Last year was a rough year for Jordan Spieth, and as he enters the Sony Open, which begins Thursday, the 25-year-old wants a season more like 2017 than last year. In 2018, Spieth struggled, going winless and finishing in the top 10 five times. The prior year he had three wins, including the Open Championship, and finished in the top 10 eight other times.
The beginning of the PGA Tour season, which started in October, did not provide a positive indicator for Spieth. He played in two events, missing the cut at the Mayakoba Classic, and finishing 55th in the Shriners.
It was an eventful last half of 2018 for Spieth. He was embroiled in a controversy with Patrick Reed at the Ryder Cup, when Reed accused Spieth of telling captain Jim Furyk he didn’t want to play with Reed. Spieth denied that he asked to be paired with someone else.
Better news happened to Spieth in November when he got married. But because he was preoccupied with his nuptials, he didn’t practice as much as he would have liked. The Sony might turn out to be a place where Spieth is assessing his game, something he might have done a month ago.
Despite finishing 18th at Waialae Country Club last year, and being a 16/1 pick to win, Spieth enjoys coming to Hawaii.
“I really enjoy this golf course,†Spieth said. “The first year I played it, you actually have to learn quite a bit of how to map yourself around this place, and the ball rolls a lot more here than it did any place else, and I tried to do a little too much. I remember hitting driver, 3 wood a lot the first year I played it and missed the cut. Then last year played pretty smart, didn’t putt very well.”
Course Could be True Winner
As relaxed as this tournament is, this course is definitely not a vacation for the golfers. It is one of the most challenging on tour, and they must navigate tight fairways and tricky greens.
Tournament favorite Justin Thomas, who is at 6/1, won here in 2017, said course management is key.
“It’s the hardest fairways to hit on tour I think, and the greens aren’t big, and the rough is kind of that length to where you can get some flyers or it can come out dead,†Thomas said. “The biggest thing is just getting it in play, because I can just hit a lot of 2-irons out here and then I’m having short irons in, and I felt comfortable enough with those that I could hit my numbers.”
Woodland, Leishman Players to Watch
Gary Woodland and Marc Leishman are two golfers that could be atop the leaderboard on Sunday. The two had strong finishes last week at the Tournament of Champions, and have had success at this venue.
Woodland finished second last week in Maui, a stroke behind champion Xander Schauffele. Woodland, who is at 14/1, has finished in the top 10 three times since 2015.
Leishman finished tied for fourth last week and also has had success at this tournament. The Australian, who is 16/1, has not missed a cut and has two top-10 finishes.