Frustrated by Jordan Spieth lately? This might be why

It’s been a full 10 years now since we first listened to the opening songs on Jordan Spieth’s Greatest Hits album. You remember them fondly, of course. Perhaps even avidly. But they’re awfully distant now. It’s been so long, you’ve probably forgot some of the lyrics.

The Spieth Experience has meant different things over the years since, which has been mostly fun for the biggest Spieth supporters. There was 2017, when he miraculously won the Open Championship. There was 2021, when he rose again and nearly won the Open again, but played like a top-5 player throughout. There was 2023, where he didn’t win but contended numerous times. These moments feel like the crests of waves, and are too often followed by troughs.

It’s that 2021 return to prominence that, even five years on, remains worth studying. Spieth rode his putter, his short game and his irons back then, and in terrific fashion, all in a means of defense against his driver, which ranked outside the top 130 on Tour. The driver had become his bugaboo — he hit it long enough, but rarely accurately enough. On TV, it all looked volatile, but that was part of the allure. Spieth made birdie from hell. He turned problems into pars. He’d channel his best stuff in particular rounds, carding opening 63s at two Texas events, and that Saturday 61 in Phoenix that felt like an announcement of what was to come.

Spieth broke through at the Valero Texas Open that year and then contended in the Masters a week later. It felt, to many, like the good times were back. But they were so, so different. Here and there he battled a wrist injury that never fully went away. It reared an ugly form in 2022, felt settled in 2023, but then got worse in 2024, requiring surgery. He grew frustrated by fighting a thing that felt out of his control. Fans grew frustrated watching it — because it had suddenly seemed to infect every other part of the bag besides driving.

It all brings us to 2026 and what is somehow a new version of the same man. And possibly the most frustrating for his fans. This version of Spieth is, believe it or not, the most settled version we’ve seen. The years of volatility conditioned fans into thinking anything could happen whenever Spieth had a tee time. But in 2026, it’s been oddly consistent — the results have narrowed. He’s missed just one cut in the last 12 months, and any bad weekends have been followed by a solid week just days later.

Take his T52 at the Truist Championship one week before a T18 at the PGA. Or his T63 at the Texas Open, which was followed by a T12 at the Masters.

If we look at these pros like they’re stocks, where good form rises on a chart, and poor form drops, Spieth has become the most neutral stock. The one you just have to hold because he’s not really going up, not really going down. His worst rounds aren’t quite as bad as past years. But his best rounds are quite as great either. He has finished exactly T11 or T12 four different times this season, but has notched zero top 10s. He’s finished exactly T18 twice.

When you grind over his numbers, you see a lot of good, very little great. And really nothing bad. Spieth ranks 63rd in driving, 69th in approach, 61st in short game and 42nd in putting. That’s how you make a bunch of cuts but never really threaten to win. It can grow frustrating, then, when a player so constantly just above average is shown so constantly on golf broadcasts. A past version of Spieth would occasionally make all his TV coverage and featured groupings fully worth it, picking off a win or truly contending on the weekend.

We had a chance for that this week, after Spieth shot 62 in Friday’s second round. He started his third round in the third-to-last group out, but was stuck in neutral all day, finishing with a 73 and dropping from T7 to T39. The stock chart would tell you he probably cards something in the mid-60s Sunday, and if he does it’ll just be another reminder: this is a stock worth holding … for the long haul. You can’t expect a rapid rise and a sell-off. It’s both good and not-so-good right now, but the company promises this is different. You’ll just have to deal with the plodding pace and trust the CEO.

“I got pretty off for a long time,” Spieth said after that 62, so obviously aware of his ups and his downs. “I’ve been trying to build it back, and then I’d compensate and do what worked.

“This last offseason I said no more compensating because, to be consistent, I’ve got to get it back to a certain place, and it’s been work from then to try to get there. It’s all in mechanics and health.”

This article originated on Golf.com