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Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth who share their thoughts on Netflix’s upcoming ‘Full Swing’ documentary.

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The post Jordan Spieth’s unique brand of golf is hard to explain. Ask Justin Thomas appeared first on Golf.

The post Jordan Spieth’s unique brand of golf is hard to explain. Ask Justin Thomas appeared first on Golf.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There are many ways to describe the strangeness of Jordan Spieth golf. Let us try a few.

Jordan Spieth golf is like flying economy and getting upgraded to first class. It’s like getting hit by a bus and finding a winning scratch-off ticket on the windshield. It’s like using the sidewalk to cook a perfect souffle. And at the Presidents Cup, Jordan Spieth golf is … surprisingly tame?

At least, that’s what Spieth’s teammate, Justin Thomas, thought after watching his pal’s performance on Friday afternoon’s fourball matches.

“Today? That was nothing,” Thomas said with a laugh. “It’s not even, like, remotely close to some Jordan Spieth golf that I’ve seen before.”

And yet, Friday’s Jordan Spieth golf included a moment that, even by Spieth standards, was utterly bizarre. It came on the 15th hole (normally Quail Hollow’s 18th), a narrow par-4 guarded down the left side by a winding creek.

After pumping their drives into the right rough, a 3-up Spieth/Thomas pairing looked to close out their match on 15 with a birdie. Thomas hit his approach first and blew it into the water. Now, the pressure was ratcheted up on Spieth, who needed to preserve par to fend off Cam Davis and Adam Scott.

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Seconds later, Spieth rocketed his own shot left of the green and recoiled. His ball was headed straight for the water. He’d just lost his team the hole.

Then Jordan Spieth golf happened.

When Spieth’s ball finally returned to earth, it did not go into the creek. Rather, in a miraculous stroke of luck, it ricocheted off a rock and rolled out onto the green. When Thomas saw Spieth’s ball bounce back in play, he could only laugh.

“Yeah, I was happy,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s Jordan. I was kind of pissed it didn’t stay on the green. I feel like it very well could have stayed on the green, but you’ve got to take what you get, I guess.”

Thomas knows better than to try to understand Spieth’s penchant for both utter disaster and good fortune. The two golfers have been teammates in their last three Ryder and Presidents Cups. Thomas knows that when it comes to playing with Spieth, weird is, in fact, normal.

“I’ve said this in the team events before in the past. It is just really, really nice having Jordan as a partner and him being over a 20-, 25-footer and actually being on his team,” Thomas said. “Or seeing him in a bunker and him being on my team. You know what I’m saying?”

On team weeks, Thomas says, playing with Spieth is a little bit more fun.

“I love him to death,” he said. “But no, I’m not rooting for [the lucky breaks] every single shot over the course of the entire year. This week, to be able to do that, is nice.”

Spieth, the man in the driver’s seat of this rollercoaster, enjoys the change of pace, too. At least this week, he won’t be alone on the ride. “I think when my ball bounces out of the water, I got a little different reaction from [Justin] than I would normally get in a tournament,” Spieth said with a laugh.

The weirdness has worked wonders for team Thomas/Spieth this week. The pairing is 3-0-0 through three sessions at the Presidents Cup, due in no small part to their decision to embrace the insane.

With Spieth, you don’t really have a choice.

“Anything and everything he does on the golf course does not surprise me,” Thomas says. “I’ve seen crazier, that’s for sure.”

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The post Why Quail Hollow’s unusual setup gave this U.S. foursomes team an advantage appeared first on Golf.

The post Why Quail Hollow’s unusual setup gave this U.S. foursomes team an advantage appeared first on Golf.

Collin Morikawa’s ball-striking prowess is undisputed.

The 25-year-old had a down year by his standards: He only finished 3rd in SG: Approach The Green on the PGA Tour last season.

Because of the unique rerouting to Quail Hollow at this year’s Presidents Cup, Morikawa and partner Cameron Young were able to take advantage of his strength by having Morikawa tee off on even-numbered holes in their 2-and-1 foursomes win over Tom Kim and K.H. Lee on Thursday.

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The routing of Quail Hollow for this week has every par-3 as an even-numbered hole and two out of the three par-5s. The one par-5 that isn’t an even hole? The 7th which was very reachable in the opening round, playing to just 527 yards, downwind. Morikawa put the second shot on that hole to 17 feet for eagle from 171 yards.

In all, Morikawa hit the approach to the green on 15 of 17 holes in the match. That’s all eight of the odd numbered par-4s, the four par-3s and all three par-5s —the 7th being an attempt under GIR. He hit six of them within 10 feet.

This also played into Young’s strength as one of the premier driver’s on the PGA Tour. He was second on the Tour in SG: Off-The-Tee.

“This course really sets up to where, like, if you play the odds or you play the evens, you hit the majority of a certain shot,” Morikawa said after the match. “Cam hit a lot of drivers. I hit a lot of irons. That’s kind of what you describe our golf games like. We were able to feed off that.”

It’s not a strategy that can only benefit strong iron players and strong drivers, it can also benefit stronger putters.

Jordan Spieth teed off on the odd holes and set himself up to hit nine of his and Justin Thomas’ birdie putts.

Spieth struggled on the greens last season, but has finished in the top-10 of SG: Putting three times in his career, and was known for outstanding putting in the run that led him to three majors in as many seasons from 2015 to 2017.

Thomas is certainly not weak with a flatstick, however, and Spieth said the decision of who would play odds and evens wasn’t an easy one.

“We had a really hard time deciding who was going to go odds and evens,” he said. “We didn’t decide until late last night. If we got the chance again, we might even switch it.”

