Jordan Spieth wasn’t just human at Plainfield Country Club on Thursday, he was downright horrible.
Surely this wasn’t the Jordan Spieth we’ve seen all season. On the front nine at Plainfield, his final nine of the day, Spieth crashed and burned on his way to an unheard of 40, that’s six-over par for those nine holes.
Spieth would end up with 74 for his first round, his worst score to par of the 2015 season and you would have never known it was coming based on his early action. Spieth birdied his first hole of the day, the 10th, added another at 16 and turned his first nine two-under with a 34 on that back nine.
But things really came unraveled over his final nine. He had five bogeys, a double-bogey at the par-three third where he hit his tee shot in the water, and a single birdie coming at the fourth hole. In all, it added up to a 40.
“After the tee shots, this is the worst round I’ve played in years,” said Spieth, who hit 11 of 14 fairways on the day. “There was some poor decision making. A very unique round for this year. I made a couple of mistakes that I don’t make,” Spieth said matter-of-factly after his round. “It was a weird round,” Spieth added.
Spieth is in danger of missing the 36-hole cut. He was nine shots in back of early leader and playing partner Bubba Watson, who opened with a five-under par 65.
“The course doesn’t fit me,” Spieth went on. “But I’ve won on courses that don’t fit me.”
If Spieth misses the cut, he’ll lose his No. 1 ranking in the world to Rory McIlroy, who is skipping this first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Spieth didn’t sound anything like a player fearing the cut.
“I’ll do what I do best,” he said, “bounce back.”
