Will Jordan Spieth Come Back?

[klineka]

10 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

And then, there's this other guy. He's a Tour pro who graduated from a local high school, and who's career I follow. The closest he's come to winning is finishing tied for 3rd at the Valero this year. I've heard the TV commentators express surprise that he hasn't won yet, since they believe he has the talent to do so. 

He just goes along making cuts, and finishing on the second or third page on the leader board. 3 years ago he won about $1.6 Mill. Last year about $1.8 Mill. This year over $2 Mill so far! And he goes into Medinah ranked 30th in FedEx cup points! OK, I guess I just pinpointed him for you. 

Still not quite sure who you are talking about, because Andrew Putnam is currently 30th in the FedEx Cup, but finished T36 at the Valero, and like was previously mentioned, there was no T3 at the Valero, only a solo 3rd Ryan Moore, who has only made $1.79 million this year.

And both of those guys have PGA tour wins in their career but you said this person's best career finish was a T3.

And both of those guys were born and grew up in Washington, so I'd assume "local high school" didn't mean local to NE Ohio?

[Buckeyebowman]

23 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Not sure why you felt you couldn’t name him.

 

22 hours ago, iacas said:

Andrew Putnam is 30th.

Ryan Moore was the only player to finish 3rd at Valero this year.

So yeah, you should've just named him.

OK, it's Jason Kokrak. The last graphic I saw on the telecast last week had him at 30th. Of course that wasn't after the end of the tournament, so there must have been some late movement. I did hear on a local radio sports talk show today that he was 32nd going into Medinah. 

Just checked the PGA Tour website and, holy cow, JK is tied for 1st after the first round! He has also banked a smidge over $2.2 Mill in official money this season. 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Buckeyebowman

[jamo]

It's wild to see how far he's fallen just barely more than 2 years after that Open Championship win. 

[Vinsk]

44 minutes ago, jamo said:

It's wild to see how far he's fallen just barely more than 2 years after that Open Championship win. 

Yeah. And it seems he’s more lost then he knows. He’ll say he’s ‘found something and headed in the right direction’ then proceeds to fire a 78. He mentioned that bit about getting his hands out front but not sure if that’s really the main issue. This is why I just think working with a totally new instructor could provide a fresh perspective. This is more than a 2 week/month slump and McCormick hasn’t seemed to achieve much.

[Buckeyebowman]

That would be a hard choice for him. Do you want to listen to another voice, or the voice that got you there in the first place. 

Of course, the coach could be just as lost as player is.

[Vinsk]

1 hour ago, Buckeyebowman said:

That would be a hard choice for him. Do you want to listen to another voice, or the voice that got you there in the first place. 

Of course, the coach could be just as lost as player is.

I may be a bit unfair to these coaches so I’ll admit that up front. But what I tend to believe is that many of these coaches that ‘got their name in the lights’ really lucked into it for the most part. They’ve taught hundreds of people before and nobody knew who they were. Now that definitely doesn’t define their level of quality. Not at all. But when a coach happens to score a player who is super talented and has the ‘it’ factor I can’t help believe that player was going to make waves regardless of his coach.

Hank Haney got the majority of his notoriety from coaching Tiger. So did Sean Foley as did McCormick from Spieth. From the years of being on this thread I firmly believe Erik is every bit as good and better (Hank Haney) than these guys. I will agree that McCormick is a good coach as I’ve been told this by respectable people who are in the know. I just don’t think he’s anything so special that Spieth needs to remain with him.  At least not now. He needs renovation, not tweaking. I’d never heard of him before Spieth came to the stage and now he’s on commercials and pumps out dvd’s as an all time best instructor. 

I think the talent of these golfers played a much bigger role in their success than the coaching they received from these guys. Just my opinion.

[dennyjones]

13 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

I may be a bit unfair to these coaches so I’ll admit that up front. But what I tend to believe is that many of these coaches that ‘got their name in the lights’ really lucked into it for the most part. They’ve taught hundreds of people before and nobody knew who they were. Now that definitely doesn’t define their level of quality. Not at all. But when a coach happens to score a player who is super talented and has the ‘it’ factor I can’t help believe that player was going to make waves regardless of his coach.