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The post Presidents Cup Preview: What’s at stake for the U.S. team, which Internationals to keep an eye on appeared first on Golf.

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After three long years, the Presidents Cup is back in the spotlight. James Colgan and Dylan Dethier spoke with Adam Scott and Tom Kim about why the International Team has a fighting chance, and learned why Jordan Spieth has a chip on his shoulder heading into the competition. Our guys give their predictions on what we’ll see from Charlotte this weekend.

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The post ‘It sucked’: Why Jordan Spieth’s 2019 Presidents Cup snub still stings appeared first on Golf.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the tao of Jordan Spieth, it was rock bottom.

It was late 2019, and everyone (it seemed) was headed to Australia for the most anticipated Presidents Cup in years. At long last, the PGA Tour would return to one of golf’s great homes (Australia), at one of its most celebrated cathedrals (Royal Melbourne), with a hall-of-fame billing headlining the top of the card (captains Ernie Els and Tiger Woods). For an event in desperate need of oxygen, 2019 was poised to yank the Presidents Cup back to the surface.

But there was one person missing: Jordan Spieth.

Spieth, you probably remember, was mired in the worst slump of his professional career — a monthslong slog that included as many missed cuts as top 10 finishes (four) and extended his winless streak to two years. When the Presidents Cup rosters were finally announced in early November, he was left off the list. For the first time in his career, he would not take part in a team play event.

It’s 2022 now, and Spieth’s freefall is well behind us. The winless streak is over, and while the swing hasn’t quite returned to its pre-2016 form, it’s brought him back to a world ranking of 13 and the Presidents Cup for the first time since 2017. Spieth is a father now, and at 29, he’s quickly become one of the most experienced American competitors.

For most of us, 2019 feels like a lifetime ago. For Jordan Spieth, it very well was a lifetime ago. But it sure doesn’t feel that way.

“Everyone went on planes to go Australia, and I went on an anniversary trip with my wife, and I remember that I probably wasn’t the most fun,” Spieth said Tuesday at Quail Hollow. “I remember just being in a lull — being in contact with those guys and knowing they were in those team rooms. I just never thought I’d miss one after being on a number in a row.”

Even some three years (and a pandemic) later, 2019 still stings for Spieth, who watched from afar as many of his best friends in professional golf rallied around Tiger Woods in a dramatic, Sunday comeback victory.

“It sucked,” he said. “I remember it was a really tough spot. I hated every second of it because I know how fun they are and I know how beneficial these weeks are, these matches, for individually how you’re going to play the next year.”

Fickle as match play may be, competing in the Ryder and Presidents Cups gives players a clear view of how their game stands under pressure. For those looking for the missing link in major championship success, there are few better, more isolating tests than a high-stakes, high-intensity match.

That, he said, was the true twist of the knife. In missing the Presidents Cup team, he didn’t just miss out on the fun, he lost out on the experience.

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“Every match feels like you’re going down the back nine at a major championship,” Spieth said. “It’s like every hole with the roars and you’re going two or three up, and you’re like, I got this. It’s a very similar feeling to the nerves and how anxious you are to get started and the nerves on the golf course to competing in a major.”

Spieth knows this because he has lived this. As a Ryder Cup rookie in 2014, he and Patrick Reed formed one of the most dominant tandems of the decade, overpowering the Europeans en route to 2.5 points and a 2-1-1 record in his first-ever start in the event.

The following spring, he took over the golf world, winning the Masters and U.S. Open and tallying top-five finishes in all four majors.

“I mean, the 2014 Ryder Cup did wonders for me in 2015,” he said. “I bet if you ask Scottie [Scheffler] he’ll say last year’s Ryder Cup did wonders for him this year. You see that trend a lot of times with guys who come out and play really well and win important matches and go on to use that as fuel. I certainly did. There’s a lot of advantages, and that’s another reason why I just hated missing it.”

Yes, Spieth isn’t quite over 2019. That’s good — because his teammates won’t let him get over it.

“Pat, Xander and Jordan and I were sitting together last night talking about Australia,” Justin Thomas added slyly. “He was sitting there, like ‘Cool, guys, I know.’ It wasn’t by coincidence. I’ll say that.”

At the Presidents Cup, there’s no salvaging yesterday, but there’s still plenty of reason to hope for tomorrow.

Maybe that’s not just at the golf course.

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The post ‘4-figure’ bets and rope jokes: Inside Spieth & JT’s ‘chill’ Presidents Cup round appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘4-figure’ bets and rope jokes: Inside Spieth & JT’s ‘chill’ Presidents Cup round appeared first on Golf.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s hot out. And how do we know, outside of the developing sunburn and continuous sweat drip? The volunteer on the 15th tee corrects you when you say it’s “warm.” “This morning was warm,” he says. “This? This is hot.” 

Good to know. The buddies apparently do. The week is just starting here at stately Quail Hollow so Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, who have just been joined by golf’s latest winner, Max Homa, aren’t going to play 18 today. Or 16 or 17. Or really not even all of 15. Which actually used to be the old No. 18, but in advance of this week’s Presidents Cup, 16, 17 and 18 — the Green Mile, they call it  — have been rerouted as 13, 14 and 15 in hopes of drama in this match-play event, and that’s what we have brewing on the new 15/old 18 green. 

Zach Johnson, next year’s U.S. Ryder Cup captain and a Presidents Cup assistant this year, starts things off. He appears to be an expert at this game and is trying to bait his young troops to join. With bravado, Johnson walks about 40 feet, stops abruptly and drops his ball near the hole — and screams. You get the game now. Johnson’s eyes were closed. And he believed he could pace the distance blind. Homa, Homa’s caddie, Joe Greiner, and Thomas are sold and want in. And they miss. It isn’t easy. 

