Jordan Spieth arrived on the PGA Tour as golf’s golden child. He became the Masters and the U.S. Open champion in 2015. Then, he conquered the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale by surviving the 13th‑hole meltdown and going eagle‑birdie‑birdie in a four‑hole blitz to close out Matt Kuchar. It has been nine years since then. As the event returns to Royal Birkdale, the American professional is no longer the player he once was. In fact, analysts believe he is on the verge of being sidelined by fans during conversations about the elites.

“It was his second wire-to-wire major championship [the Open 2017]. Just king of the world. Obviously, none of us would have predicted we’d be sitting here in the year of our lord 2026, and he’d still have just three majors,” analyst Randy said on the No Laying Up Podcast. “And quite frankly, he’s not all that relevant this week, and that really hurts.

“And so I guess the storyline what I’m going to wake up Thursday, what’s Jordan Spieth do in round one? Is there a possibility somehow someway he can rekindle refine the magic? Not I don’t need it all the time. It’d be great just this week, you know, just give me a little of it. Listen, if we can’t find something here at the Birkdale, if we can’t have a spirited week, if we can’t be in and around the top ten going into the weekend, I hate where this is headed.

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“He hasn’t topped ten this whole year. He hasn’t topped ten in a major since the 2023 Masters. This could be a celebration of life for him. I think maybe we just celebrate what he was this week, and I might have to just push him out of my consciousness after. I don’t wanna think about it after this week. I can’t believe that’s where we are.”

Spieth’s Open record is the reason this week still matters so much. In the last five appearances in the Open, his performance has been in reverse gear. In 2021, he finished runner-up with rounds of 65-67-69-66. Then, in 2022, he dropped to T8, and it has gotten worse since then. He finished T23 in 2023, T25 in 2024, and T40 last year.

It’s not just the Open Championship alone. His performances in the majors are on a downward trend. While he had three major victories on his resume by 2017, he has not had one since. This year, he was T12 at the Masters, T18 at the PGA Championship, and T56 at the US Open.

The numbers clearly hint that he has lost touch. Even if you don’t consider majors alone, his last PGA Tour victory came at the 2022 RBC Heritage. It has been more than four years since he won anything.

The same reflects in his stats. This year, his SG: Total is 0.322, and he ranks 60th on the PGA Tour in that aspect. Just for comparison, this same statistic was 13th-best 0.899 last year and a second-best 2.154 in the 2014-2015 season, when he was at his peak.

That’s why he needs to recreate that magic at the Open Championship this year.

There are a few positives on his side, though. One of the biggest is that he has been most consistent at the Open out of all majors. Since 2014, he hasn’t missed a cut at the event. Besides that, he has five top-10 finishes in 12 Open starts.

Additionally, a video from Golf Channel shows that Jordan Spieth is all dialed in at Royal Birkdale. He is doing his practice rounds and appears to be in decent touch. But whether he can pull up a miracle that fans expect or not remains to be seen.