Hank Haney got the majority of his notoriety from coaching Tiger. So did Sean Foley as did McCormick from Spieth. From the years of being on this thread I firmly believe Erik is every bit as good and better (Hank Haney) than these guys. I will agree that McCormick is a good coach as I’ve been told this by respectable people who are in the know. I just don’t think he’s anything so special that Spieth needs to remain with him.  At least not now. He needs renovation, not tweaking. I’d never heard of him before Spieth came to the stage and now he’s on commercials and pumps out dvd’s as an all time best instructor. 

I think the talent of these golfers played a much bigger role in their success than the coaching they received from these guys. Just my opinion.

You see this in other sports.   Anybody can coach great talent but it takes a good coach to get the best out of each and every player.

[saevel25]

10 hours ago, dennyjones said:

You see this in other sports.   Anybody can coach great talent but it takes a good coach to get the best out of each and every player.

Talent is king. College football national champions are routinely in the top 5 in recruiting rankings.

[iacas]

14 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Hank Haney got the majority of his notoriety from coaching Tiger.

Hank was teaching Mark O'Meara long before Tiger.

14 hours ago, Vinsk said:

So did Sean Foley as did McCormick from Spieth.

Foley was teaching Rose, Mahan, and others before Tiger. People knew who he was.

14 hours ago, Vinsk said:

I just don’t think he’s anything so special that Spieth needs to remain with him.  At least not now. He needs renovation, not tweaking.

McCormick knows a ton about Spieth. With a new instructor he'd have to almost start over. That can have some pros, but it's full of cons, too.

[Slim_Pivot]

Every tournament I watch Jordan, I go through the seven stages of grief.

Its only Thursday, so I’m in denial until Sat/Sun. Man I hope he gets it back soon...

[jmanbooyaa]

Is it true him chasing distance has cost him his game?

[Vinsk]

13 minutes ago, jmanbooyaa said:

Is it true him chasing distance has cost him his game?

I don’t believe that. I’ve not seen/heard/read anything to indicate that. I think @iacas has some knowledge on this we may not know but I believe he said this isn’t true as well IIRC.

[colin007]

To answer the OP question, I certainly hope not.

[Herkimer]

The golf swing is a fragile thing.  If you're playing well, don't change a thing.  I've read that Spieth did try to gain distance.  You can easily lose what you had if you try to get better.  I don't know why anyone at the top of their golf game would try to get better -- considering the fragile nature of the golf swing.  

[Vinsk]

38 minutes ago, Herkimer said:

The golf swing is a fragile thing.  If you're playing well, don't change a thing.  I've read that Spieth did try to gain distance.  You can easily lose what you had if you try to get better.  I don't know why anyone at the top of their golf game would try to get better -- considering the fragile nature of the golf swing.  

Well even if he did try to gain more distance I don’t really think that would mess his swing up. That would be more about fitness or even shaft changes maybe for driver. Trying to change a fade to a draw may cause some swing faults that need fixing but I don’t think someone at that level simply trying to gain more distance would cause such a disruption to his game.

[DeadMan]

He really hasn't chased distance. He's been at roughly 290-295 yards in driving distance his entire time on Tour.

[klineka]

9 hours ago, Herkimer said:

You can easily lose what you had if you try to get better. 

Or you can get even better if you try to get better.

 

9 hours ago, Herkimer said:

I don't know why anyone at the top of their golf game would try to get better

Maybe because they know the top of their game won't be good enough as players continue to get better, faster, stronger, etc at younger ages, where differences between players come down to tenths of strokes and those differences can add up to millions of dollars over the course of a season? 

Spieth at his best isn't as good as Rory, Tiger, Brooks, etc at their best, so why wouldn't Spieth want to continue to try and get better even when his game was the best it had ever been for him?

[ncates00]

9 hours ago, Herkimer said:

I don't know why anyone at the top of their golf game would try to get better

This might be one of the silliest things I've read in a while--certainly the silliest of the day.