Jordan Spieth issued scathing warning on eve of The Masters after taking Rory McIlroy position
Jordan Spieth is struggling for form with less than a week to go until The Masters, and the former Augusta National champion has been told he is a shadow of the player he once was
Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth have a lot in common, with just one piece of the grand slam puzzle missing from their collection as major season begins next week. The pair have both endured agonizing waits to add to their major championship haul, too, with the Northern Irishman closing in on a decade without a major win, while Spieth has not taken down one of the four big tournaments since his sensational Open Championship triumph at Royal Birkdale in 2017.
While McIlroy remains one of the elite players on the planet, winning the FedEx Cup three times since his last major win, Spieth’s powers have waned, winning just three times on the PGA Tour since lifting the Claret Jug, sitting 19th in the Official World Golf Ranking – a position propped up only because of LIV Golf players’ slide due to a lack of accreditation.
Spieth and McIlroy have taken differing paths over the last year, with the Northern Irishman removing himself from the PGA Tour’s policy board amid the Tour’s negotiations with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund over a merger with LIV Golf. Spieth took on that role instead, after being nominated for the player director position in November, and now faces the same issue McIlroy had – prioritizing his efforts between the course and issues in the boardroom.
And now, Spieth has been brutally warned he is a shadow of the force he once was, with Golf Channel pundit Brandel Chamblee believing the 30-year-old has suffered from tinkering too much with the swing that took him to world number one status. “Look at him. Since 2017 how many times has he won? Three times. You go look at his strokes gained total from 2013 to 2017, and you look at his strokes gained total now, and he’s roughly half the player that he used to be,” Chamblee told GolfWeek.
“That’s not oblivion by a long stretch, but when you’re winning majors and setting the world on fire and winning as often as he was to where he’s at right now is quite a difference. “I think the most dangerous place on any golf course, not out-of-bounds or not in the water, it’s the driving range. That is the most dangerous spot at a Tour course. We talk a lot about players that make changes and get better. That’s just the nature of our job because they’re at the top of the leaderboards. So it’s a wonderful story.
“They were this player before, they’re this player now, they’ve made the changes, we laud whoever they’re working with, we laud the changes. We don’t talk as much or even ever about all the players that make changes and are at the bottom of the leaderboard because then they’re gone.” Spieth has not won since the RBC Heritage almost two years ago, and after missing the cut in his past two starts and shooting a one-over-par opening round at the Texas Valero Open on Thursday, few pundits are giving him a chance of contending for the green jacket at Augusta National last week.
Chamblee says Spieth’s struggles stem from him straying too far from the swing that brought him huge success early in his career. He added: “Jordan Spieth’s changes to his golf swing, they may not be obvious when you just watch him, but if you put it on video and compare it to 2015, I would say it’s substantially different. “He used to have just a slight cup in his wrist at the top. The club was set beautifully. Now he’s got a bow in the wrist and the face is a little bit shut because the whole world has fallen in love with strong grips, bowed left wrists and massive rotation.
“Did he do that to pick up a little speed, because he did pick up a little speed. But it’s a dangerous thing to start messing with your golf swing.”
