Hasn’t finished inside top 10 at TPC Sawgrass since tournament debut in 2014

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Jordan Spieth hasn’t finished in the top 10 at THE PLAYERS since his tournament debut in 2014, but he could reconcile that drought this week. He opened in 2-under 70 on a tricky Thursday morning where several esteemed pros shot in the high 70s.

Still, the diabolical Pete Dye design continues to vex Spieth on occasion. It caught up to him at the par-5 ninth Thursday, his final hole of the day, as he tried to push his 299-yard second shot toward the green and tugged it into a wooded area well left; he was blocked from attacking the hole on his third shot and did well to save par. Spieth felt he had made mostly good decisions until that point. But TPC Sawgrass’ PLAYERS Stadium Course finds its way into the psyche.

“Pete Dye got me again,” Spieth said Thursday. “When you don't have a wedge out of the fairway, you just have to take your medicine on these par 5s, play the angles and stuff like that. I probably lost a shot there.”

Spieth stood four strokes behind morning-wave leader Lucas Glover (66) on Thursday, firmly in the mix, and he was upbeat as he assessed his round afterward, a vintage Spieth showing with ample highlights and lowlights. He holed out for eagle from a greenside bunker at the par-5 11th (his second hole of the day), and he chipped in for eagle from left of the par-5 16th green. In between, he made a double bogey at the par-4 14th after hooking his tee shot into the water hazard left of the fairway. He recorded two birdies (Nos. 10 and 18) and two bogeys (Nos. 15 and 17) on a nine that featured just two pars.

Spieth’s second nine was more conventional with seven pars, a birdie and bogey. He was asked afterward which style of golf he preferred, all else being equal. Fans might feel otherwise, but Spieth prefers less volatility.

“I'm obviously very aware of what I'm doing,” Spieth said with a laugh. “I mean, I feel like I'd like it to be boring, and then I'm still in a position right now where I'm still 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. I don't feel super tight yet, but I do feel like I'm on the right path and I've had a number of tournaments where I've played boring towards the end and I've had plenty where there's volatility too.”

The former world No. 1 has missed five cuts in 10 starts at THE PLAYERS, and other than a tie for fourth in 2014 (at age 20, amidst his rapid ascent to superstardom), he has finished inside the top 40 just once at TPC Sawgrass.

Spieth arrived this week still working his way back from offseason wrist surgery that sidelined him for roughly five months last fall; he returned to action in early February and has notched two top-10 finishes in four starts, saying in recent weeks that he feels ahead of schedule in his comeback.

Spieth is continuing to knock off the rust, he said Thursday, meaning he needs to hit more balls than normal in his practice sessions. It’s a delicate balance in ensuring not to re-aggravate his wrist.

He feels good this week, he said, and his score reflects it.

“I had to kind of rebuild stuff from a few months of nothing, and it wasn't like I was coming back to something that was already great right before,” Spieth said. “I was in some really bad habits for a year and a half. So it just takes maybe double the balls that I hit prior, and my wrist feels really good this week. I'm very excited about that, so that allows me to feel like I can go out right now and push it a bit, when I couldn't the first few weeks … of the season.”

Spieth didn’t compete at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard after finishing outside the top 50 on the 2024 FedExCup standings and failing to qualify via the Aon Next 10 or Aon Swing 5. He only took one day off; normally he would have taken more of a break, but he liked his feels and wanted to preserve a rhythm into THE PLAYERS.

There’s a long way to go, but it seems he was onto something.