Sad: Jordan Spieth is running out of magic

Jordan Spieth almost perfectly summed up what it’s like watching him try to recapture the form that saw him win three major titles before the tender age of 23.

“I believe I can shoot 5- or 6-under each day out here,” Spieth told Nick Piastowski of Golf.comat the 2023 Sony Open. “Not to say that that means it’ll happen, but there are other times I would be sitting there going, how do I hold this shit together, to be honest.”

Unfortunately for the 30-year-old, the last few seasons have been a far cry from the brilliant form at the start of his career, with more scenes of struggling to “hold this shit together” than scores of 5- or 6-under. Perhaps a return to links golf for this week’s Open Championship at Royal Troon will bring Spieth back to a better time. However, the underlying numbers don’t paint a rosy picture ahead of Thursday’s first round.

If a golfer laboring to find form is said to be ‘lost in the wilderness,’ consider Spieth deep in the forest with little more than a pocket knife and his trusty caddie, Michael Greller, helping him get back to civilization. With his missed cut last week at the Scottish Open, Spieth has finished at least 13 shots behind the winning score in 16 straight tournaments.

There are still flashes from the once boy wonder, recently a third-round 63 at the John Deere Classic. But it seems like a fool’s errand to expect Spieth to keep things together for a 72-hole event.

Spieth won ten times from 2014 until the end of 2017, including claiming three major titles. He opened the 2018 season as the world’s No. 2 ranked player but fell outside the top 40 two years later. Spieth’s plummet eventually reached the 90s before he appeared to be back in decent form last season. Despite ending the year at No. 15, that number represented a bit of a mirage with LIV Golf members not accruing points in their events. Spieth has dropped to No. 32 this year, with the analytics website Data Golf listing him at No. 57 on their rankings.