Smylie Kaufman has revealed what Jacob Bridgeman told him about playing alongside Jordan Spieth for the first two days of the Valspar Championship this past week.
It proved to be another mixed week for Spieth this season. The three-time major champion is still awaiting his first top 10 of the year on the PGA Tour.
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However, there were some positive signs at Innisbrook. Spieth finished tied for 11th for the second time in three starts, and certainly flirted with putting himself in contention at times.
What Jacob Bridgeman said about Jordan Spieth’s game after the Valspar Championship
The PGA Tour noted on social media that Spieth actually made more birdies across the week than Matthew Fitzpatrick, who ended up winning the title at the Valspar.
With that, it is intriguing that it is rapidly approaching four years since Spieth’s most recent victory on the PGA Tour. Of course, he was dealing with a wrist injury for much of that time, but there have been plenty of glimpses of the player who looked destined to become an all-time great at the start of his career.
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It seems that one of his playing partners at the Valspar was just as baffled by Spieth’s game.
Speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman explained what Jacob Bridgeman told him about Spieth’s game as they waited for a flight following the event in Florida.
Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images
“He played with Jordan the first two days and he’s like, ‘buddy, when he’s on right now, it is unbelievable. But when it starts to kind of get a little bit off, it’s almost second guessing, where the wind all of a sudden feels like it’s doing more than what it should’,” he said.
“Sometimes, it’s just a nine iron and trust that the wind’s there. I think sometimes he gets a little bit, I don’t know if it’s in his own head, trying to do too much sometimes, trying to play every shot perfectly and have the perfect conditions, but it seems like something gets in his way a little bit. And I don’t think I can quite put my finger on it, but from what Jacob said, he plays phenomenal golf, just hits all the right shots. He said his putting from 10 feet to 30 feet’s a joke. His up and downs that he was making, he said it was hectic. He talked about on Friday, I think he had three plugged lies and he was just shocked he was getting plugged lies. It’s like dude, everybody’s getting plugged lies. It’s everybody here.
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“I don’t know for 72 holes what needs to happen. In those moments, how can you slow everything down? You know he wants it bad, you know he wants to be in all the signature events next year. You know he wants to be exempt for the majors. You know he wants to win these events, because you’ve seen glimpses of these hot starts. He was four under through five to start the event. Three under through four on Friday. Sunday, he was three under through five. Those hot starts are what you need to win golf tournaments. And I think, a lot of times with players, especially guys who are close, those are the signs that you need to see. So I think he is close, but we’ve got to find a way to get over the mental hump of putting together 18 holes. It always seems like something happens in a round.
“The reason why I feel good about Jordan heading into this major season, especially at Augusta, he gained four strokes approaching the green on Sunday. It was playing difficult, it was windy, the greens were firm. Four strokes is a stupid amount of strokes gained with an iron, so he’s obviously striping it too. He’s got so much success around that place. I’m just interested to see if we can get, for me, the biggest hurdle is can you clean up everything inside of five feet? It just looks like it’s hard work. It never looks quite as comfortable as it does from eight to 15, where it feels like the stroke has so much more flow to it. Those are the momentum killers in a round, when you’re missing putts that are ones you should make inside of four-and-a-half, five feet.”
Spieth’s PGA Tour statistics outline just how frustrating the last three years must have been
What must be particularly frustrating for Spieth is that all of the pieces have been there over the last couple of years.
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While he was dealing with his wrist injury, he actually became one of the better drivers of the golf ball on the PGA Tour. Clearly, it helped that he did not have to worry about interaction with the turf with the driver in his hand.
He was 15th on tour for strokes gained off the tee in 2024. Meanwhile, he was still 33rd in that category last year.
However, he is currently languishing in 114th this season. He is 33rd for his approach play, and 27th for his putting.
So putting it all together at the right time is proving to be a real challenge for the Texan.
Thankfully, he is just a couple of weeks away from returning to Augusta National, a golf course that has given him plenty of happy memories over the years.
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