Jordan Spieth is sputtering.
Rory McIlroy says his problems are all mental.
Jason Day showed he’s good enough even when he isn’t all that good to win a tournament like he did last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
What we have is unrest, a disturbance in The Force, chaos at the top, if you will.
This is all Tiger Woods’ fault. He ruled the World Golf Rankings for 281 straight weeks, 683 all total, which is more weeks than there are in 13 years, no matter how you do the math.
Spieth has been the world’s No. 1 for 26 weeks total, taking over for Day, who made it to the top last November.
Day’s victory at Bay Hill moved him to No. 2, past McIlroy and within .374 of a point of Spieth and that’s close no matter how you cut your club sandwich.
We are three weeks from The Masters and when you look at them closely, all three of these guys have issues.
Spieth first.
Day said even he is concerned for Spieth, not sure why he would be but he said he is last Tuesday at Bay Hill:
“I’m worried about him because I don’t know if he’s playing too much and he’s doing too many things with golf and sponsor obligations that he might be burned out and go through a rut where he doesn’t want to be on the golf course for a while.”
Ah, the power of suggestion. You are a tricky young man, Jason Day.
Day next.
Yes, he got the win at Bay Hill but he was darn lucky on Sunday. First, his iron game was trash. He had a driving range second shot into the par five sixth that wasn’t close. SPLASH! Right into the John Daly Memorial Lake. It was worse at the 16th with the tournament on the line. He launched a 343-yard drive, had just 175 in and missed the green with a seven-iron, again, left. Didn’t get it up-and-down and left the easiest hole on the course with a par.
He made up for it with an incredible tee shot at 17 within 12-feet and clutched that birdie putt in the hole. More slop at 18 and he saved himself after a wayward three-wood tee shot and another sloppy approach. Good news is he turned into Tiger Woods in time to make a world-class sand shot that saved par and the title.
Memo to the rest of the PGA Tour: Jason Day is now besties with Tiger Woods. Woods is texting Day more than he used to text his harem of girlfriends. “Everything I can ask, I ask straight up,” Day told anyone willing to listen.
Ah, the old text-line mentorship. Thanks Tiger.
And now for Mr. McIlroy.
Rory couldn’t decide what he was at Bay Hill — world-class player or three-handicapper? How about: 75-67-75-65?
“It’s more mental,” is how McIlroy explains his Bay Hill Jekyll-Hyde routine. “I’m beating myself up over mistakes that I’m making on the course, and then I’m not letting myself get over it so that it sort of lingers there for the next few holes.”
So there’s Rory’s take.
Let’s cap this with a quick review of each player’s performance in calendar 2016 to date.
Jordan Spieth: Five events — won the Tournament of Champions on January 10 then went to hell in a handbasket: T21 at Pebble Beach, missed cut at Riviera, T17 at Doral and T18 at the Valspar where he was the defending champion.
Jason Day: Five events — T10 at Tournament of Champions, missed cut at Torrey Pines (Farmers), T11 at Pebble Beach, T23 at Doral and won last week at Bay Hill.
Rory McIlroy: Four events — T20 at Riviera, missed cut at Honda, T3 at Doral and T27 at Bay Hill.
There is no order to this New World Order.
No wonder Tiger Woods thinks he can mount a comeback.
