Jordan Spieth continued his return from injury with a solid – if a little erratic – opening round performance at The Players.
Spieth raced into an early lead with a birdie eagle start but then had a double bogey, two bogeys, another eagle and a birdie all before his opening nine was over.
The American is coming back off season ending wrist surgery in 2024 and Spieth missed out on the Arnold Palmer because of that.
However, despite a rollercoaster ride in the opening round at TPC Sawgrass, Spieth has spoken of how he now feels over his injury and ready to push on.
Jordan Spieth reacts to his own performance after round one of The Players
Speaking to the media immediately after coming in after round one, Jordan Spieth was asked just how he feels his game is right now and what’s working.
And according to Spieth, he feels very confident in what he’s doing as he stands over each shot.
“When I stand over it and I’m not trying to avoid things. Instead I’m picking a target and I’m very confident it’s going to start on that target and move to where I want it. So pretty much where most ever these guys are playing from, I would like to get there,” Spieth said.
“I’m doing a really good job of battling it. I had to kind of rebuild stuff from a few months of nothing, and it wasn’t like I was coming back to something that was already great right before. I was in some really bad habits for a year and a half.
“So it just takes maybe double the balls that I hit prior, and my wrist feels really good this week, I’m very excited about that, so that allows me to feel like I can go out right now and push it a bit, when I couldn’t the first few weeks, first few events of the season.”
Jordan Spieth explains ups and downs in his current golf game
Of course, coming back from injury and with such an up and down round, Spieth was always going to be quizzed on that rollercoaster ride.
But Spieth, sounding very experienced in his comments, admitted he was happy enough with where things are.
“I’m obviously very aware of what I’m doing. But, I mean, no, I mean, I feel like I’d like it to be boring, and then I’m still in a position right now where I’m still not at the place I want to be and just trying to work my way there.
“So when that happens there’s going to be volatility. I don’t feel super tight yet, but I do feel like I’m on the right path and I’ve had a number of tournaments where I’ve played boring towards the end and I’ve had plenty where there’s volatility too.
“This time it wasn’t from making a dumb mistake. I made a bad swing. So sometimes — that’s okay. A lot of the times when it happens it’s when I’m trying to do too much, and that’s when I’m aware of it and that’s the most frustrating one. Bad swing, you go learn how to make better swings.
“But I made good decisions until my second shot on the 9th today, and Pete Dye got me again. You just can’t — when you’re don’t have a wedge out of the fairway you have to take your medicine on these par-5s, play the angles and stuff like that. I probably lost a shot there, but overall it wasn’t — all the volatility was just in those first five, six holes and from there it was just almost and just close to being really good.”
Spieth will be hoping for a round of similar or better in round two as he looks to get himself in contention for the weekend.
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