It’s often said about good, smart golf that you want to be boring: center of the fairway, center of the green, two-putt, maybe one falls.
As you probably know, Jordan Spieth does not play that kind of golf.
Spieth started his third round at the Valspar Championship about as good as he could have asked for, hitting an iron at the par-5 to eight feet and converting the look for eagle and moving into a share of the lead.
Insight, a jab and disaster: This Jordan Spieth-Michael Greller exchange is the best
Then, in classic Spieth fashion, he missed two of the next three greens but got up and down each time as overnight leader Adam Schenk made bogey behind him to give the 13-time PGA Tour winner the lead alone.
While playing his fifth hole, the colorful Texan gave us fans another classic “Spieth-ism.”
Even after pounding his drive 298 yards — the longest of the day on the nearly 600-yard par-5 — Spieth still had 283, uphill around the dogleg to the hole. Instead of doing what all but three other players did on Saturday and layup, Spieth grabbed the big stick again to go for the green.
The 29-year-old roasted a low draw right at the flag. The ball ended up settling into the upslope of the front left greenside bunker, but right in front of the pin.
Spieth walked after his ball immediately, but when he crested the hill and started to get a view of the green, he turned back in shock to caddie Michael Greller.
“Oh wow!” Spieth exclaimed. “I had the wrong line by a mile.”
He was probably trying to use the slope to the right of the green to swing his ball onto the putting surface. Now he was faced with a short-sided, downhill bunker shot.
But this is Jordan Spieth we’re talking about. The Texan launched his sandy straight into the air and watched as it plopped down just short of the hole like a sack of flour. It trickled out just past six feet, which he made to take a two-shot lead at the time.
Routine birdie, nothing to see here.
With Spieth hunting for his first title since last spring, it’s a good bet this won’t be the end of his eccentrics for the week.