Jordan Spieth compiled a really tidy round at the Valero Texas Open on Thursday.
His five under-par 67 leaves him in tied fourth spot, four shots adrift of Valero Texas Open leader Sam Ryder.
The past few years have been a real grind for Jordan Spieth. The 31-year-old Texan hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since April 2022, and he has been ‘major-less’ since he won The Open at Royal Birkdale way back in 2017.
Incredibly, Spieth had won three legs of the Grand Slam by the time he was just 23.
And whilst he will have to wait until next month for another crack at completing the Grand Slam, he will have a chance to become a four-time major champion at The Masters in just six day’s time.
Jordan Spieth has the best career scoring average at The Masters out of any current player, and with that in mind, something he has just said really is very exciting indeed.
Jordan Spieth shares what happened on the range before Valero Texas Open
All eyes are on the Dallas native heading into next week’s Masters.
However, there is a job to be done at TPC San Antonio first and foremost. A win at the Valero Texas Open would be the ideal preparation for Jordan heading to Augusta National.
Despite the fact that he’s four shots behind first round leader Sam Ryder, he is right in this golf tournament.
And Spieth lifted the lid on a potential reason as to why he played so solid at TPC San Antonio:
“Yeah, it was maybe more yesterday where it started to get close, and I was saying today before my warmup was good, it was even an improvement off yesterday,“ Spieth explained. “I kind of thought maybe I need three or four practice days still. So if I can go to the golf course and maintain what I have and then go improve on what I’m trying to do the next few days next week, then I think I’m going to be in a really good spot.
“I drove the ball really, really well. Especially after the first hole could have rattled me a little bit, I hit a 3-wood right of the cart path and then I made bogey and missed a five-footer there. So between tee balls and putting, it was like, oh, man, tough start. Then I really turned it around from there. So yeah, it’s been — I’ve been grinding a lot and I got a big stretch coming up, so I was trying to get as ready as I could before it starts.“
Jordan Spieth explains what he needs to ‘tighten up’ ahead of Augusta
Spieth shared with reporters how happy he was with his first-round 67 out in San Antonio.
However, he responded when asked if there is anything that he would like to improve on further still:
“Yeah, I thought it was really solid. I put in a lot of work from Tampa and I thought that maybe my finish there didn’t quite show how I was actually playing. But I improved a lot week to week in what I needed to in some of my scoring clubs and approach play, which is important going into next week obviously.
“I’m just trying to get better and better with that. I need to tighten up the scoring clubs, like some of my wedges, just a little bit more, and there’s a couple shot choices, but all in all I’m very pleased.
This is a hard golf course, and we’ve got good conditions so it was nice to take advantage of that. I think this will be maybe the easiest that we see it for the week.“
In general, Jordan Spieth’s game seems to be in pretty solid shape, and don’t be surprised if he contends at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday, before challenging at Augusta National next week.
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