Frustrated by Jordan Spieth lately? This could be why
It’s been a full 10 years now since we first heard the opening tracks from Jordan Spieth’s Greatest Hits album. You remember them well, of course. Maybe I mean seriously. But they are far away now. It’s been a while, you’ve probably forgotten some of the songs.
The Spieth Experience has meant different things in the years since, much to the delight of Spieth’s biggest supporters. There was 2017, when he miraculously won the Open Championship. There was 2021, when he woke up and almost won the Open again, but he played as a top-5 player throughout. There was 2023, where he did not win but contested many times. These periods sound like gaps in the waves, and are often followed by hollows.
That’s when 2021 returns to the scene where, even five years on, it’s still worth reading. Spieth was riding his putter, his short game and his irons back then, and shockingly, all this in defense of his driver, who is ranked outside the top 130 on Tour. The driver had become his charioteer – he hit it long enough, but rarely accurately enough. On TV, it all looked fluid, but that was part of the allure. Spieth made a hell of a birdie. He turned problems into parameters. He was delivering his best stuff in some rounds, carding 63s in two Texas events, and that 61 Saturday in Phoenix felt like a harbinger of things to come.
Spieth broke through at the Valero Texas Open that year and entered the Masters the following week. For many, it felt like the good times were back. But they were so, so different. Here and there he suffered a wrist injury that never fully healed. It got worse in 2022, felt stable in 2023, but got worse in 2024, requiring surgery. He was frustrated by fighting something that he felt was beyond his control. Fans were devastated to watch it – because it seemed to get in everyone’s way the rest part of the bag without driving.
It all brings us to 2026 and what a new version of the same man. And perhaps most annoying to his fans. This version of Spieth is, believe it or not, the most resolved version we’ve seen. Years of consistency have fans thinking that anything is possible whenever Spieth has a tee time. But in 2026, it’s been strangely the same – the results have diminished. He’s only missed one cut in the last 12 months, and any bad weekends are followed by a solid week a few days later.
Take his T52 at the Truist Championship one week before his T18 at the PGA. Or his T63 at the Texas Open, followed by a T12 at the Masters.
If we look at these gains as stocks, when good form goes up on the chart, and bad form goes down, Spieth has become a very neutral stock. This one you have to hold on to because it doesn’t really go up, it doesn’t really go down. His worst rounds are not as bad as in previous years. But his best laps are also great. He has finished T11 or T12 four separate times this season, but has not posted zero top 10s. He has finished T18 twice.
When you crunch his numbers, you see a lot of good, a lot of little. And there’s really nothing wrong with it. Spieth is ranked 63rd in driving, 69th in approach, 61st in short game and 42nd in putting. That way you make lots of cuts but never threaten to win. It can be frustrating if the player stays on just above average is regularly shown on golf broadcasts. The previous version of Spieth would sometimes make all of his television coverage and featured teams totally worth it, getting a win or actually competing on the weekend.
We got that chance this week, after Spieth shot a 62 in Friday’s second round. He started his third round in the third-to-last group out, but was flat all day, finishing with a 73 and dropping from T7 to T39. A stock chart can tell you that he’s probably writing something in the mid-60s on Sunday, and when he does it will be another reminder: this is a stock to hold … for the long term. You cannot expect a quick rise and sale. It’s good and not so good right now, but the company promises that this is different. You just have to deal with the fast pace and trust the CEO.
“I’ve been pretty good for a long time,” Spieth said after that 62, clearly aware of his ups and downs. “I’ve been trying to revive it, then I compensate it and do what worked.
“In this last season I said that I will not compensate you anymore because, to be consistent, I have to get you back to a certain place, and it has been work since then to try to get there. It’s all about mechanics and health.”
