What Jordan Spieth was saying about his golf swing in chat with Smylie Kaufman after his final round at The CJ CUP Byron Nelson

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It has now been more than three years since Jordan Spieth won on the PGA Tour, and yet, he is definitely still going to be one of the biggest talking points heading into the PGA Championship later this month.

Jordan Spieth is, of course, looking to become the latest name to win the career grand slam. The 31-year-old has been a PGA Championship win away from completing the set ever since 2017.

Despite his struggles over the last few years, it really feels as Spieth is one of those players you can never rule out. He could easily finish his career having not won another major, while you could just as easily see him doubling his major tally in the coming years.

But there were brighter signs at The CJ CUP Byron Nelson this past week, with Spieth finishing fourth at TPC Craig Ranch.

What Jordan Spieth was saying about his golf swing after The CJ CUP Byron Nelson

The highlight came during the final round, with Spieth posting a 62 to move almost 20 places up the leaderboard. Obviously, it was not enough to put any sort of pressure on Scottie Scheffler, but perhaps it could be a turning point in his season.

There have been a couple of false dawns. Spieth also finished in the top five at the WM Phoenix Open, but it was significant how assured he looked at TPC Craig Ranch with the second major of the year just around the corner.

And speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that he is feeling optimistic about Spieth’s form ahead of the PGA Championship.

“I think this was a really good week, at least a really good Sunday, just momentum. You just want to build some momentum heading into a major, and I think for Jordan, he’s going to be at the best at the end of a stretch of golf. So he’s got a pretty big stretch coming up, obviously the PGA Championship, is it Colonial the week after, so it’s probably four in a row for him. And starting at Craig Ranch is a perfect place to go and work on your game a little bit,” he said.

“I spoke with him a little bit, he just said that the feel that he has right now in his golf swing is completely right, have to go out there and trust it. And I think Craig Ranch was a perfect place, it was target practice out there with how soft the greens were. But it’s a long golf course and you’ve got to go out there and hit the shots. To see that he played really well on Sunday wasn’t surprising in the fact that Thursday, Friday, Saturday was kind of a slow build-up to an eventual top five finish. That’s showing that the feels that he’s having are definitely progressing in the correct direction.

“Next week is important, next week is really important for the fact that this week, sure, was he in contention? Nobody was really in contention. Nobody really felt the heat of trying to win a golf tournament. Next week’s important because he’s gotten into contention in Phoenix but Detry ran away with it there, and a runaway of course here at Craig Ranch, but he was up around it, he definitely felt the juice, but I really think that Philly Cricket Club, the Truist Championship, a smaller field, has to be in the last couple of groups with a legitimate chance on the back nine, because I think he needs to see how his swing and game are going to hold up under pressure on a back nine on a Sunday with a chance to win a golf tournament before he gets to the PGA Championship.”

Jordan Spieth’s impressive stats from TPC Craig Ranch

The problem for Spieth is that there are so many players heading to Quail Hollow in stunning form. Rory McIlroy has won three times already this year, while Scottie Scheffler is off the mark at long last.

Meanwhile, the likes of Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau are heading in the right direction. So it is going to take a colossal performance for Spieth to put himself in genuine contention at Quail Hollow.

But he can take a lot of confidence from his performance this past week. His tee to green statistics, in particular, are extremely impressive.

And it felt important that he posted a nine under par round on Sunday which did not include a single bogey.

Fans have become accustomed to watching Spieth get himself out of all kinds of trouble over the years. So seeing the Jordan Spieth Experience potentially benched in favour of a more disciplined approach could be exactly what he needs.