Jordan Spieth made the same mistake four times in the second round at the Valero Texas Open.
Spieth bogeyed the first hole of the tournament on Thursday, but six birdies followed, and he handed in an excellent five-under-par 67.
But with Brian Harman shooting a second consecutive 66 to get to 12 under before the weekend, Spieth really needed another solid round on Friday to stay within reach.
Unfortunately, he could only manage a one-over 73 after making some costly errors on the back nine.
Jordan Spieth’s chipping let him down at Valero Texas Open
Spieth’s short game is up there with the best on the PGA Tour, perhaps alongside Hideki Matsuyama and Shane Lowry.
However, he hit four poor chip shots from the rough at the Valero Texas Open, and it probably cost him his chance of winning the tournament.
The three-time major champion was understandably “frustrated” at his mistakes, which, strangely, were more about misjudgment than poor execution.
“I didn’t play very well today by any means,” Spieth told the media after the second round. “I had less control of the ball and was hanging in there for a little while on my front nine.
“I lost four shots chipping from this rough around the greens on the last nine holes. Each one, it’s like, well, it could jump or it could… felt like I was just picking heads or tails and just losing each one. Chips felt fine and just came out completely different from what I thought. Sometimes that happens, the shorter the rough, the weirder the situation, versus if it’s thick, you know exactly what you’ve got to do.
“So that’s really incredibly frustrating because it’s like those are… they’re right there. Yeah, those last three holes playing out of the fairway, reachable par 5 off the tee box, reachable par 5 and a pretty good number at the last, knowing that the lead’s going to be somewhere around 10 under, I really felt like I needed to get to 7 to have a chance.
“I’ve got to get better at closing these rounds out on Fridays. I had the same problem happen in Tampa. It’s not like a trend or anything; they just were random things each day, and this one happened to be misjudging chips, which is normally a specialty of mine.
“I’m just a little, you know, how do you feel when you’re on a bad run of cards and like, man, on the last hole I’m like, surely this is going to jump a little bit and run, and then that one spins. I just never would have guessed it would spin. Misjudging them stinks.”
Jordan Spieth needs Brian Harman to collapse at Valero Texas Open
Harman’s (-12) 36-hole lead at the Valero Texas Open is four shots to in-form Keith Mitchell (-8), with Matt Wallace, Sam Ryder and Rio Hisatsune at seven-under.
It’s too early to say that the tournament is Harman’s to lose, but the 2023 Open Champion is certainly the heavy favorite to win at this stage.
The likes of Patrick Cantlay (-6), Jordan Spieth (-4) and Rickie Fowler (-4) can surely only win the tournament if he struggles over the weekend.
If Harman does falter, however, it should make for an excellent showdown on Sunday with so many top players within close proximity of Mitchell.
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