We can never quite know what PGA Tour players are thinking on a minute-to-minute basis, let alone over weeks and months. Even for a guy as demonstrative as Jordan Spieth, did we really understand how disgusted he was with his game at about this time last year, when he was eliminated from the FedEx Cup Playoffs after the first event?
Spieth can say it now, of course: “It was tough,” he admitted this week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. “I think the tougher part was the last couple of years I was very clearly going in this direction (he pointed his thumb down). I was not as good as I was earlier in the season.”
It’s easier to talk about being hopeful, and Spieth is professing to have that attitude at the moment. By shooting a one-under par 69 on Friday at TPC Southwind to get into T-5 at six under heading into the weekend, Spieth somewhat controls his own destiny to continue in the playoffs. Right now, he’s projected to move up 10 spots to be in 44th place among the 50 players who advance to the BMW Championship next week.
The 13-time tour winner is living on the edge, of course, but at least he’s feeling far better about his play, whether he makes it to the next stage or not.
“I'm just in a very different place about the game of golf than I was the last couple seasons heading into this event,” Spieth said. “Again, if it's going to work out, great. If it doesn't, I know next year is going to be an awesome year for me. So it takes a lot of the stress off of this week.”
It’s not like Spieth has lit it up for the past couple of months. As Golf Digest noted earlier this week, the 33-year-old is in the strange position of getting into the playoffs without a single top-10 finish this season. But Spieth did shoot four scores in the 60s last week for a T-19 in the Wyndham Championship, and he’s happier with some of his statistical gains. Though he’s not in the top 40 on the tour in any category, he’s gaining some strokes in every main department.
After opening the St. Jude with a 66, Spieth said, “I just tried to come into this week and just be as patient, nonreactive as possible, dumb it down to try to win the golf tournament and not worry about anything else.
“Just knowing that I'm a lot better golfer than I've been in a very long time and continue to believe in that. If low scores come, they come. If they don't, it doesn't change the fact that I know that I'm better than I've been in a long time.”
Spieth isn’t the only player this week who has moved into the positive side of the BMW bubble. Sungjae Im was barely on the outside at 53rd at the outset, and with back-to-back 66s he’s projected at 36th. He goes into Saturday tied with Viktor Hovland for second at eight under. They’re three shots back of leader Scottie Scheffler after the World No. 1 fired a 61 in the second round. Im has three top-15 finishes in his last four starts.
The chances for Keith Mitchell (T-9, five uner) are looking more solid after he started the tournament in 49th and has moved to a projected 45th.
On the other side, Eric Cole (T-60, four over) is hanging on by his fingernails at a projected 50th, while Wyndham winner Michael Brennan (projected 52nd), Matt McCarty (53rd) and Maverick McNealy (54th) could all fall out of the playoffs if they don’t improve on the weekend.