The 2025 Masters will mark a decade since Jordan Spieth confirmed his status as a potential superstar by winning his first major title at Augusta National.
It has been a difficult few years for Jordan Spieth. The 31-year-old has not won on the PGA Tour since the 2022 RBC Heritage. And any hopes that dealing with his troublesome wrist injury will lead to a dramatic upturn in form appear to have been dashed at the start of 2025.
It is more than seven years since Spieth’s most recent major win. Between 2015 and 2017, the Texan moved to within a PGA Championship victory of completing the career grand slam.
Of course, the large part of that work came at the start of 2015, with Spieth winning The Masters and the US Open two months later. It appeared to be a sign that the PGA Tour may have found their next Tiger Woods.
The tournament where Jordan Spieth played the best golf of his career
Spieth’s career has never hit the same heights since, unfortunately. But, it turns out, that the American has played at an even higher level than he did at the start of the 2015 major season.
Speaking on the On the Mark Podcast in 2024, Spieth explained how he played even better than he had done during his first two visits to Augusta National – with his first ending in a second place finish to Bubba Watson in 2014.
“That month was some of the best golf I’ve ever played. I finished second in San Antonio, followed it up with the loss in a playoff in Houston, and then won at Augusta. It was just a continuation of tightening things up from what was already really good from the previous two weeks, regardless of where I was going to be at. And I just tried to use the year before as a learning tool,” he said when discussing 2015.
“I needed a little more patience on Sunday [in 2014], I needed to hole a few more putts. I had a few decent looks against Bubba that could have put the pressure on in ’14 that I missed on the par fives. And I thought keep your head down; just because you had the lead through seven or eight holes on Sunday at Augusta doesn’t mean you won’t lose it by number 10, which is what happened in ’14.
“And so, that just kept me very patient that to continue into the back nine, to not look ahead until I got to, really, 17 green. 16, I made a big putt to avoid a two-shot swing with Justin Rose.
“I think the best golf I ever played was actually Tiger’s event about five months prior. That was at Isleworth. That was probably the best single week of golf I’ve ever played. I had the ball on a string, I was putting great. Between there and Hawaii in early 2016, those were the two where I separated from the field and didn’t think twice about it.”
How Tiger Woods reacted to Jordan Spieth’s performance at the 2014 Hero World Challenge
Admittedly, the Hero World Challenge is hardly the most prestigious event on the calendar. There is usually a limited number of players in the field, and more recently, it has taken place at a time of the year when none of the participants are playing regularly.
Nevertheless, Spieth made a real statement with his win in 2014. Not only did he produce the record score of 26 under par, but he also won by the largest margin in the tournament’s history – 10 shots.
And speaking after his final round that week, Tiger Woods explained how impressed he had been by Spieth’s performance.
“25 under is pretty low, isn’t it? I think that’s probably the lowest I’ve ever gone. I think I’ve gone 25 twice: I did it in I think Thailand and maybe Ireland. Ireland or England. One of the two. One of the American Express Championships,” he said.
“But what he’s doing out here is pretty impressive. I know he won here not too long ago. Hard to believe he was only in college a couple years ago, but he ended up winning out here, and he’s doing it again this week.”
Ultimately, few people are going to talk too much about Spieth’s performance in the 2014 Hero World Challenge when his career comes to an end.
However, as things stand, it is definitely a significant win in his career at a time when he is trying to fight his way back to the top of the game.
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