Week in, week out, golf lovers gather to watch their favorite players rip apart courses on the PGA Tour. However, this weekend at the Valero Texas Open was not like most. With high winds swirling over the property, players had to fight the weather to get a ball into a hole — and that’s precisely what former Texas Longhorn Jordan Spieth did.
During the offseason, Spieth had wrist surgery to repair damage sustained in 2023. He returned to tournament action in February at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’s recorded two top 10 finishes since then and feels good about how the recovery process has gone.
“I’m thinking the same way I thought before I had surgery, so I’m very pleasantly surprised at that,” Spieth said on Friday.
Entering the Open on Thursday, Spieth hoped to find some form heading into major championship season. What he got on the first couple of days was a mixed bag of results.
After opening with a five-under 67, Spieth followed with a subpar score of 73 on Friday, moving him back down the leaderboard.
“I didn’t play very well today by any means,” Spieth said after his second round. “I had less control of the ball and was hanging in there for a little while on my front nine.”
Spieth needed a great Saturday to vault himself back into contention in his home state, but the conditions would make that task very difficult.
On his opening tee shot in the third round, Spieth hit one well left. It was so far offline that Spieth asked fans to run across the fairway to help him search for the ball. Finally finding his ball in the cacti, Spieth took an unplayable as the marshals tried to calm the chaos ensuing in hole one’s fairway.
That chaotic scene was an omen for what was about to occur over the next two days.
The rest of Saturday’s round was vintage Spieth. He was hitting the ball over the yard, missing greens left and right. It felt like a round where any standard pro would shoot 80, but Spieth is not a standard golfer.
Out of 66 players, Spieth was the fifth-worst player in strokes gained approach and the 13th-worst player in strokes gained off the tee. However, thanks to an incredible showing from his 60-degree wedge and T.P. Mills putter, Spieth managed a round of +1 73, a score that beat the course average.
On Sunday, golfers were met with chilly temperatures and stronger winds than Saturday’s round, meaning the carnage on the Oaks course would only escalate. That was not the case for Spieth.
Spieth only hit nine of 18 greens in regulation during his final round but missed in spots that his superb short game could handle. With the better ball striking round, he shot an even-par round of 72, almost three shots better than the field average, finishing the tournament tied for 12th place.
It turned into a round that may give him a boost headed into this week’s tournament — The Masters.
This week at Augusta National Golf Club, a healthy Spieth will drive down Magnolia Lane in search of a second green jacket that he’s been in pursuit of.
There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding Spieth’s consistency on the course, but his history at the hallowed grounds of Augusta is undeniable. Maybe this is the week in which Spieth finds his magic wand once again.
