Modern golf has been defined by streaks and Scottie Scheffler is in an especially hot one, with eyes focused on whether that can continue at Augusta National over the coming days.
Brooks Koepka had one. Cameron Smith had one. Rory McIlroy had one in majors, with his competitive longevity outside the big four tournaments setting him apart from his peers. There are countless other runs, varying in length and trophy haul since Tiger Woods stopped decimating all before him. Each emphasises how extraordinary was Woods’s time at the top.
A decade ago, it felt as if we were living in the era of Jordan Spieth. The Texan claimed the Masters by four shots. Spieth capitalised on Dustin Johnson’s misfortune to add the US Open two months later. He was the runner-up to Jason Day in the US PGA Championship. By the time Spieth lifted the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale in 2017, he had already won 11 times in a four-year stretch. Even a collapse over the back nine at Augusta National in 2016 barely seemed to matter: this was a player primed to dominate.
Spieth was box office. The 20-minute period preceding his third shot to the 13th on that final round at Birkdale – Spieth eventually took a penalty drop on the practice range – was an illustration of that. He finished that Open landing blow after blow on poor Matt Kuchar, who had earlier edged into the lead.
There were shades of Seve Ballesteros in Spieth’s wondrous short game and ability to make hay from seemingly impossible situations. With McIlroy in fine fettle after two major wins in 2014, there was even the sense he, Spieth and Rickie Fowler would dominate in a post-Tiger world. Whatever happened to the likely lads?
Whether Spieth’s greatness has been paused or ended remains to be seen. His loss of form after the 2017 Open was curious. Recent struggles are far easier to assess: the 31-year-old had surgery last year on a wrist problem that had been plaguing him since the spring of 2023. Spieth began last week ranked 66th in the world. Given the heights he once scaled, the mitigating circumstance of injury is unlikely to placate him.
“It is a delicate balance of using what I need to use from the past,” he says. “I have been at the top of the game in a lot of different elements. I haven’t been No 1 in driving but I have been in so many categories. So, mechanically, there is stuff to map out that I know works.
“The balance comes with not trying to chase who you were. Try to take the good mechanical pieces and use some of the stuff from bad times when you knew how to play smarter. I think my hands got better over time because I needed to use them more than I did early on. Once I really get everything sound, I should be more consistent than I have been for a long time. It’s just not quite there yet. It is close.”
Spieth’s Masters competitors have been warned. His record at Augusta National was freakish from the start: second, first, second, 11th and third. In more recent times the first major of the year has bitten Spieth – he missed the cut last year – but he still threw in a third in 2021 and fourth in 2023.
Conversely, Spieth has by his own admission a grim record at the Players Championship. On the 16th hole of round three this year, his fairway wood went flying from his hand. Spieth insisted he did not mean to throw the club – and as a devout Catholic, surely one must take him at his word – but his angst at the time was obvious. A game that once came so easy has bitten back.
“I meant to hold on to it,” Spieth says. “I realised I was swinging it too hard and didn’t want to hold on to it, it might hurt, so I let go. It was just a perfect series of events that frustrates you so much, you make the one mistake you can’t and end up with a seven.
“It was easier to be ‘big picture’ in the first few weeks back [from surgery]. It is getting harder and harder. A few swings where I just needed to take a chill pill and didn’t.
“You play well and your expectations grow a little bit. Face to path is just not quite where I want it to be yet.” And “yet” feels the operative term.
Spieth always retained his charisma. Even during the toughest of sporting times, he was candid. Nobody has ever been heard to revel in his downturn. “In 2018, I was really not playing well at all,” he says of his Masters buildup. “I shot six under and eight under and was third. I just had to piece together the two middle rounds.
“The fact I have been there when I have been playing poorly, played well and had a chance to win … Now I’m like: ‘Well I don’t really care how I am playing, it doesn’t matter.’ That’s a nice place to be. Whereas I come to Sawgrass and think I have to be striping it to make the cut. Visually, Sawgrass messes with me. It is the total opposite of Augusta.”
Spieth is not on the pre-Masters interview schedule, a further nod towards being out of sight. It feels unfortunate that his grand slam quest has almost been forgotten: he requires the US PGA to complete his set. The same cannot be said for McIlroy, who will be front and centre once more. With that, McIlroy would beat Spieth to the grand slam.
“Augusta is just blown up more than it probably should be,” Spieth says. “In that sense it gets blown up towards Rory. Augusta is, if you look at the field, technically, the ‘easiest’ to win. The more someone focuses on that, the better. Rory could have three or four majors that are harder ones to win, too.
“It’s hard for me to speak on his behalf, Augusta gets blown up more than it should relative to the others. If you can shun that off, it is the biggest tournament in the world, it has the most eyeballs for golf. So, no matter the story, I think everything gets a little blown out of proportion.
“I would have thought the US Open would be the hardest for me to win, then the PGA. I always just feel more comfortable at the Open and the Masters. I have contended at Augusta when I have had next to nothing. Your driving accuracy there is less of a problem than it is at the other majors. Other than that, it is because the field wasn’t the same as some of the other harder events.” A smile follows. “That wasn’t a hot take.”
As Spieth discusses his journey – typically, at length – his wife, Annie, sits patiently on the clubhouse lawn. I apologise for keeping her husband back. “It’s absolutely fine,” she says. “It is a nice day.”
There should be nothing wrong in wishing for good things to happen to good people.