Jordan Spieth continues to trend in the right direction.
Last week at Colonial, he bagged his first top 10 of the season. Yes, it’s been that bad of a year for Jordy so far.
On Thursday at The Memorial, he really turned up the heat.
Spieth, playing with Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, ran circles around his playing partners. The high-profile threesome started on the back nine, a group in front of Tiger Woods and Spieth rattled off four birdies to start his day, turning in 32. Spieth added another birdie at the third then got to seven-under for the round when he holed a 36-foot eagle putt at the par five fifth. His only hiccup came at the par three eighth when he failed to get up-and-down for par from a greenside bunker.
All-in-all, a spectacular day for Spieth who finished with 66 and was just a shot behind first round leader Ryan Moore.
“One of those days I didn’t necessarily play like a six-under score, but it was still a really solid day,” Spieth said. “I hit almost all the fairways, maybe missed one or two of them, and from there was able to get it on the greens. If I wasn’t, I was in a pretty good place most of the time. And then the putter was what I like to see. In the last few weeks I’ve been putting pretty well. I made a long one today and kind of knocked all the ones in that I should have made.”
Spieth beat McIlroy (75) by nine shots and Thomas (71) by five.
Last week at Colonial Spieth started with rounds of 65-70 and his Saturday 68 put him in position to contend on Sunday but he’s had problems on the weekends and his closing 72 left him in a tie for eighth.
Tournament host Jack Nicklaus has noticed Spieth’s struggles:
“You feel bad for the guy. I felt bad for him for some of his play, but I think his work ethic and desire to win and play is there and when you have that, well he will do fine,” Nicklaus said. “Jordan is trying to make some adjustments in his swing. He’s been trying this for about a year. He is paying the pains of it a little bit, but he will be better off in the end for it.”
He was better off on Thursday, for sure.
2 Comments
BobO
At Colonial he had his 2nd top ten. He was T-3 at PGA Championship. Just sayin
Tom Edrington
Correct, I’m so focused on the US Open that the PGA is that far in my rear view mirror, you’re correct…..we were so enamored with Koepka, I know DJ finished second after that, it’s a blur.