Jordan Spieth didn’t catch fire like he’d have wanted at The Truist Championship this week and now Smylie Kaufman has told the three-time major champion what he needs to be doing if he’s to be in contention for the PGA Championship.
The PGA lands at Quail Hollow for the first time since 2017 and a whole host of players are in good form going into the tournament.
Big names like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas are all playing well, while both Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are in good form from the LIV side of things.
Of course, Jordan Spieth is another big name who’ll be keen to do well. But with his form patchy at best right now, he’s hard to back in the betting as he chases the career grand slam.
And now, Smylie Kaufman has insisted that for Spieth to have a chance, the handbrake has got to come off.
Smylie Kaufman tells Jordan Spieth how he can win the PGA Championship
Kaufman has been speaking about Spieth on the latest episode of his Smylie Show podcast and got onto just what sort of chance Spieth has.
The American is without a win in three years now and according to Kaufman, it’s high time Spieth let things go a bit.
“He’s swinging it good enough to be able to contend. I think the belief just has to be there, just to take the hands off the steering wheel and just just try not to overwork yourself. This week, getting ready, the golf swing is there. It’s going to be about him going out and just trusting it and just knowing that, hey, my stuff is there,” Kaufman said.
“Let’s go and try to literally just not think about it quite as much. I think his brain has been turned on for quite some time, just in his in his way, working back to this, this golf swing that he’s been chasing, he says it is video wise, is as close to where it was back in 2017 and some of the other older videos that he’s been chasing, so it’s starting to match up on camera.
“But I think at times he kind of gets in that, in that, in that mode of, is it quite there? And like, well, one or two bad swings kind of derail the confidence to where he can’t put that aside and then just go play the next shot. I think if Jordan’s able to take the hands off the steering wheel a little bit this week, and just go trust that it’s there, I think that is how Jordan plays his best golf this week.”
Jordan Spieth’s PGA Championship record
Much like Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth has been chasing one more major for nearly a decade now as he looks to complete the career grand slam.
The PGA has eluded him for some time. He finished second when at his best in 2015 and then managed a tie for third in 2019.
Since then, though, Spieth’s form at the PGA has been miserable and his best in the last five years has been a T29 in 2023.
With so many in good form, Spieth really needs to produce but if he can show the form he showed around eight years ago, then he’s as good as anyone on TOUR.
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