Seven-and-a-half years ago, Jordan Spieth watched from the best seat in the house as good buddy Justin Thomas tore up Waialae for a 59 at the Sony Open. Spieth was paired with Thomas that day.
Exactly two weeks ago, Spieth again had a front row seat for history when he was paired with Cameron Young as he set fire to TPC River Highlands for another 59.
On Saturday at TPC Deere Run, Spieth himself had it going. He was eight under through 12 holes of his third round at the John Deere Classic and sitting pretty in the 13th fairway with a wedge in his hand. Four more birdies over his last six holes and Spieth would finally get to celebrate his own sub-60 round.
Spieth did not seemed primed for a 59 run this week. The three-time major champ is still searching for his first win since the 2022 RBC Heritage, and this season he hasn’t really come close. After recording three top-10s earlier in the year, he hasn’t finished better than T29 since he missed the cut at the Masters in April. He’s fallen out of the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking and currently is outside the all-important top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings, which would make him exempt for all of next year’s Signature Events.
But Saturday morning, Spieth was the Spieth of old as he poured in eight birdies in the first 12 holes, making more than 100 feet of putts. He was tied for the lead as the 36-hole leaders were just about to get their rounds started
Then on 13, he piped a driver down the fairway, leaving him just 109 yards from the center of the short stuff.
He and caddie Michael Greller discussed the second shot for more than a minute.
“You worried 56 [-degree wedge] is gonna be too much?” the caddie asked.
“Yeah,” Spieth said. “But I don’t know if the wind is at if it’s still — I got room to land it behind it where it’s flatter right?”
Given the soft greens at TPC Deere Run, Spieth and Greller were concerned if hitting a full wedge into the wind would cause the ball to spin back too far, maybe 20 feet short of the hole. That would be fine in most cases, but Spieth had fewer holes to play than his co-leaders on a very getable course. He needed more birdies.
They eventually settled on hitting a flighted 52-degree wedge beyond the pin and hoped it would spin back toward the hole.
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One practice swing. Two. Three. Four.
Spieth shrugged his shoulders.
“15-ball right?” he asked Greller one more time.
“Yup.”
They were playing it at 115 yards.
The ball was in the air 10 seconds later, but Spieth immediately turned back in disgust as soon as his club stopped moving.
“Sorry, Michael.”
Dead pull. The ball took off left and landed long. Short-sided to the front left pin. Spieth didn’t get his third on the green and had to settle for a momentum-killing bogey.
He made just one more birdie on the round, on the par-5 17th — with his eagle putt coming up just a roll shy — and got to the clubhouse at 14 under after a 63, his best round on the PGA Tour since last August.
But by the time the leaders got midway through their back nines Saturday, Spieth was already six shots back of leader Davis Thompson and outside the top 10 again.
After his round, Spieth broke down the decision on 13.
“The softness of the greens made it a really bad number. I took a club that could go 15, 20 yards further than the number and try and take 20 off. Those are just unusual shots, but they’re shots I need to have for the next two weeks as well and shots that you need here,” he said. “And so instead of kind of playing safe and spinning it back to 20 feet short, I said, ‘I get better if I take one more club.’
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“If I hit a good shot, great, and I became better. If I didn’t, if I don’t and miss-execute, I stand by my decision.
“That’s what I said when I got over there. I was in jail. I was happy that I chose to hit probably the less safe shot, the more challenging shot, but the one that can get pin high and stay there. Just a bad number and poorly executed chipping wedge. But it was really tough number to have.”
As Spieth gets set for two weeks of links golf at the Scottish Open and Open Championship, he figured being able to control flight and spin was paramount. And part of that prep was ensuring he could execute those kinds of shots under some pressure in the Quad Cities.
He didn’t pull it off Saturday, but now he has some competitive reps to work on as he tries to regain his winning form.
