Players 2026: Jordan Spieth could not have summed up his career struggles at Sawgrass any better than this
PONTE VEDRA BEACH — It is year 13 for Jordan Spieth at the Players Championship, and he still has not learned. It certainly sounds like he doesn’t plan to, either.
That’s precisely why no one can quit the guy. Not the fans who came out in droves to watch him on Friday at TPC Sawgrass. Not his caddie, Michael Greller, who experienced what had to feel like the one millionth high-wire act his boss man dragged him through in Round 2. And not the media, who flocked to the Spieth-Fowler-Theegala group as the three-time major champion climbed his way up the leader board, playing the first 17 holes in six under par.
People follow Spieth because he’ll never learn. The Spieth experience is not about watching him boringly plod his way around the golf course, it’s about seeing what the hell he’s going to do next. On the par-5 ninth, his final hole of the day, Spieth went full Spieth, pulling his drive into the left trees, where he had no swing, chopping it out into the fairway, then yanking a 3-wood so far left he immediately asked Greller for another ball, Tin Cup-style. He is the golf version of a car crash. No matter how bad it gets, you can’t look away.
The thing was, his round to that point was anything but. He made seven birdies, including three on TPC Sawgrass’ vaunted 16-17-18 stretch, the third of which, naturally, came after his drive ricocheted off a tree and back into the fairway, setting up a short-iron approach he hit to six feet. He then birdied Nos. 1 and 2 for five in a row. After that, he managed to hold it together over the next six holes.
But he can never simply just hold it together. He can never just stay “patient.” That might explain his shockingly bad record at the Pete Dye design, where he tied for fourth in his tournament debut in 2014 and has missed six out of 10 cuts since, posting just one finish in the top 20 over that stretch.
He’s keenly aware of why that is.
“This place has gotten the best of me in the past,” Spieth said. “And I let it get the best of me a couple times this week already. That cost me probably four shots, so hopefully it’s not too much to make up.
“I need to have even more patience here than I do other places, and it’s just 13 times in a row … something gets me here, and I just don’t quite have the patience for it.”
While Spieth did end up finding his third shot on the ninth, rendering the provisional void, he went on to make a double-bogey 7 anyway. It was the second day in a row he closed with a double, turning a potential 71-66 start, which would have him just three off the lead, into a 73-68 start, which has him seven behind Xander Schauffele.
When asked after the round if he would be able to take some positives away—like the fact he gained nearly two strokes with his irons and 1.78 around the greens—Spieth answered in his typical, bluntly honest fashion.
“Never. Have you ever played golf?” he said.
The good news is, he is doing some very good things, which might make him a factor on the weekend. Even better news? His plan remains the same, in that it sounds like it involves very little patience.
“This weekend with the greens softer, I kind of thought about that once I made [birdie] on 17,” he said. “I thought, this is just attack mode now. We’re not worried about the cut line, we’re chasing the leaders. Sepp [Straka] was running off in front of me. So it was just fire at sticks. I think that’s going to be the mantra this weekend.”
In other words, in year 13 at TPC Sawgrass, he still has not learned, and there still are no plans to.