But let’s go bigger! So in a semi-circle in front of the green, from another 40 feet away, Johnson, Thomas, Spieth, Homa, Greiner and Thomas’ dad, Mike, go at it. Together. Bodies almost collide. No ball hits the hole. It’s fun. It’s odd. It’s not over. We need a winner. So the game changes. 

The concept here is more recognizable, but no less difficult. Toss the ball from about 30 feet. In, and you win. The Thomases, son and father, miss. Homa and Greiner miss. Johnson misses. Spieth drips his into the left side of the cup. And he collects. Thomas yells out that he’s glad he didn’t play for what Johnson “wanted to.”

But we’re curious. What was on the line, Mike?

“Jordan did well,” he tells you as he walks to the parking lot. “He made four figures.”

Not bad. 

How best do you encapsulate the friendly, nearly brotherly, vibe between Spieth and Thomas, who will help lead Team USA against the Internationals starting Thursday. It’s a whole lot of this. And a joke about a fan rope. [You may already know who’s involved.] And golf. And some football watching. No fans were here on Presidents Cup Day 1, so this was a chance for them to be them. 

Let’s tag along. 

Hole 3 

Practice rounds are a bit loose today — Homa, in fact, was in California as of early Sunday night East Coast time — so we catch Thomas and Spieth here. On the golf side of things, they hit multiple tee shots. And multiple second shots. And putts, chips and pitches, from all kinds of angles. Mike Thomas, from behind, watches nearly every shot. Johnson is driving in a cart with his name on it; he’s likely been assigned to this duo by captain Davis Love III, and they will very likely be Johnson’s stars next year at the Ryder Cup in Rome. 

JT hops on the cart as they speed up 3 fairway. 

“Playing speed golf is great,” he says. 

Hole 4 and 7 

They play 4, which Spieth and Thomas believe has a different tee from when the Wells Fargo Championship is played here, then skip over to 7. After the tee shots, Johnson talks to Mike Thomas about the weather at a previous event. 

On a short pitch shot to 7 green, Spieth hits a brick embankment ahead of the green, and it caroms into the water. He screams. A volunteer then pulls up in a cart. He’s a golf fan, and he can’t believe it’s just the world’s seventh-ranked golfer, the world’s 13th-ranked golfer and, well, him and you. 

“It’s surreal,” he says. 

On the green, Johnson is going over some sort of analytics. “We’re the 95th percentile,” Spieth shouts to Thomas. 

Hole 7-8 rope 

To the left of 7 green is the 8 tee. And between the two is a rope that will divide the players from the viewing folks this week. But on Monday, it’s a prop. 

As they walk up, Thomas, Spieth and Johnson are all talking about another rope. And Bryson DeChambeau. And how DeChambeau, on Sunday during the LIV Golf event in Chicago, was clotheslined by that rope after hitting a shot. They had all seen it. You probably have, too. Anyway, one of the members of the party comes to the Quail Hollow rope, hits it, drops to a knee and rolls about 5 feet backward. 

Everyone is dying. 

Hole 8    

Thomas hits one tee shot, then wants to hit a second as the gang steps ahead. He shouts at Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, that he’s about to hit, Greller moves one — one — step to the right, is good and Thomas hits a left-to-righter over his head. You probably don’t do this in your Monday games. 

Up ahead, to the left of the fairway, the groundscrew is taking it all in.  

“It’s kind of chill today,” one worker says. 

Hole 9 

On 9 tee, Mackay imitates a swing and points out to the trees on the left. On 9 fairway, Spieth grabs his cellphone from the cart and makes a call, and Thomas is watching something on his phone and doubling over. On the green, Mike Thomas is talking to Johnson, and in the background, three workers are coordinating a video board, while watching ESPN’s highlights of Sunday’s NFL games. There’ll be more NFL in a sec. 

Hole 10 

On 10 tee — which if you have the means this week, try to get to the viewing area above the tee box — Johnson opens up the cooler from the back of his cart and pulls out a baggie that holds snack bars, a Snickers bar and, according to him, a “PB and J.” He tosses Thomas one of the snack bars. 

Holes 11 and 12 

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On 11, Thomas and Spieth each hit thrice off the tee. On 12 tee, you have three options on the dogleg left — play it straight, try to pop it over trees that are on the left, or hook one lowish around the trees. Thomas tries the latter two. 

It’s here you may start to wonder what the feeling is like here, of being buddies and playing buddy golf while, you know, also trying to win an international team event, so you ask someone in the know. Mike Thomas is also his son’s coach, and he had a thought on it all. 

“I mean, they always have a game,” he says. “They’re always going to have a game just to keep their interest. Get more done without the fans. The fans are great, but to have a day without fans, you kind of focus on what you’re doing and not have to turn down autographs and pictures and things like that. It was nice. A lot of these guys have seen this golf course multiple times so it was just getting back out there and getting a feel for it.” 

Hole 13 

Shh…Johnson has pulled up his cart to the tee box. The tires must be soft. On the cart of Fred Couples, another assistant captain, Homa pulls up as Thomas and Spieth are putting. 

Hole 14 

It’s here, on new 14/old 17, where Thomas clinched the 2017 PGA for his first major championship. On Monday, the video board is showing Packers-Bears highlights. Spieth is mesmerized, though he’s a Cowboys fan. Mike Thomas comes up and congratulates Homa on his win. Walking off the tee, Couples watches 49ers highlights, sees Jimmy Garappolo run for a score and shakes his fist. San Fran fans may have had different feelings.  

