The extremely concerning stat from Jordan Spieth’s second round at Cognizant Classic which leaves him with a mountain to climb

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As Jordan Spieth stepped onto the 14th tee during his second round at the Cognizant Classic at PGA National, it appeared that the three-time major champion was on course to put himself right in the mix heading into the weekend.

Jordan Spieth was four under par for the day and 10 under par for the tournament with five holes of his second round to play at the Cognizant Classic. Pre-tournament fears about Spieth had seemingly been allayed with the 31-year-old making just one bogey in his first 31 holes.

Unfortunately, the latter part of the round almost left Spieth returning to where he started before the day.

Spieth would bogey 14 and 15. And birdies on 16 and 18 were separated by a triple bogey on the 17th. He found the water off the tee and made a mess of the rest of the penultimate hole as he now sits in a tie for 25th.

Worrying statistic leaves Jordan Spieth facing an uphill battle at the Cognizant Classic

He finds six shots back of Jake Knapp, which certainly does not rule him out. Many would not have expected Knapp to follow his 59 with a 70 to open the door for the chasing pack.

But Spieth not only has to contend with the number of names between himself and the top of the leaderboard, but there was also a part of his game which was almost as bad as anyone in the field on Friday at PGA National.

Spieth lost 2.172 shots to the field when it came to his approach game during the second round. According to the PGA Tour website, that left him 130th out of the 144 players in the field. That was a worse performance than Luke Donald, who finished third to last and 10 shots off the cut line.

Spieth’s chances of winning the Cognizant Classic assessed

Spieth has been erratic since his return from injury. And speaking on The Early Wedge, Jason Sobel explained why he is not expecting a dramatic fightback from the former world number one over the next two days.

“Perhaps the PGA Tour’s most volatile player on one of the PGA Tour’s most volatile courses, why should we be surprised that the whole rollercoaster was going all day for Jordan Spieth? I am bullish long-term on Jordan Spieth. Ask me again in six weeks when we’re at Augusta and I might be very bullish on Jordan Spieth. Right now though, I’m bearish and it’s because I’m listening to Jordan himself,” he said.

“This isn’t me saying I just don’t like him. You listen to what Jordan says and the wrist that he had surgery on late last year still isn’t 100 percent. He’s not fully confident in his game right now. When Jordan’s fully confident, you can see it. You can see it on his face. You can see it in his eyes. He talks about ‘aim small, miss small, I know what I’m doing, I’m trying to do this and I’m pulling it off’.

“Even when he was contending at the WM Phoenix Open three weeks ago, you listened to Jordan Spieth after each of those rounds, and you’re like he’s not really there, he doesn’t quite believe in himself. And if Jordan’s not believing in himself yet, I’m not going to believe in him just yet either. But again, long-term, yes, long-term I’m in. It’s just not there yet.”

In fairness, as Sobel notes, PGA National was never meant to be a course which played to Spieth’s strengths. In fact, it was suggested that Spieth making the cut would be a successful result given the course fit.

Of course, PGA National has not been the brutal test many expected, with those on four under par not making the cut. But plenty of players still found the going difficult.

It is a positive that Spieth is not out of contention just yet. But it does seem imperative that he flies out of the blocks on Saturday if he is going to have a genuine chance in the final round.