Jordan Spieth, Here and Now

Jordan Spieth spent almost 30 minutes on the 14th hole at Royal Birkdale on Thursday. It made me chuckle as I stood there, baking in the sun, thinking about the last time he’d visited this part of the course in the Open Championship. I’m sure you remember it well. I remember it because I was there, watching it unfold, preparing to write a story about another devastating collapse in a major by golf’s young phenom. Now, the chaos and revelry of the past had been replaced by the boredom of the present.

Several groups ahead had ground the pace of play to a halt. Nearly a decade ago, Spieth came to this corner of the property riding a wave of energy that no one (especially Matt Kuchar) will ever forget. He was climbing the dunes, jogging around fans, making a miracle bogey from the edge of the driving range, nearly acing the next hole, then pointing at his caddie to go fetch his eagle putt.

All that had been replaced by Spieth standing on the tee for the same duration it takes to watch a sitcom. With nowhere to go, he chatted for almost 20 minutes with Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood as they waited for the fairway to clear.

It was admittedly an imperfect scene for metaphor. Spieth was standing on the 14th tee, which (please follow along closely because it gets confusing) used to be the 15th hole back in 2017. The infamous 13th hole (the Mona Lisa of Spiethian moments) had already passed without incident. A boring par.

The electric 14th hole in 2017 (where he made birdie) does not exist in 2026, having been turned into a short-game practice facility. The 15th hole (where Spieth famously told his caddie Michael Greller to “Go get that!”) has since been repurposed as the 14th hole. Did you get all that?

It’s a little confusing, but at the moment, so is Spieth’s career.

I was looking forward to Birkdale this year because it was a reminder of how fun Spieth made golf back in 2017. But Thursday was a reminder that the past isn’t always prologue. Spieth shot a 73 in the first round. It wasn’t particularly memorable or exciting. He had to take an unplayable on the sixth hole when his drive stopped on the windowsill of a pot bunker, and his approach (from a terrible stance) ended up in deep grass well short of the green. But it wasn’t even a fun double bogey, something that made you feel stuff. It was a bit of a slog.

The whole round felt like wanting to attend a rock concert and instead you end up listening to elevator muzak. On the 14th hole, he had a chance to recreate his famous eagle from 2017, and someone in the stands even belted out “Go get that!” as the ball left his putter face. But the putt wasn’t particularly close. Spieth ended up making a nervy five-footer for his only birdie of the day.

I refuse to believe the magic is gone for good. Spieth, who is only 32, gave me hope in his pre-championship press conference when he pointed out that he’s still younger than Phil Mickelson was when he won his first major. “There are things I can do now that I can do significantly better than I could when I was No. 1 in the world,” he said. “How old was Phil when he won his first major? 34. So you go back in time, there's plenty of examples where guys have played their best golf from there on.”

I still believe. But the numbers in my tribe are admittedly dwindling.

After Spieth’s round, I let the R&A know I wanted to speak with him. Spieth ducked his head into the interview tent, surprised that anyone wanted to talk to him at all. A couple dozen reporters stared awkwardly at him, no one interested in joining in. I motioned for us to step away from the scrum and chat outside since I was the only person with questions. I tossed a softball at him to start: What’s the best shot you hit today?

“I’m not quite sure,” Spieth said. “I don’t know that any even stood out. I didn’t have very good control of my ball today.”

We chatted for a bit about the 17th hole, and the towering hybrid he hit for his second shot, hoping to find the green in two. Spieth was expecting the wind to push his ball toward the middle of the green, but it never came. It landed in the greenside bunker. He hit a poor shot from there, leaving himself a lengthy birdie putt. He slapped his right leg in anger as the ball came to rest.

“Just a bad shot. I could hit 100 of those and not hit it farther away,” he said.

Two minutes had gone by and I’d already run out of questions. I decided there was no point in bringing up the past. All of us have to live in the present. He shot 73 and was in 116th place. What more was there to say?