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Hole 15 

On the green, the games are played, and Thomas tells Johnson and his dad that he wants to go to the range to hit “10 balls.” And all of the parties go their own ways.  

But we’ll end things this way. The day was lighthearted, and this moment was touching. 

Spieth had hit a fairway bunker shot, and Greller was meticulously raking the sand. A woman walked up to within about 10 yards to his right and softly said: “I’m glad you’re here.” 

Greller smiled. 

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The post Who’s playing in the Presidents Cup? Meet the U.S. and International teams appeared first on Golf.

The post Who’s playing in the Presidents Cup? Meet the U.S. and International teams appeared first on Golf.

The stage is set for for the 2022 Presidents Cup where 24 of the PGA Tour’s top golfers — 12 from the United States and 12 from around the world (except for Europe) — will meet for the biennial matches.

Due to the pandemic, this will be the first Presidents Cup since 2019, when the Tiger Woods-captained U.S. team narrowly edged the Ernie Els-led International squad with a miraculous come-from-behind win in Sunday singles.

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The U.S. team holds a dominating 10-1-1 record in the matches and most expect a similarly dominate performance with LIV Golf defectors being ineligible to play in this year’s event and taking the hardest toll on Trevor Immelman’s International team.

Without further ado, let us introduce you to the players who are playing this year.

United States Team

*denotes captain’s pick

Captain: Davis Love III

Love was a six-time member of the U.S. Presidents Cup team and compiled a 16-8-4 record in those matches. Love — who was born in Charlotte, N.C., home of this week’s host, Quail Hollow Club — won 21 times on the PGA Tour, including one major win at the 1997 PGA Championship. He also notably won the 2015 Wyndham Championship at the age of 51, becoming the third-oldest winner in PGA Tour history. Love was an assistant captain on the 2013, 2015 and 2017 Presidents Cup teams and captained the 2012 and 2016 Ryder Cup teams.

Sam Burns

Career Presidents Cup record: First appearance

Burns may have been overshadowed by close friend Scottie Scheffler in the early part of the 2021-22 season, but the Louisianan had a break out year himself, winning three times, including taking down Scheffler in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge in May. This will be his first appearance at either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup.

Patrick Cantlay

Record: 3-2-0 in one appearance (2019)

Cantlay had another solid year in 2022, winning once while defending his crown at the BMW Championship in Wilmington and teaming up with Xander Schauffele to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He played all of his matches in 2019 with Schauffele and figures to do so again. Cantlay was also very successful at last year’s Ryder Cup where he compiled a 3-0-1 record at Whistling Straits, the one tie coming in the only match he wasn’t paired with Schauffele.

Tony Finau

Record: 0-1-3 in one appearance (2019)

The big-hitting Finau had a slow start to the season before catching fire over the summer, notching five top-5s in a stretch of eight events, including back-to-back wins at the 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic in July. He somewhat surprisingly did not notch a win in his only Presidents Cup appearance in 2019. He only had one loss in four matches, however, and he’ll be looking for a new partner as both his partners from 2019, Matt Kuchar and Bryson DeChambeau, are not playing this year. He’s picked up three wins in his two Ryder Cups in 2018 and 2021.

Max Homa*

Record: First appearance

Homa comes in as perhaps the hottest player in the matches. He won in dramatic fashion last week at the PGA Tour season opening Fortinet Championship, holing a chip shot from off the 18th green to win. He also finished a career best tied for fifth in the Tour Championship in his previous start. This will be his first team match appearance.

Billy Horschel*

Record: First appearance

If you were shocked to learn Horschel is making his first ever appearance in either the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup this week, you’re not alone. Horschel’s career resume includes seven PGA Tour titles, including this year’s Memorial Tournament, and the 2014 FedEx Cup. He’s had a mixed bag of a season, missing four of last eight cuts on the PGA Tour, but with the win in Columbus sandwiched between two of them. He did earn a top 10 in his most recent appearance during his title defense at the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship.

Kevin Kisner*

Record: 2-0-2 in one appearance (2017)

Kisner is the oldest player on Team USA’s roster and has become known as somewhat of a match play savant, including a win at the 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and owning an undefeated record at the 2017 Presidents Cup. His best finish this past season was a second at — you guessed it — the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but he did rack up five other top 10s. Kisner will also be looking for a new partner as he played with Phil Mickelson in all three team matches in 2017.

Collin Morikawa*

Record: First appearance

Morikawa came out just as hot as his first three years on Tour to begin this season with five straight finishes of T7 or better, but he fell back to earth a little toward the end of the year, his first on Tour without a win. Although he did lead the U.S. Open through 36 holes, he struggled Saturday and was out of contention by Sunday. The two-time major winner, who is still just 25 years old, showed better form at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August with a T5 finish, but needed to be one of Love’s six captain’s selections to make it to Quail Hollow. He led the U.S. team in qualifying for the Ryder Cup last year and went 3-0-1 at Whistling Straits, his lone tie coming in singles.

Xander Schauffele

Record: 3-2-0 in one appearance (2019)

Like Finau, Schauffele also had a strong end to the season, finishing in the top 20 in all but one of his last 11 events. Again, like Finau, he notched back-to-back wins at the Travelers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. He also teamed with Cantlay for a team win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and figures to see a lot of his close friend whom he has a 4-2-0 record with in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup matches.

