Jordan Spieth has noticed a change about Oakmont during practice round as he warns what the ‘biggest challenge’ will be

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While it would be foolish to write Jordan Spieth off at any tournament in which he tees it up, it is incredibly difficult to imagine the three-time major champion contending at the US Open this week.

Jordan Spieth has been incredibly inconsistent since making his return to the PGA Tour this year. The 31-year-old registered his first top 10 in a signature event or major at The Memorial Tournament, but he has only missed one cut since the end of February.

He is, of course, a past champion at the US Open, with Spieth winning in 2015. However, that remains his only top 10 in the event. He has also missed the cut at the US Open on more occasions than any other major.

Spieth finished tied for 37th the last time the US Open was held at Oakmont in 2016. And it is going to take a huge effort for the former world number one to end his wait for a top 10 in the coming days.

Jordan Spieth suggests the biggest challenge at Oakmont after playing a practice round ahead of the US Open

But he has made sure to get to the course nice and early, with Spieth among those who got a practice round in on Sunday.

And speaking to Golf Channel, Spieth explained his assessment of the golf course.

“It magnifies once you make a mistake, if you don’t play the right shot, that’s when it will magnify it. It’s not like making a mistake is the end of the world. It may cost you half a shot to just get back in the fairway up a little further than where you would have hit a good tee ball, and you just have to take what it gives you,” he said.

“The second you try to force more, the bunker lips seem a little higher than they were before, so maybe they’re not quite as good of a miss. There’s some more added in, they’re shaped a bit differently. And the rough’s high. We played high rough at Muirfield where if you hit it in it, you were unlikely to be able to reach the green, so it was nice having that a couple of weeks ago.

“But this test here, because they give you more runway to try and run it up to greens, it entices you to think you can do more than you should. And that will be the biggest challenge this week, that swallowing the pride. Bogeys don’t hurt you, anything more will. And they give you some wedges in your hand too. Some risk-reward around this place, even a couple of times on the back nine. So there’s stretches where you can make some birdies, but you’ve got to avoid the compound mistakes for sure.”

How Jordan Spieth has performed in the US Open during his career

It is hard to know what to make of Spieth’s form in recent years given that he was dealing with such a problematic wrist injury. He is still awaiting a first PGA Tour victory since 2022 right now.

However, his struggles in the US Open go back a lot further. One of his best finishes came when he ended up in a tie for 21st as the low amateur in 2012. Since winning, he has only one better finish than that effort 13 years ago.

The good news is that he is inside the top 25 on the PGA Tour for strokes gained off the tee this year. Hitting fairways is going to be so important this week.

The Jordan Spieth Experience is built on the idea that he will somehow escape with a respectable score from almost anywhere on the golf course. If there was one week where he could do with leaving the full experience at home, it is surely this one.