PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Jordan Spieth had afternoon plans.
After his opening 70 at The Players Championship, he was planning to spend some time on the range to ensure that the errant driving day he experienced Thursday was just an anomaly. At a place that demands accuracy and precision, Spieth found just five fairways at TPC Sawgrass but – as usual – nearly got away with it, pitching in twice for eagle to give him a rare good start at a tournament that has befuddled him like no other.
“Been driving the ball pretty well,” Spieth said of the past six weeks. “Today was not one of those days, so I’ll go try to tighten it up and hit more fairways tomorrow.”
And that was the most promising sign of all, the extra work, which was no longer a given, of course, after wrist surgery last fall.
This is just his fourth tournament appearance of the new year. There have been some good moments, the two top-10s in Phoenix and South Florida. But there have been other times when his wrist locked up while blasting out of a bunker or ached after hacking out of juicy rough.
Nothing serious. But just enough to make him look forward to a respite.
Spieth was quick to point out that, even with some promising results early, he was not close to where he eventually wants to be. After all, he’s emerging from a two-year dip when he didn’t know how his left wrist would feel on a daily basis. He got into bad habits. Played away from pain. Lacked consistency.
“I had to rebuild stuff from a few months of nothing,” he said, “and it wasn’t like I was coming back to something that was already great right before.”
It’ll take thousands of balls to bed in the changes he wants to make with coach Cameron McCormick – but at least now he feels as though he can actually do the work.
“My wrist feels really good this week,” he said. “I’m very excited about that, so that allows me to feel like I can go out right now and push it a bit, when I couldn’t the first few events of the season.”
Of course, Spieth also had an unexpected week off last week as well.
Needing sponsor exemptions to play in the Tour’s signature events after failing to crack the top 50 last year, Spieth got two free passes early but was bypassed for a spot last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. One of the Tour’s needle-movers, Spieth was clearly miffed, telling reporters two weeks ago that, apparently, he needed to “play better injured golf.”
Spieth took off one day last week, eager and healthy enough to practice and play, and he said he didn’t find it difficult to watch the slugfest unfold at Bay Hill without him.
“I didn’t earn my way into the event, so it’s a little easier to watch that way,” he said.
Not like when he didn’t advance through the postseason last season, he said. That distills the entire season into one make-or-break event. Has real ramifications for the following year.
“That stung more,” he said. “This one, you can’t really rely on getting in. You have to play your way in for certainty.”
Hence the post-round trip to the range, to iron out a few things. Moving forward, he’d prefer his game remove any doubt.