Scottie Scheffler

Record: First appearance

Scheffler has come a long way from being a captain’s selection at last year’s Ryder Cup. The Texan notched his first four PGA Tour wins last season, including a major victory at the Masters, and earned the World No. 1 ranking. While he didn’t come away with the FedEx Cup title, PGA Tour Player of The Year honors are a decent consolation — as well as the $5.75 million he got for finishing T2 at East Lake. He went undefeated, going 2-0-1 at Whistling Straits, teaming with Bryson DeChambeau in two four-ball matches. He also beat Kisner at this year’s WGC-Match Play.

Jordan Spieth*

Record: 8-5-1 in three appearances (2013, 2015, 2017)

After missing the 2019 matches, Spieth is back on the U.S. team at just the right time. With stalwarts like Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed absent this year, Spieth and Justin Thomas are the only players with multiple Presidents Cup matches under their belt coming into the week. The 29-year-old notched a win at the RBC Heritage this season and finished a respectable tied for 13th in the FedEx Cup. He carries a career 16-12-4 record in U.S. team cup matches and played with Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed in all of his partner matches in 2015 and 2017. At last year’s Ryder Cup, he paired most often with good buddy Justin Thomas.

Justin Thomas

Record: 6-2-2 in two appearances (2017, 2019)

Thomas may not have met all of his preseason goals, but he notched 11 top 10s last season and his second major title at the PGA Championship. He brings with him the most impressive U.S. team match record, going 12-4-3 across two Presidents Cups and two Ryder Cups. In his two previous Presidents Cups, he paired with Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler and Daniel Berger, all of whom are not playing this week. He figures to play more with Spieth as he did twice at Whistling Straits.

Cameron Young*

Record: First appearance

Young had a debut season to remember, notching six top-three finishes and was one of two rookies to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship. Those top finishes also include just missing out on the playoff at the PGA Championship by one stroke, and the memorable eagle finish at the Open Championship at St. Andrews to earn the runner-up spot.

International Team

*denotes captain’s pick

Captain: Trevor Immelman (South Africa)

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Immelman is the youngest captain in International team history at just 42 years old. The South African is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, including one major, holding off Tiger Woods to win the 2008 Masters. He’s also picked up six victories around the world on the DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour. He’s a two-time veteran of the Presidents Cup and served as assistant captain under Ernie Els in 2019. Many fans will know him now for his broadcasting as he is expected to take over as the lead analyst for CBS’s golf coverage, following Nick Faldo.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout* (South Africa)

Record: First appearance

Bezuidenhout had a solid rookie year, making 20 cuts in 24 starts on the PGA Tour with 10 top-25 finishes. He’s perhaps better known in Europe, having a breakout year in 2020 while notching three victories including the Alfred Dunhill Championship. His best finish on the PGA Tour in 2022 was a T2 showing at the John Deere Classic and he advanced to the second FedEx Cup Playoff event at the BMW Championship. He’s one of five Presidents Cup first-timers selected by Immelman.

Corey Conners (Canada)

Record: First appearance

Conners played his way to the Tour Championship for the third time of his career thanks to 20 made cuts in 25 starts and four top-10 finishes. One of those top 10s came last month at the BMW Championship where he finished in T5, but he missed the cut last week in the PGA Tour’s season-opening Fortinet Championship. The Canadian has one win under his belt on the PGA Tour, coming at the 2019 Valero Texas Open.

Cam Davis* (Australia)

Record: First appearance

Davis notched five top-10s in 25 starts last season on the PGA Tour. His best golf came toward the end of the season when he made his last 10 cuts in a row. His best year on Tour came a season ago when he made 21 of 26 cuts and notched his debut win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. His cuts-made streak broke last week at the Fortinet Championship where rounds of 74 and 70 sent him to Charlotte early.

Sungjae Im (South Korea)

Record: 3-1-1 in one appearance (2019)

The iron man of the PGA Tour, nobody plays more golf than Sungjae Im. Im had another strong season on Tour in 2021-22, winning for the second time at the Shriners Children’s Open and finishing strong with three T2 finishes in his last five events, including at the Tour Championship. The World No. 19 will be heavily relied upon as one of just four veterans on the International team with Presidents Cup experience. All three of his partners from Royal Melbourne — Adam Hadwin, Abraham Ancer and Cameron Smith — are not on the team this year.

Tom Kim (South Korea)

Record: First appearance

Kim burst onto the scene in 2022, finishing third at the Genesis Scottish Open, seventh at the Rocket Mortgage, and then capturing his first win at the Wyndham Championship in August to secure his PGA Tour membership and even qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He was only a special temporary member when he won, but had earned enough points to get his full status for 2023. He’s now exempt through 2024 and he auto-qualified for the International team.

K. H. Lee* (South Korea)

Record: First appearance

Lee has two PGA Tour titles and both have come at the AT&T Byron Nelson. At this year’s tournament, Lee outdueled Jordan Spieth down the stretch to defend his title. The rest of his season wasn’t much to write home about, with almost as many missed cuts (7) as top-25s (8), until he used T20 and T5 finishes in the first two Playoff events to catapult his way into his first Tour Championship appearance.

Hideki Matsuyama (Japan)

Record: 6-7-4 in four appearances (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)

Hard to believe the 30-year-old Matuyama is about to start his fifth Presidents Cup, but the Japanese star heads to Quail Hollow as the alpha of the International squad. It was another good year for the World No. 17 on the PGA Tour, finishing 11th in the FedEx Cup after winning twice, with one of those victories coming last fall in his home country at the Zozo Championship. Only one of his previous partners, Adam Scott, is on the roster this week and they haven’t played together since Matsuyama’s Presidents Cup debut in 2013.

