 Masters, which was only five months ago, his world golf ranking had dipped to No. 80. He
has rallied to 38th, and it has much to do with the same things that made him a brilliant player from 2014 through 2017: his putting and short game.
On Friday, Spieth’s move up the leaderboard began with a 7-foot birdie putt on the devilish 10th green that moved him to 2-under for his round. He nearly birdied the 11th hole after a brilliant approach shot, then bogeyed the treacherous par-3 12th hole, which had been his nemesis in past Masters.
Spieth’s tee shot on the roughly 155-yard 12th caught the upper lip of the bunker protecting the front of the green, making the shot 3 feet from perfect, and it rolled back into the sand. Spieth’s blast from the bunker left him a short par putt that he missed. He quickly snatched the ball from the cup and tossed it in Rae’s Creek alongside the green.
But that setback spurred on Spieth, who birdied the 13th and 15th holes, both par 5s, and the daunting par-4 17th.
Afterward, Spieth was asked if he was peaking for a major, as Woods so often did.
He shook his head. “Mine feels like steady progress,” Spieth said. “I wish that it felt like everything has been leading up to peaking here, but I’m just trying to have things get 5 percent better than they were last week.”
That seemed good enough for now.