Smylie Kaufman explains why Jordan Spieth isn’t winning.
One of Jordan Spieth’s close friends believes he knows why the player is not enjoying the season he would have desired in 2024.
Spieth hadn’t shot that poorly on the PGA Tour in almost a year before he went on a tear at TPC Deere Run on Saturday. He finished with a 63 to put himself in contention at the John Deere Classic after hitting eight birdies in his opening 12 holes.
Since missing the cut at the Masters in April, he hasn’t finished higher than T29 despite posting three top-10 finishes earlier in the year. He is currently outside the crucial top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings, which would qualify him for all of the Signature Events of the next year. He has dropped out of the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
The three-time major champion has actually had a bad season for the second straight year after failing to win since the 2022 RBC Heritage and disappearing during the Ryder Cup. This comes following two successful seasons in 2021 and 2022 that followed the end of a four-year winless streak.
Smylie Kaufman, an NBC broadcaster and close friend of Jordan Spieth, discussed Spieth’s recent bad performance with hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on this week’s episode of GOLF Subpar.
“You know it’s funny? Since he would have won in any other year if you had replaced his driving prowess this year, Kaufman explained, “you get confused if you go and look at the stats.”
He clarified that Spieth’s statistics year is somewhat at odds with his career history. Usually, he drives the ball all over the field and then uses his irons and wedges creatively to score. Spieth is ranked 80th in putting, 110th in SG: Approach, and 16th in strokes gained off the tee this year.
Kaufman stated, “He’s always been able to rely on his wedge game, his short game, and his iron game.” “His putting was decent to begin the year, but it has really declined recently, and as a result, his iron and wedge games are now only mediocre by his standards.
“I keep thinking that everything would just fall into place in a week. However, with so many things that are just a little bit off, it appears that he pushes himself a little too hard on some days in an attempt to force something to happen rather than letting his game and the tournament come to him naturally.
When Spieth was winning majors, Knost remembered that he was more of an
Kaufman continued by outlining how Spieth’s concentration on honing his driving technique might have unintentionally hurt his approach technique.
He added, “Maybe there’s a correlation too; when you make swing changes, you start hitting it farther. The guys sometimes have an iron swing, and sometimes they have a driver swing.” Additionally, I believe that he is somewhat caught in between.
