PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Jordan Spieth was coming off four straight birdies Friday at The Players Championship when he turned to thousands of fans along for the ride and asked them a question that summed up why he rarely lacks for entertainment.
“Did anyone see where that went?” he said.
His hard draw turned into a hook and hit a tree on the par-5 second hole, and he was fortunate it bounced away from a forest and into short grass just 200 yards away. Instead of having a chance to reach in two, he hit 7-iron back into position and 8-iron short of the green.
And then he holed a 50-foot putt for his fifth straight birdie.
This is the essence of the “Spieth experience,” and it was full on before a large crowd that witnessed a little bit of everything in the second round. But it ended the same way it did on Thursday — a double bogey — that made him settle for a 4-under 68 and left him in the middle of the pack.
“It was just a bummer, both days finish with doubles,” Spieth said. “I just played better than that.”
So much of that work came undone on his final hole at the par-5 ninth — another pull off the tee into the woods, a tree restricting his back swing that forced him to punch out, a 3-hybrid hooked so badly to the left he hit a provisional in case he couldn't find it, a shot from the pine straw that came up short and bounced back into the bunker, a lip-out from 6 feet for double bogey.
He made seven birdies, hit three trees, made two long putts from off the green and twice had to ask the gallery for help finding his golf ball.
“It was really good. I’ve been playing really well, trying to let the course come to me,” Spieth said. "It's not quite there yet, but it’s, like, close enough to where I can do what I did today for a while. Just kind of stinks because to finish like that ... some days you wonder if you shot one stroke worse but you finished with a birdie if you would actually be happier.
“It’s a weird deal, weird game.”
It's his life at the moment. Behind him is wrist surgery in August 2024 that he thinks cost him six years because he tried for too long to treat it with rest and therapy. He has been out of the top 50 in the world since July. He is not eligible for the U.S. Open yet.
The game is there, just not always, and certainly throughout the entire round. It seems something is bound to happen at some point, and it was like that Friday.
He closed out the back nine with three straight birdies, including that enormous break when his tee shot was headed well right and caromed off a tree into the fairway. He hit that to 6 feet. Then came a wedge to 3 feet on No. 1, and the birdie on No. 2 from that 50-foot putt to make it five in a row.
And then he missed a 4-foot birdie putt. Go figure.
The real drama came on No. 6 when Spieth tugged his tee shot toward a bunker without seeing the white puff of sand.
“Anyone over here see it land?” he said to the gallery.
Turns out it was embedded into the bank of the grass. After a free drop, his wedge from an awkward lie hit the thick of a palm tree and plopped into the fairway. His pitch was too short and didn't reach the green. He used putter to hole that from 30 feet.
The Spieth experience.
“The goal was to play 7 and 8 normal golf,” Spieth said, a rare choice of words for him. “Don't play weird golf like I played on 6, just normal golf ... fairways and greens, and then try to attack the par 5. So yeah, I did my job on 7 and 8 there.”
And then came the ninth, another tree, another double bogey to finish his round, and more frustration. He was the co-leader after 54 holes in his TPC Sawgrass debut in 2014, and he hasn't been better than a tie for 19th since then.
“The last two or three tournaments, just feels like things are getting better and better each week,” he said. “This place has gotten the best of me in the past, and I let it get the best of me a couple times this week already. That cost me probably four shots, so hopefully it’s not too much to make up.”
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