The latest Jordan Spieth warning to the remainder of this week’s Open Championship field has arrived. The 21-year-old, who claimed his fourth victory of a stunning year at the John Deere Classic on Sunday, said in the aftermath that there is real scope for improvement.
Spieth triumphed in an Illinois play-off over Tom Gillis. On day three, the world No2 had scored a career-best 61. Concerns over Spieth choosing the PGA Tour rather than Scottish Open for his buildup to the third major of the year were therefore swatted aside. “I have got plenty in the tank,” the young Texan said. Spieth also insists better is to come.
“My driver is really good on the range,” explained Spieth. “I’m not patient enough in my back swing on the golf course. It’s easy on the driving range because there’s no penalty to it. But on the golf course when there’s trouble in play, I’m getting a little steep.
“At the top of my swing my club’s not pointed at the target. I’m hitting it where my club’s pointed, but that’s pretty far to the right. So I’ve got some work to do, obviously, because the driver is a very important club at St Andrews. I do really need to fine-tune my driver. I love where my putting is at. Really my pace control, my speed, is awesome right now.”
Victory at St Andrews would set Spieth apart as a history maker and the first player since Ben Hogan to win the first three majors of a year. He would be threequarters of the way towards a grand slam and would upstage Rory McIlroy as the top-ranked golfer in the world.
“I will be focused solely on how I can learn as much as I can these next three days and then just keep this going into the tournament,” he insisted. “I just want to put myself in position. I feel like if I do that, that same formula that I continue to talk about and not just majors, but any tournament, will kick in mentally.
“So it’ll just come down to the physical skills and the draw and whatnot there. But no thoughts past this week will come into my head while I’m there.”
Spieth’s commitment to the John Deere tournament had a benefit beyond another taste of success. A wet Scottish summer thus far means the Old Course does not resemble anything like the scorched links which could take the American players by surprise. When Spieth last visited St Andrews, he was an amateur.
“I love the town, I loved the R&A clubhouse. I love the Himalayas putting greens, the entire experience being there for two days was really cool,” he recalled.
“The golf course specifically, I think it’s just mind-boggling that it can hold the test of time and still host a major championship, centuries and centuries after it was built. And you know, with just minor tweaks here and there.
“So I’m excited to get there. It has yielded very low scores. That’s why I think this is advantageous to feel like you’re making a lot of birdies, feel like you need to make a lot of birdies. That way you can be maybe a little more aggressive than you would normally be starting a major championship, but I think it all depends on getting over there and establishing a game plan because when I played it whenever it was, three and a half years ago, I was in very much a different position and could take more chances.”
