Jordan Spieth is on the verge of dropping out of the top 30 in the Official World Golf rankings for the first time since the 2013 BMW Championship when he ranked 33rd.
Spieth, who climbed into the top 10 for the first time in his career in 2014 after he finished tied for second at the Masters, was ranked first in the world at the end of 2015, fifth in the world after 2016, second in the world after 2017, and 15th in the world at the end of 2018. This season, Spieth has played in eight tournaments, missed three cuts, and hasn’t finished higher than T35.
In 2016 he ranked second in strokes gained putting and at the end of the 2017 season, he ranked first in strokes gained total. Since then, he’s fallen off the map. In 2018, something changed and his putting went from unbelievable to horrific. He ranked 123rd in strokes gained putting and 32nd in strokes gained total in 2018. So far this season, he ranks 78th and 167th in both categories.
That’s not great.
This brings up the question of whether or not it’s time for the 25-year-old to look for a new coach. Spieth and Cameron McCormick have been together since the Texan was 12. While a lot of times that kind of loyalty and consistency is a good thing, sometimes a change is necessary just to get back on track.
At the suggestion of my buddy, Tyler, who I once caddied for in a U.S. Open qualifier, I did just that.
As you can clearly see, Spieth’s driving accuracy has dipped below 50% this season and his distance from the edge of the fairway has increased. This makes his approach shots much more difficult.
Spieth’s misses are getting bigger and this doesn’t allow him to take advantage of his iron play, therefore leaving him with much more difficult putts.
I wanted to go a little bit deeper, so I compared Spieth’s approach shots with those of Dustin Johnson, who averages 34 feet 4 inches in distance from the edge of the fairway and is around eight yards longer on average. DJ also generally takes a much more aggressive line, so the stats can seem a bit skewed when looking at the distance from the edge of the fairway.
On average, Spieth’s approaches from the rough at 100-125 yards end up around 24′ 10″ away from the pin, where DJ ends up around 18 feet from the pin.
In 21 measured rounds in 2019, Spieth has hit 306 of a possible 468 greens in regulation and he ranks 174th in greens in regulation percentage. He ranked 12th in 2018 in that category and fourth in 2017.
DJ ranks 12th in greens in regulation percentage at 72.45% over 18 measured rounds. That means that DJ has hit 313 greens of 432 in regulation and Spieth has hit 306 of 468. Also, DJ has only seven three-putts to Spieth’s 17!
Something needs to change.
Tiger has been through many coaches in his career. Phil has moved on from coaches as well, and while guys like Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler have stuck it out with Butch Harmon, eventually they’ll end up moving on.
Even though Spieth is only 25, the time may have come for the two to part ways as McCormick, who was the 2015 PGA Tour Coach of the Year, has ventured into television.
[image via Jordan Spieth]
