Jordan Spieth returns to Royal Birkdale this week with memories of one of golf’s most dramatic closing stretches — and confidence that his next run of victories is closer than recent results suggest.
Nine years after winning the 2017 Open Championship at the Southport, England, links, Spieth retraced the closing holes that carried him to the Claret Jug. The most meaningful moment came when he walked toward the 18th green, where he completed the third major victory of his career.
“Winning The Open Championship was a significant highlight of my life,” Spieth said Monday at his pre-tournament press conference. “It’s arguably the best tournament in the world and the greatest trophy in the world to attain.”
The course will not present the same test as it did in 2017, which Spieth believes he’s ready for.
“It’s going to play quite different than the last time we were here,” he said. “We’ve had an opposite wind, too, the last couple days. So we’ll see what happens with the wind direction because that’s everything out here, right?
“Holes that are close to being drivable become mid to long irons, and just with the wind switch, the difference into and down are so dramatic over here that picking a strategy is going to be key, and it’s going to be quite different than the last time I was here.”
Even some of his most memorable shots can no longer be re-created. The old 15th hole, where Spieth hit a perfect approach to set up an eagle during his decisive closing run, has been replaced. He joked that losing the chance to try the shot again might preserve its place in tournament history.
“In some regard, it’s kind of nice because I’ll never hit a shot that — this last time, it was like a walk-off,” Spieth said. “I go back and try to do it again and I don’t hit as good of a shot, then it’s not as cool.”
The defining sequence of his 2017 victory began two holes earlier. After driving far right at No. 13, Spieth took an unplayable lie, played from the practice area and escaped with bogey. He then went birdie-eagle-birdie over the next three holes to regain control against Matt Kuchar.
Spieth said No. 13 is the hole he hears about most, though modifications to the nearby terrain have removed the aggressive route he used nine years ago.
“There is no strategy to hit it over there this year. It’s completely different,” he said. “I will not be hitting driver down that right side like my plan was every day nine years ago.”
Spieth, 32, arrives without the outcomes he believes his play should have produced, with his 13th and most recent PGA Tour victory coming in 2022.
He said his ball-striking was strong enough to contend in each of the first three majors this season, but poor putting weeks kept him from converting those opportunities.
“I’m quite frustrated with the results considering I know where my game is at,” Spieth said. “It’s better than it was four or five years ago when I got back to top 10 in the world. It’s without a doubt better than it was then; it’s just not quite showing up in results.”
Royal Birkdale Golf Club offers a familiar place to test that belief, even if the course Spieth faces this week looks and plays much differently than the one he conquered in 2017.
–Field Level Media
