Jordan Spieth took off his golf shoes, removed his socks, rolled up his pants and walked carefully into a troublesome area off the par-5 11th hole during the second round of the Memorial on Friday.
Eventually, as he tried to balance in the muck, he conceded: “I don’t know how deep this water is. I think the water is too deep, Michael,” Spieth said.
Spieth’s decision to drop instead of trying to play the hero shot from the penalty area paid off — he still made par.
“I took the drop because I couldn’t get a stance,” said Spieth, after he signed for a three-under 69 on Friday. “The creek’s too deep so I couldn’t actually stand in the water. Also I could reach the green, which was a big reason why I took a drop. If I took a drop I could still reach the green, and if I were to chip out I was only going to get 20, 30 yards out of it.”
On Friday, the 11th at Muirfield Village was an eventful one for Spieth, who often finds himself in these eventful situations.
He drove it left near the water, but it got caught up on the bank. He thought about playing it but eventually elected to drop and hit 3 from the fairway. He had 268 yards to the hole but hit it right of the green into the spectators and near the cart path and out-of-bounds area.
Luckily his ball landed just short of a tree, so he hit a nifty pitch to 5 feet and drained the putt for par.
“I’m not sure how he did it,” an analyst said on the broadcast, “but he did. He made par.”
“I got really lucky on the lie I had after the third,” Spieth said. “It was sitting really nicely, and if it had gone another yard I couldn’t have hit it high because I would have been under the tree. The lie was good and the greens were a little softer. So all in all it was a really good save, just to not have to make a long putt or anything.”
The par on 11 allowed Spieth to stay even on the day, and he went on a run to close his round, making four birdies in his last six to shoot up the leaderboard. He’s three under through 36 holes and tied for fifth, four back of co-leaders Nick Taylor and Ben Griffin.
You can watch the third round of the Memorial from 2-5:30 p.m. ET on Golf Channel, with CBS taking over the coverage from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Spieth is paired with Tom Hoge and tees off at 2:37 p.m. ET on Saturday.
