While there may be some higher ranked players in the field, there is little question that Jordan Spieth is the marquee name teeing it up this week at the Cognizant Classic.
It has been a mixed start to the new PGA Tour season for Jordan Spieth. There have been a couple of reminders of just how long it has been since the three-time major champion was at his best – with a missed cut coming at the Genesis Invitational while he also finished well down the leaderboard at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Spieth did delight the fans as he finished in a tie for fourth at the WM Phoenix Open this month. But TPC Scottsdale has always been a happy hunting ground for the 31-year-old, so it is hard to know how to assess that recent performance.
Spieth did spring a surprise, having decided to put himself in the field for the Cognizant Classic – an event that he is yet to play in his career.
Concerns for Jordan Spieth ahead of the Cognizant Classic
PGA National is a course which tends to reward accuracy, with plenty of danger off the tee and when approaching the greens. And thus, it seems incredibly difficult to know what to expect from Spieth over the rest of the week.
Speaking on Golf Channel, Eamon Lynch suggested that it would be a big plus for Spieth if he was able to get through to the weekend given the demands of the golf course.
“I suppose there are two measurements by that. The first one is that there are no physical ailments, no pain at all, and he certainly hasn’t suggested any of that through the three tournaments we’ve seen so far, so as long as that continues to be the case, that’s a win,” he said.
“On a golf course like this, I think success is working all four days. This is not a great golf course on paper for Jordan Spieth. That par we just saw in Phoenix is classic Spieth in the sense that something went wrong and he finds a creative way to get back and somehow save a score. This isn’t really a golf course where you do that. This is the difference between a car crash and a plane crash because there are 11 tee shots where water is in play. And Jordan Spieth is 148th on tour so far this year in driving accuracy. There are eight greens where water is lurking as well. He’s 85th in strokes gained approach, which has typically been a strong suit of his game in years past. And admittedly, it’s a small data sample this year but this is a course where things can go very wrong very quickly. So this is a real test of his game.”
Why Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy need to take similar steps
The PGA Tour is a better place when Spieth is performing well. He looked destined to become an all-time great when he won three majors by the end of 2017. And Spieth genuinely moves the needle when it comes to television ratings.
But there remains a big question mark over what his future holds after dealing with that wrist injury for so long.
And Lynch went on to explain what Spieth seems to need – noting that he is not too dissimilar to Rory McIlroy given some of the pain he has dealt with in recent years.
“He’s been a rollercoaster ride for his entire career at this point. In some ways, Jordan on a week to week basis needs to have a reset button in the same way Rory McIlroy does just in major championships. Rory hasn’t stopped winning in the 11 years since he last won a major. Jordan’s wins have been very sparse for a guy with that much talent,” he added.
“I still find it absolutely jarring that he’s 70th in the Official World Golf Rankings because I’m not sure there are 69 better players on tour than Jordan Spieth. But there are, as you point out, a lot of miles on that clock. There’s a lot of scar tissue on there. He had issues with putting, he had issues off the tee as well. He’s still, to me, with the possible exception of Viktor Hovland these days, to me Jordan’s been the most fascinating man in golf from the neck up.”
Obviously, a victory in the Cognizant Classic is not going to silence all of Spieth’s doubters. No-one in the top 15 in the world rankings will be involved this week.
But given that the course appears to be such a poor fit for Spieth, it would be a real statement if he could contend at this stage of his comeback.
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