Sebastián Muñoz* (Colombia)

Record: First appearance

Munoz hasn’t quite played up to the same level as he did in his breakout season in 2019-20 when he got his first win at the Sanderson Farms Championship and then went on to finish 8th in the final FedEx Cup standings thanks to a solid performance at East Lake, but his 2021-22 campaign was enough to earn a captain’s pick. He had two runner-up finishes on the season.

Si Woo Kim* (South Korea)

Record: 1-2-0 in one appearance (2017)

Kim was the only one of Immelman’s captain’s selections with previous Presidents Cup experience, winning a four-ball match and losing in foursomes and singles matches in New Jersey in 2017. That season was also the year of his signature win, The Players Championship. He won in early 2021 at The American Express, but has not played well as of late, only recording one top 10s in 21-22, last fall at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Both of his partners from 2017 are not on this year’s team.

Taylor Pendrith* (Canada)

Record: First appearance

Normally for a rookie, an injury can be devastating. Taylor Pendrith missed time between The Players in March and the Barbasol Championship in July because of a rip injury, but it didn’t stop him from earning nine top 25s in 16 starts. Since coming back from the injury, Pendrith finished worse than T13th once in six starts, including a tie for second at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a tie for eighth at the BMW Championship.

Mito Pereira (Chile)

Record: First appearance

Heartbreak at the PGA Championship overshadowed what was otherwise a very respectable debut season on the PGA Tour for Pereira. He opened the year with a solo third at the Fortinet Championship and had two other top 10s, including at Southern Hills. Of course his season will be remembered for the leading the PGA through 71 holes, only to hit his tee shot in the water on 18, leading to a double bogey and missing the playoff. Pereira was rumored to be joining LIV Golf, but reportedly is waiting to jump so he could play in the Presidents Cup.

Adam Scott (Australia)

Record: 16-22-6 in nine appearances

The 42-year old hasn’t missed a Presidents Cup since 2001 and is by far the most experienced player on either team, having more appearances than the entire International team combined and as many as the entire American team combined. His 10th appearance will break his own record for the Internationals. He also has a chance to tie or pass Ernie Els’ International record of 21 points this week. Aging like fine wine, the 42-year-old didn’t win on the PGA Tour this year, but only missed two cuts all year and had five top 10s. His back-to-back T5s to start the FedEx Cup Playoffs helped him play his way into the Tour Championship from outside the top 70 at the end of the regular season. Matsuyama is the only teammate his paired with before on the International roster.

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The post Insight, a jab and disaster: This Jordan Spieth-Michael Greller exchange is the best appeared first on Golf.

The post Insight, a jab and disaster: This Jordan Spieth-Michael Greller exchange is the best appeared first on Golf.

Jordan Spieth was wrong. 

Michael Greller was right. 

We were all winners.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. The dialogue between Spieth the golfer and Greller his caddie has turned into a must-listen affair over the years, oftentimes because Spieth desires to play the impossible, Greller wants the possible and they debate. TV mics have become wise to follow the pair along, which they did during a sequence during Saturday’s third round of the BMW Championship. 

Tied for the lead at that point, Spieth had hit his tee shot on the par-4 5th at Wilmington Country Club into a left fairway bunker, at the start of its front upslope. The flag was 158 yards away. Water short and left of the green was about 10 yards closer. There was a patch of grass in between. And the conversation started. 

“I mean, this is the same as where I was in yesterday,” Spieth said as he stood in the bunker. “So if I strike it well, if it’s up, it’s on the green.” 

“Yeah, I know,” Greller said. “What’s wrong with hitting right here, having a wedge to 15 feet?”

Spieth wanted to go for it. Greller was looking at a shot out to the right, away from the water. Remember those cartoons where there’s an angel on one shoulder, and a devil on the other? This is kinda that. Spieth and Greller continued their discussion. 

“Because I think that if — I mean, prioritize getting it up, and it comes out either fat or it doesn’t quite and it kinda hits the grass, the chances of it going up into that water is so slim,” Spieth said. “Like it would be short and now I need to hit the same wedge shot 20 feet right, but I think I can get it up and out and/or I can get a 9 [iron] to the right. But I still think going long is better. I’m just going to try to hit it really high.”

“You want to see how a 9 feels at that right bunker?” Greller said. 

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The caddie tried again. The conversation continued. 

“No, I don’t think it makes that much of a difference,” Spieth said. “I’m still going at the middle of the green. I’m on an upslope. Just trying to throw it straight up into the air, as long as you think that’s enough. It’s not supposed to be a hurt wind, right?”

“Yeah, it mainly is a bunch of hurt,” Greller said.  

“From this angle?” Spieth asked. 

“Look at the compass,” Greller said.  

At this point, Spieth walked over to Greller and looked at the yardage book. The conversation continued. 

“South would help, southwest would be helping,” Spieth said. “This angle would be pretty neutral.” 

“Yeah,” Greller said. 

“Stand into it and see,” Spieth said.  

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Spieth went back to his ball. The conversation continued, though it was reaching its end. 

So Greller got pointed. 

“I just feel it’s a cool Tuesday, Wednesday shot,” he said. “I mean, what’s …”  

Nope. 

“I actually think it can do it,” Spieth said. “And I think that the downside is almost the same, OK. This one’s on me, all right.”

“All right, I trust you,” Greller said. “All right, come on, trust your instincts here,” 

“It’s a good number,” Spieth said.  

“Yep,” Greller said. 

Before we continue on, the resolution is worth a note. Greller had lost the argument. Then quickly supported his man. Think of how you feel when you fail to persuade. Though Greller, as far as we could tell, did not react with what came.   

