Players 2026: Jordan Spieth could not have summed up his career struggles at Sawgrass any better than this | Golf News and Tour Information
PONTE VEDRA BEACH — It is yr 13 for Jordan Spieth at the Players Championship, and he nonetheless has not discovered. It actually feels like he does not plan to, both.
That’s exactly why nobody can stop the man. Not the followers who got here out in droves to observe him on Friday at TPC Sawgrass. Not his caddie, Michael Greller, who skilled what needed to really feel just like the one millionth high-wire act his boss man dragged him via in Round 2. And not the media, who flocked to the Spieth-Fowler-Theegala group because the three-time main champion climbed his approach up the chief board, taking part in the primary 17 holes in six below par.
People observe Spieth as a result of he’ll by no means be taught. The Spieth expertise is not about watching him boringly plod his approach across the golf course, it is about seeing what the hell he will do subsequent. On the par-5 ninth, his ultimate gap of the day, Spieth went full Spieth, pulling his drive into the left timber, the place he had no swing, chopping it out into the green, then yanking a 3-wood to date left he instantly requested Greller for one more ball, Tin Cup-style. He is the golf model of a automobile crash. No matter how dangerous it will get, you’ll be able to’t look away.
The factor was, his spherical to that time was something however. He made seven birdies, together with three on TPC Sawgrass’ vaunted 16-17-18 stretch, the third of which, naturally, got here after his drive ricocheted off a tree and again into the green, setting up a short-iron method he hit to 6 ft. He then birdied Nos. 1 and 2 for 5 in a row. After that, he managed to carry it collectively over the following six holes.
But he can by no means merely simply maintain it collectively. He can by no means simply keep “patient.” That may clarify his shockingly dangerous document at the Pete Dye design, the place he tied for fourth in his event debut in 2014 and has missed six out of 10 cuts since, posting only one end within the high 20 over that stretch.
He’s keenly conscious of why that’s.
“This place has gotten the best of me in the past,” Spieth mentioned. “And I let it get the perfect of me a pair occasions this week already. That price me most likely 4 pictures, so hopefully it is not an excessive amount of to make up.
“I need to have even more patience here than I do other places, and it’s just 13 times in a row… something gets me here, and I just don’t quite have the patience for it.”
While Spieth did finish up discovering his third shot on the ninth, rendering the provisional void, he went on to make a double-bogey 7 anyway. It was the second day in a row he closed with a double, turning a possible 71-66 begin, which might have him simply three off the lead, right into a 73-68 begin, which has him seven behind Xander Schauffele.
When requested after the spherical if he would be capable of take some positives away—like the very fact he gained almost two strokes with his irons and 1.78 across the greens—Spieth responded in his typical, bluntly sincere trend.
“Never. Have you ever played golf?” he mentioned.
The excellent news is, he’s performing some excellent issues, which could make him an element on the weekend. Even better information? His plan stays the identical, in that it sounds prefer it includes little or no persistence.
“This weekend with the greens softer, I kind of thought about that once I made [birdie] on 17,” he mentioned. “I thought, this is just attack mode now. We’re not worried about the cut line, we’re chasing the leaders. sepp [Straka] was running off in front of me. So it was just fire at sticks. I think that’s going to be the mantra this weekend.”
In different phrases, in yr 13 at TPC Sawgrass, he nonetheless has not discovered, and there nonetheless are not any plans to.
