Will Jordan Spieth Come Back?

[Vinsk]

1 hour ago, LICC said:

All aspects of his game degraded. The stats show it. You don't think the problems he was having in one part of his game mentally affected him that led to mechanical breakdowns on other parts of his game

Actually no, I don’t. And statistics do not reflect ‘mental aspects.’ There is no SG Mental toughness’ stat.

[klineka]

35 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

In his best years, his strokes gained: approach were higher than his strokes gained: putting. 

In 2015, his best year, his strokes gained approach was higher than his strokes gained putting by .047. I don't really understand how that makes his iron game "special" but not his putting. They were essentially equal in the best year of his career.

4 out of the 7 years his strokes gained approach has been higher than his strokes gained putting (with one of those being nearly identical, and 3 of the 7 years his strokes gained putting was better than his strokes gained approach for that year.

36 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

But you're also missing the point. Spieth isn't winning things because he's a great putter. 

My point is that at his peak, Spieth was a much better putter than you (and others) are giving him credit for. 

[LICC]

35 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Actually no, I don’t. And statistics do not reflect ‘mental aspects.’ There is no SG Mental toughness’ stat.

So what mechanical problem affected his driver swing, iron swing, chipping technique, and putting all in one? And had nothing to do with his confidence?

[Vinsk]

16 minutes ago, LICC said:

So what mechanical problem affected his driver swing, iron swing, chipping technique, and putting all in one? And had nothing to do with his confidence?

Probably only Cameron and JS can answer that. Certainly not you or I. 

[ncates00]

13 minutes ago, LICC said:

So what mechanical problem affected his driver swing, iron swing, chipping technique, and putting all in one? And had nothing to do with his confidence?

First, we’ve addressed the first part: he went after more distance. That’s been documented and it certainly affects both driver and irons when you try to change your swing. 

Second, while chipping and putting are distinct from the long game, when you have been hitting it all over creation like he has been, you’re going to be in some pretty tough spots to try and get up and in. 

Third, you’re presuming he had mental game issues first. That doesn’t make sense. Cause most people will struggle as a consequence of trying to fix/change mechanical issues. There’s nothing to deal with mentally until there’s an issue. It could be argued that his off the course activities could be a distraction, and I’m sure it did to some degree, but these guys are professionals. So are those of us who work in a professional job. Getting married and having a social life doesn’t impact your job performance like some seem to suggest. That’s just life and it isn’t “on the course.” His golf swing is on the course. 

[iacas]

2 hours ago, LICC said:

All aspects of his game degraded. The stats show it. You don't think the problems he was having in one part of his game mentally affected him that led to mechanical breakdowns on other parts of his game? If it was just a mechanical problem, you would think it would be limited to one area and not everything.

No, and I have a reasonably good way of knowing.

3 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Probably only Cameron and JS can answer that. Certainly not you or I. 

Yep. And a few others.

Also, @klineka/@DeadMan, Jordan says his best year was 2017, even though he didn't necessarily win much. He said on a few podcasts that his good weeks were just superseded by someone else having a slightly better week, but he was pretty good all year. 

[LICC]

I’m not presuming anything. I’m saying he could be having both mechanical and confidence/mental issues with his game. I’m not guessed which came first. 

[iacas]

35 minutes ago, LICC said:

I’m not presuming anything. I’m saying he could be having both mechanical and confidence/mental issues with his game. I’m not guessed which came first. 

Please quote the people to whom you're responding. It helps make it clear that you're responding to, in this case, @ncates00 and not to me. Thank you.

[ChrisP]

I cringe watching him hit today. His mechanics are a mess. He's making hundreds of feet of putts so that's keeping him under par but his ball striking with the irons are awful. 

[Vinsk]

38 minutes ago, ChrisP said:

I cringe watching him hit today. His mechanics are a mess. He's making hundreds of feet of putts so that's keeping him under par but his ball striking with the irons are awful. 

I wasn’t able to see any of it. How was his driving?

[iacas]

1 hour ago, ChrisP said:

I cringe watching him hit today. His mechanics are a mess. He's making hundreds of feet of putts so that's keeping him under par but his ball striking with the irons are awful. 

Really?

Because his swing, in full speed, looks almost exactly the same as in 2015-2017. We're talking about the smallest of little differences.

[ChrisP]

19 hours ago, iacas said:

Really?

Because his swing, in full speed, looks almost exactly the same as in 2015-2017. We're talking about the smallest of little differences.

Well, he only hit 50% of fairways and his iron play wasn't spot on. But he made putts. Long putts. And that's helping him score this week. But his driving accuracy is 42% and GIR is 50%, below average.

[iacas]

4 minutes ago, ChrisP said:

Well, he only hit 50% of fairways and his iron play wasn't spot on. But he made putts. Long putts. And that's helping him score this week. But his driving accuracy is 42% and GIR is 50%, below average.

That's not what I responded to. Obviously we can all see the stats.

21 hours ago, ChrisP said:

I cringe watching him hit today. His mechanics are a mess.

What's different about his mechanics to your eye?

I don't believe you can actually see much that's different and attributable to what he's doing now.

[Sandy Divot]

Played pretty well at the PGA, and doing well this week. Certainly trending in the right direction. Scrambling, putting, not perfect ball striking, but keeping it in play. Looks like vintage Spieth to me.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Sandy Divot said:

Played pretty well at the PGA, and doing well this week. Certainly trending in the right direction. Scrambling, putting, not perfect ball striking, but keeping it in play. Looks like vintage Spieth to me.

Huh? At his peak he was a great and very well rounded player. He isn’t now.

[trainsmokegolf]

Hope to see him make a full come back. his antics can make for good tv and i think he has an interesting chemistry with tiger

[colin007]

In answer to the OP - I sincerely hope not.

[ChrisP]

On 5/25/2019 at 3:23 PM, iacas said:

What's different about his mechanics to your eye?

I don't believe you can actually see much that's different and attributable to what he's doing now.

What’s different to me is his misses are two ways. He used to miss mostly just right when he was winning all those tournaments. Swing wise I don’t know what’s wrong. But to be missing both ways means that maybe he’s trying hard to improve his timing and is coming around too early at times. His putting the last two weekends has improved a lot which has led to him contending, but he’s still struggling badly tee to green.

Edited May 26, 2019 by ChrisP