Jordan Spieth not among the top five picks to win the 118th U.S. Open?
Maybe not even in the top 10?
There’s good reason that the 2015 U.S. Open champion is flying waaaay below the radar.
How about that missed cut in his last outing — The Memorial?
How about a T21 in Fort Worth, a T32 at the Nelson and his T41 at The Players?
How about no wins for Spieth this season?
It’s all in black and white when you look at his statistics.
He’s 98th in driving accuracy, 72nd in distance. Short and crooked sucks.
Here’s where it gets really ugly — 170th in putting. Seriously? In Spieth’s world, he lives and dies by the flat stick.
He’s 190th in Strokes Gained Putting, 161st in three-putt avoidance and 118th in one-putt percentage.
Get the picture?
You look at those stats and figure Spieth would be doing well to make the cut at Shinnecock.
Spieth sounded undaunted when he met with the media on Tuesday. At least there still some semblance of confidence.
“Everyone goes through peaks and valleys of results in any part of your game, and I just got a little off in setup,” he pointed out. “I’m really starting to bring it back now. It feels very good.
“In between Austin and Houston was a really big weekend for me of settling down and getting back on the right track with things and recognizing that it’s a long career and results aren’t going to come by wanting them to come,” he said. “They’re going to come by being obsessed with the process, getting back to the basics, being an athlete, figuring out the swing, the intricacies of the game.
“I feel like my game is in the best shape it’s been in a long time, and my results don’t necessarily speak to that. But I feel that way, and so I’ll stick with the process, and they’ll surely come at some point.”
The question is when?
Spieth has looked absolutely lost on the greens the past two months and that doesn’t sit well with what’s in front of him this week.
He’s had his instructor — Cameron McCormick — on site at Shinnecock this week, trying to put some life back into Spieth’s game.
Good news is that Spieth is ranked second on the PGA Tour in Greens In Regulation.
But the way the putter’s been acting, perhaps he should have Harry Potter in place of McCormick.
