Jordan Spieth springs a surprise at the Players Championship with one part of his game ‘the worst’ it’s been since his return

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When Jordan Spieth finished in a tie for fourth at the WM Phoenix Open, it was hard not to get a little excited about the prospect of the three-time major champion actually getting back towards his best.

Jordan Spieth was always likely to need some time to get up to speed following his return from injury. It has been some time since the 31-year-old has been one of the best players in the world – and his style seemed to completely change as his wrist became more and more troublesome.

So, such an impressive showing at TPC Scottsdale seemed to be extremely encouraging. However, as time has gone on, it would appear that Spieth actually just had further success at a tournament where he has played well previously.

A top 10 at the Cognizant Classic was also an impressive result. However, he missed the cut at the Genesis Invitational, while he finished 59th at the Players Championship this past week.

Jordan Spieth endures disappointing week at the Players Championship

Admittedly, Spieth has never had the most impressive record at TPC Sawgrass anyway. But any hopes of surgery last year providing a miracle fix for the 2015 Masters champion appear to have been dashed.

Speaking on Golf Channel, Paige MacKenzie admitted that she really expected to see a little more from Spieth, with his most recent display particularly alarming.

“I actually am surprised by what I’m seeing. I think the good results are great, and given the rust that we would’ve expected coming back from surgery, back from the injury, I think that’s brilliant, bright spots in Jordan Spieth’s resume for this season,” she said.

“I would say the only area that I’m still just slightly concerned about, and I remember talking about this early in the season when we started to see some improvements in the ball-striking, I thought okay, well is good, because now the driving is correlating with greens in regulation, which is how it should be – the more you’re in the fairway, the more likely you’re going to hit the green. What we’ve seen since WM Phoenix Open is a reverting back to the 2024 that we saw. So strokes gained approach this season, and this is where we saw a lot of trouble with Jordan Spieth last year, which I attributed to the fact that he was injured. When you’re hitting the ground, that’s when you can have some inconsistency.

“But, outside of the WM Phoenix Open, we’re seeing negative strokes gained approach this season. And 132nd on tour with the Players being the worst of the bunch from what we have seen from Jordan Spieth. In that way, I’m disappointed because I really was hopeful that the negative strokes gained approach that we saw last season was entirely due to the injury, and that, perhaps this season we would see some of that good driving that we saw last year translate to the iron play as well. But we have not seen that consistency yet week-in and week-out.”

How Jordan Spieth has performed on the PGA Tour since his return

It is still early in the season, but Spieth will be a little concerned that he is not excelling in any particular area right now.

His best performances are coming off the tee – with the American 39th on the PGA Tour in that category – and around the green, where he is 33rd.

The good news is that Spieth has won the Valspar Championship in the past. In fact, that victory came back in 2015 shortly before he won his first major at the Masters.

Augusta National has been the site of some of Spieth’s greatest moments so far, with six top five finishes over the years.

So perhaps he will be optimistic that the turning point is just around the corner. It already feels as if he needs it.