Jordan Spieth’s promising start at TPC Sawgrass seems to have ended as soon as it began. In case you missed the dramatic day, allow us to give you a glimpse into it. Early in the morning, the World No. 65 began strong. Starting on the back nine, the American golfer’s round featured a birdie-eagle start and a double bogey. Spieth recorded a double bogey on holes 14 and 15, followed by a 77-foot chip-in eagle on 16, and then a bogey on the 17th Island green. To top off his performance, he finished with a birdie on hole 18. Sounds awesome so far. But as he moved to the other 9 holes, Jordan Spieth’s sparkling performance seemed to dim a little. Ouch! But how?

He followed it quite well, though it was no doubt toned down from his back nine performance. Spieth carded a par on the first hole, then followed it up with a birdie at the par-5 second hole. The next four holes mirrored the fate of the first hole, and Spieth recorded a bogey on the 7th hole. He made par on the 8th and 9th holes. Consequently, his score was a 2-under 70. Now, he has dropped to T14! So, what went wrong?

Undoubtedly, the golfer tends to experience dramatic swings in his performance, with a mix of eagles and bogeys. When asked if he can sense these chaotic stretches during a game, Spieth says he knows what he’s doing. “But, I mean, no, I feel like I’d like it to be boring, and I’m still in a position where I’m not at the place I want to be and just trying to work my way there. So when that happens, there’s going to be volatility.” Undoubtedly, Spieth accepts that these ups and downs will happen as he seeks to find his game during the tournaments.

Does this awareness frustrate the golfer? “This time it wasn’t from making a dumb mistake. I made a bad swing. So sometimes—that’s okay. A lot of the time when it happens, it’s because I’m trying to do too much, and that’s when I become aware of it, and that’s the most frustrating part. A bad swing means I can learn how to make better swings.” He followed that by recalling the mistake he made on the 9th hole, where he didn’t execute a good shot out of the fairway. Eventually, Spieth noted that this forced him to settle for par on the par-5 9th. But Jordan Spieth’s frustration with TPC Sawgrass is age-old.

Jordan Spieth and the curse of losses

The thing is, when anyone questions Jordan Spieth’s moderate performance, they are not undermining his exceptional ball control or his unwavering confidence. If you look at his years following that last win at the 2022 RBC Heritage, you’d want to pull your hair out in worry too. This year, his best finish came at the WM Phoenix Open with a T4. It sounded promising, suggesting that Spieth was finally returning to form after years of drought. However, it didn’t hold up. He missed the cut at the Genesis Invitational and followed that with a T9 finish at the Cognizant Classic.

Back in January, after announcing a return after his wrist surgery, the golfer said he just wanted to focus on getting in good form. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on a hot start. I just want to get back into a rhythm.” Now that we are finally heading into the heart of The PLAYERS Championship, fans wonder if they can finally hope for better from the golfer.

After all, Spieth has admitted he is feeling better about his wrist injury on Thursday. Looking at the start of the round, things looked promising. However, the truth is that Jordan Spieth hasn’t always found success at The PLAYERS Championship. His best performance came back in 2014 with a T4 finish. That was over a decade ago!

In the following 10 appearances from 2015 to 2024, Spieth missed the cut 6 times. After posting one of the worst scores at TPC Sawgrass (79 in 2022), Spieth has unfortunately not finished in the Top 10 once since his 2014 finish. The frustration is mounting, but Spieth seems confident regardless. “All the volatility was just in those first five, six holes, and from there it was just almost and just close to being really good.” No doubt, after tomorrow, fans will be eagerly looking for something magical again. Will it happen? That remains to be seen.