Spieth hit his ball into the water. 

“Oh no, I fatted it,” Spieth said. And he laughed.

And you probably did too.  

Spieth would go on to double-bogey the hole.

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The post Jordan Spieth saved his best stuff Saturday for *after* his round appeared first on Golf.

The post Jordan Spieth saved his best stuff Saturday for *after* his round appeared first on Golf.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Jordan Spieth this week is staying at the oh-so-convenient Rusacks hotel, which overlooks the opening and closing holes of the Old Course. For Spieth, the short commute to the 150th Open Championship isn’t the only perk of bunking at the Rusacks; the building also has an ice machine, which the 2017 Champion Golfer of the Year knows is a precious commodity around these parts.  

“Ice is hard to get into a Coca-Cola over here,” Spieth joked Saturday evening after posting a third-round 68 that moved him to eight under for the championship, in a tie for 11th. “I’m very lucky that they have access to a big ice machine, and they bring [me] bags of ice.”

Spieth isn’t mixing Moscow Mules at his minibar. He has been using the ice to fix himself chilled baths, which help to rejuvenate his tired, aching legs. Cold therapy, he said, is “the most beneficial thing I’ve found.”

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“I feel like I get fresh legs the next day,” he said. “I try to get physio work on them and do that. I do that and NormaTec boots — you know, those compression pants that people wear. I do those every night on the road and ice bath. If I don’t do them, I actually feel my legs are fatigued the next morning. When I do, I don’t notice it.”

Spieth said the baths also help him sleep better.

Just as you never know what you might get from Spieth from one round to the next, same holds true of his press conferences. He’s typically some combination of honest, insightful, expansive and, sometimes, a little scattered. To put it in golf terms, you don’t know if you’re going to get a flop shot or a bump-and-run. Spieth’s Saturday-evening session at St. Andrews was no exception.

Here are 5 other fun nuggets he dropped before repairing to his room for an icy plunge:

1. Longest. Wait. Ever.

On the Old Course’s par-4 7th Saturday, Spieth blasted a 371-yard drive that left him 4 feet for eagle. Then, as has so often been the case this week for the field on a rambling links that crisscrosses over itself, Spieth waited to play his shot…and waited…and waited.  

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“It was probably 25, 30 minutes from when I teed off to when I had my putt,” he said.

That’s enough time to watch an episode of your favorite sitcom — with commercials!

“I just hate that,” he said of the delay. When the time finally did come to settle in over his putt, Spieth said, “I just overthought it and missed it.”

Disappointing birdies are rare. But this one fully qualified.

2. Why players are leaving so many putts short  

The variances of the Old Course’s green speeds have been giving players fits, Spieth said.

But he didn’t mean that as a setup knock. It’s a necessary evil.

“Some greens are green, and some are really brown now,” Spieth said. “The 7th and the 9th are just a totally different surface. One of them is super-green and kind of grabs the ball, and then the 9th is, like, watch out, it’s glass.

“It makes sense on those holes, though, because, on 7, if it was glass, it wouldn’t be fair. But on the 9th, if it was green, it would be too easy. I think they’ve done a great job of where that is. Like, 17 is super-green behind it, but if it was brown, it would be unplayable.”

The vicious pin positions have also contributed to players’ putting woes, Spieth said. Take the 16th green in the third round, where the hole was cut atop a knob no bigger than your dining room table. Nightmare stuff.

“A lot of the pin locations are in these tiny little tucked corners where, if you hit it more than 5 feet by, it goes 50 feet away,” Spieth said. “Guys are leaving them way short not for the same reason they were leaving them short last week. It’s because you almost have to.

“If you’re more than 30 feet away, it’s difficult to judge a bit with the wind. You’ve got a lot of ridge-riders where, if you hit it too firm, it takes that knob, but they’re not fast enough to be able to ride onto the fault line and get to the hole. It gets challenging if you don’t hit it on the flat spots of the greens. Does that answer that? That was a lot.”

It was, yeah, but keep it coming, Jordo!

3. Why he’s not doing that curious pre-swing “rehearsal” as much as he has been

If you’ve watched Spieth in recent months, you’ve seen his odd pre-swing rehearsal, in which, as my colleague Luke Kerr-Dineen has explained, “he gets into his setup position, makes a full backswing and transition move, then resumes his setup. A few seconds later, he starts his actual swing.”

This week and last (at the Scottish Open), Spieth has largely ditched the move, if not entirely.

Instruction

“I’m trying to go away from it, but I haven’t really swung the club very well this week at all,” he said. “Even the rehearsals I’m doing behind the ball aren’t quite hitting the spots I want to.”

And here he expounded, opening yet another channel into Spieth’s busy mind.

“That happens,” he said. “I go two steps forward, one step back kind of thing. Just from Round 1 it hasn’t really been on. I don’t think doing a rehearsal over the ball would help.

“I find myself doing a better job being shot focused if I’m not doing the rehearsal versus swing focused with the rehearsal. Having said that, I won with doing the rehearsal every swing. It can be done. It’s more I’d rather not and just kind of be reactive. Here and there, I think I’ll go back to different versions of it.”

Your head spinning yet? Ours is, too.

4. How to sleep on a 54-hole lead

“I’ve been fortunate to have quite a number of them,” Spieth began. “It’s always a little uneasy. If you can take your mind off of it going to bed, watch a show or a movie and stay off your phone.”

And then? Well, yeah, go to sleep!

What you want to avoid, Spieth said, is waking up in the wee hours and thinking about the challenge that awaits. If you don’t sleep well, he added, try again in the morning.   

