PGA Tour: Can Jordan Spieth win John Deere Traditional once more?

Jordan Spieth arrives on the John Deere Traditional as one of many betting favorites, in line with DraftKings. However the three-time main winner has hardly performed like a match favourite all through the 2024 season.

He has had a irritating marketing campaign, particularly after lacking the minimize at Augusta Nationwide. Since then, Spieth has made eight begins. He missed the minimize twice and didn’t publish a end higher than T-29. That considerably respectable end result got here on the Wells Fargo Championship, the place he shot just one spherical within the 60s: a gap spherical 2-under 69.

However these previous couple of months have served as a microcosm of Spieth’s profession over the previous seven years—a stretch crammed with disappointment and agony, contemplating his stature and accomplishments. He has received solely two tournaments since his Open Championship triumph at Royal Birkdale in 2017: the 2021 Valero Texas Open and the 2022 RBC Heritage.

Since then, he has had just a few calls, ending runner-up to Ok.H. Lee on the 2022 AT&T Byron Nelson and shedding to Matt Fitzpatrick in a playoff on the 2023 RBC Heritage. He has 13 high 10s relationship again to April 2022 however has missed 11 cuts since that juncture, too.

And but, regardless of these ups and downs, Spieth, now 30 years previous, has an incredible perspective on the place he’s at this level in his profession.

“As soon as I do know what I’m able to, I wish to clearly keep there. When you fall from that even a bit bit, it frustrates you, after which in case you fall fairly a bit from that, you could be questioning what on this planet is happening,” Spieth stated forward of this yr’s Charles Schwab Problem in mid-Might.

Picture by Sam Hodde/Getty Photographs

“It may well overtake you, and it did for me for a short time. I feel I’ve a greater perspective now, however on the similar time, the drive to get to the place I do know my ceiling has by no means been larger. So, each day I’m not there, I nonetheless stroll away feeling like I progressed in direction of it; I stroll away actually happy with my day. However some days, I really feel like I didn’t, and as a substitute of being okay with that, I lose a bit persistence as a result of I do know what I’m able to, and never sustaining that yearly is one thing that I’m not okay with personally.

“I feel it’s one thing I wouldn’t change something that’s ever occurred to me. I’ve achieved just about all of the objectives that I had in golf, albeit, you understand, in a brief time frame, however the nature of sustaining that’s one thing that I want to have one other alternative at, and I’ll proceed to work in direction of.”

Spieth went on to tie for thirty seventh that week at Colonial, the course not removed from his hometown of Dallas, Texas. He then missed the minimize on the Memorial, tied for forty first on the U.S. Open, and most lately struggled on the Vacationers Championship, ending T-63—virtually lifeless final.

However now, after every week off, Spieth arrives within the Quad Cities hoping to ascertain some momentum earlier than the season’s ultimate main. He has received the John Deere Traditional twice, in 2013 and 2015, however nothing says he can not make it a 3rd time this yr—particularly since the most effective participant within the subject, Patrick Cantlay, withdrew.

Picture by Michael Cohen/Getty Photographs

And but, the query is, how?

For starters, Spieth has to achieve some confidence in his brief sport once more, an attribute that has been very un-Spieth-like this season. He ranks 78th on tour in strokes gained across the inexperienced and eightieth in placing—a shocking determine given how good he was along with his flat stick when he was on the top of his powers.

Spieth additionally has to enhance his ball placing. He’s a hundred and tenth on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: approaching the inexperienced, seventieth in greens in regulation share, and 86th in proximity to the outlet. He has particularly struggled along with his wedges, rating a hundred and thirtieth in approaches from inside 100 yards, one other jarring statistic that may be very un-Spieth-like.

So this week, at TPC Deere Run, a course that yields loads of birdies, Spieth ought to play to the center of the greens and look to keep away from the large numbers. He already makes tons of par breakers, making greater than 4 per spherical, however the issue is that Spieth drops too many photographs. He makes bogey practically 17% of the time this season, rating 139th on tour in bogey avoidance—a actuality that won’t win you a lot golf tournaments.

Thus, Spieth should play conservatively and never press an excessive amount of on a golf course that offers the participant a inexperienced gentle in additional methods than one. And if he can try this, Spieth could have a very good likelihood of doing a victory lap in a type of well-known inexperienced John Deere tractors on Sunday evening.

That may undoubtedly shake off his frustrations.

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. You’ll want to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.