One PGA Away From the Career Grand Slam, Jordan Spieth and His Game are Ready

Missing the cut at the Masters lit a fire under the three-time major champion, and if he could only win one more tournament he said he'd want 'this one.'

Bob Harig | May 18, 2022

Jordan Spieth is pictured during practice rounds for the 2022 PGA Championship. — Jordan Spieth has a win and a runner-up since a frustrating missed cut at the Masters last month :: Michael Madrid/USA Today

TULSA, Okla. – Missing the cut at the Masters never factored into this thinking. It annoyed him. Considerably. And the blow was not softened when he realized Tiger Woods had beaten him at Augusta National.

“I didn’t feel very good about myself knowing he was on one leg and he made the cut and I didn’t,’’ Spieth said Wednesday at Southern Hills, where the PGA Championship begins Thursday.

Spieth said that with a smile. He words evoked laughter. He was both praising Woods – who returned for the first time since a February 2021 car crash caused significant injuries to his right leg – for his remarkable return at the Masters while again chastising himself for missing the cut (for the first time) at his favorite tournament.

The disappointment from that weekend off lingered for a few days, but served as motivation. Spieth was not about to let it derail him. He won the following week at Hilton Head – his first PGA Tour victory in just more than a year – and then finished second by a shot last week in Dallas.

“I just really didn’t feel like I did much wrong, and I've had weeks like that before,’’ said Spieth, who now has 13 PGA Tour victories and is ranked eighth in the world. “You just hope that they're not the Masters. The old me a few years ago may have tried to go back to the drawing board and said, 'how do I fix this, what do I need to change?'

“But instead I went out on Sunday, decided I didn't want to watch the final round, and went and played golf (with his agent and caddie) over in Hilton Head. And I just wanted to keep pushing what I was pushing because I just think my level of patience with my game is far superior than where it was a few years ago.

“I'm glad that since then it's really shaped out and that patience has paid off.’’

Spieth begins play at the PGA Championship as one of the favorites. The three-time major winner will be grouped with Woods and Rory McIlroy for the first two rounds, with a bit more emphasis on his ability to complete the career Grand Slam.

When Spieth captured the British Open at Royal Birkdale in 2017, the focus immediately turned to needing just the PGA Championship to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods as the only players to capture all four major championships in their career.

But Spieth has just one top 10 in five PGA tries since, and his tie for third in 2019 at Bethpage saw him finish six strokes behind winner Brooks Koepka.

“I like where things are at; I wish they were a little tighter,’’ Spieth said. “I hope to get it that way. I'm still having to kind of rehearse my swing. I didn't have to do that. That's just where I'm at right now. Trying to be as outwardly focused as I can and not mechanically focused, but I'm kind of in a balance right now.’’

Ah, the swing rehearsal. Spieth gets a good bit of questions about that. And to be fair, it is a bit awkward to witness him over the ball these days.

It’s one thing to have a pronounced, slow rehearsal practice swing. But it can take some getting used to when Spieth stands over the ball doing it while getting ready to play his shot.

“I’ve been kind of doing something similar for a year and a half, just not necessarily over the ball, and it's more just a tempo thing for me right now over the ball so I don't get a little quick with my arms,’’ he said. “Just want to stay connected as I go back.

“I try it without it, and Cameron (McCormick, his coach) tells me — and it feels, not just he tells me, but it also feels just slightly better when I do it before I hit a shot on the range. If I'm making better swings doing it, I get to my ball quickly, I play faster than I used to, I'm not slowing anybody down, and I make better, more committed swings with it.

“At this point, that's where I'm at, and that's what I'll keep doing. It's just trying to — like I've mentioned before, I'm pushing — going back to go forward, going back to my DNA on how I've swung the club growing up.’’

Spieth has seen considerable improvement in the past year since the depths of a slump in 2019 into 2021 that saw him drop as low as 82nd in the world.

His driving accuracy is better, his length is better, his overall game is better. Aside from the missed short putts – there were a few of those last week in Dallas – Spieth is as solid as anyone at the moment.

And the specter of making more history looms.

“Certainly at this point, having won the other three, it's an elephant in the room for me. It's a goal of mine,’’ he said. “If you just told me I was going to win one tournament the rest of my life, I'd say I want to win this one, given where things are at. If you told me that before my career started I was going to win one tournament ever, I'd say the Masters because that was my favorite tournament growing up.

“But things change, and that has obviously significant meaning. Long-term it would be really cool to say that you captured the four biggest golf tournaments in the world that are played in different parts of the world and different styles, too. So you feel like you kind of accomplished golf when you win a career Grand Slam.

“If I can play well these next couple days, given the crowds that will be out there, and I think the weekend might actually feel a little like a breather in a way, so that's how I'm looking at it.’’

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