“You’ve got time from 8 [a.m.] to noon if you need to go back to sleep,” he said. “Over here, it’s more so the fact that you tee off so late. It’s almost frustrating that the tee times are so late over here.”

On Sunday, co-leaders Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland will set off at 2:50 p.m. local time, which, to be fair, is actually 65 minutes earlier than the final pairing of Cameron Young and Cameron Smith teed off Saturday.

5. Can Spieth win Sunday?

Spieth has work — like, serious work — to do Sunday if he wants to put a scare into the leaders. At eight under through three rounds, he’s eight back of McIlroy and Hovland.  

“Even if I shoot 8 [under on Sunday], I still think I lose by more than three,” he said. “I would need to finish my round and have some kind of crazy monsoon tomorrow to have a chance.”

The forecast in St. Andrews calls for light rain and a moderate breeze, but alas no monsoon.

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The post Hey, Jordan Spieth, who’s better: 2015 Spieth, or … today’s Spieth? appeared first on Golf.

The post Hey, Jordan Spieth, who’s better: 2015 Spieth, or … today’s Spieth? appeared first on Golf.

A disclaimer before we begin: A lot has happened over the past seven years, and many golf balls have been hit, so Jordan Spieth’s self-analysis here is not exactly scientific. 

To that point, his recall of the 2015 Open Championship is a bit foggy. 

“I really don’t remember but a few shots here or there,” he said. “Obviously the closing stretch Sunday I remember. But I remember starting out, I birdied No. 1, I remember on Sunday. (Editor’s note: He’s right!) And I remember 16 in (birdie), but I didn’t even remember 13 (par), 14 (par), 15 (par). I didn’t even remember the holes until I got back on property, which is a bit odd.

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“I think it’s going to play significantly different this year because I think we only had one day where it was maybe calm in this wind direction. The other three were blowing hard the other way. So it’s a totally different golf course.

“We hit driver the entire back nine; you’re hitting mid-irons into greens. Now, I hit a hold 4-iron on 16 that almost reached the bunker at 3, whatever, holding the wind. So it’s playing totally different as far as each hole specifically.”

This week, Spieth will play the Open Championship as one of the favorites, and deservedly so. He has five top 10s this year, which include a win and a tie for 10th last week at the Scottish Open. He’s 12th in the world. And from just a golf sense, his game embraces the subtleties of links golf; it demands creativity, and Spieth is a right-brain golfer.

Of course, in 2015, Spieth was the pick. In December of 2014, he won. In March of 2015, he won. He won the Masters. He won the U.S. Open. A week before the Open Championship, he won. Then at St. Andrews, where the Open is also being played this year, Spieth finished a single shot out of the three-man playoff that determined the winner. 

All of which led to an engaging question to Spieth on Tuesday in his pre-tournament press conference:

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“Do you think of yourself as a better golfer now or when you were here in 2015?”

His answer? As expected, yes and no. Did you think he was going to answer he’s a lesser player than he has been, just two days before the start of the event? Probably not. Then again, it’s notable. Before this recent stretch, Spieth had been mired in a well-documented valley, and if the man is saying he can hang with his best self, that’s at least something. 

“I think of myself as having a bit more momentum in 2015,” Spieth answered. “I don’t know how you can have more. But I think there’s certain parts of my game that I feel are stronger, and there’s certain parts of my game where I’m just trying to get right back to where they were at that point in time.

“So I would say if I played against myself then, if I beat myself then this week, then I would be holding a trophy. So it would be obviously, certainly a big challenge, but I don’t necessarily know that I could answer that because I feel I hit it farther, I feel that my knowledge, round to round, of seeing a lot more majors and a lot more tournaments can mentally make me just a little bit — maybe I have some advantage on a shot that I wouldn’t have thought about then. But I was also canning everything that I looked at then, and I can’t say that’s going to happen every week forever, but it certainly can happen in four days.”

To continue the conversation, and for fun, let’s look at some of the Strokes Gained figures from this year and 2015. Of course, not that they are the end all, be all, but they tell you both that Spieth’s run seven years ago was, indeed, ridiculous, but also he’s at least comparable now, except in one very glaring way: 

2014-15
SG: Off the Tee, 15th overall (.494)
SG: Approach the Green, 11th (.618)
SG: Around the Green, 7th (.471)
SG: Putting, 9th (.571)
SG: Tee to Green, 4th (1.583)
SG: Total, 2nd (2.154) 

2021-22
SG: Off the Tee, 32nd overall (.389)
SG: Approach the Green, 41st (.397)
SG: Around the Green, 25th (.303)
SG: Putting, 145th (-.133)
SG: Tee to Green, 20th (1.090)
SG: Total, 31st (.957) 

You know the story here: Should his putter get hotter, Spieth could very well be there again on Sunday. Granted, we can say this every week, which is why maybe the whole conversation of confidence from earlier takes on more relevance. 

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Think of it this way: If you’re wanting a Spieth putting breakthrough, you don’t want him sounding tepid. 

“This is unlike any other tournament really, The Open at St Andrews,” Spieth said. “It certainly hasn’t disappointed being on the grounds this week. The course is incredibly firm. The greens are flawless, and the setting as you come in these closing holes is even more grand than it was seven years ago.

“So very exciting. I think, if you’re not getting amped up to play in this Open, I’m not sure this is the right sport for you. It’s extremely, extremely exciting. I’m looking forward to getting out there. I guess I’m off at 3-ish on the first round. So get to see a bit of how the course is going to be playing to start, which might be a good thing, and then go out and brave the wind.”

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