Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth share many similarities, with only one piece of the grand slam puzzle missing from their collections as the major season resumes next week.
The pair have also experienced agonizing waits to add to their major championship tally, with the Northern Irishman approaching a decade without a major success and Spieth having not won one of the four majors since his spectacular Open Championship victory at Royal Birkdale in 2017.
While McIlroy remains one of the world’s elite players, having won the FedEx Cup three times since his last major victory, Spieth’s powers have waned, having won only three PGA Tour events since lifting the Claret Jug, and currently sitting 19th in the Official World Golf Ranking – a position propped up only by LIV Golf players’ slide due to a lack of accreditation.
Spieth and McIlroy have followed opposing routes over the last year, with the Northern Irishman stepping down from the PGA Tour’s policy board as the Tour negotiates a merger with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. Spieth took on that responsibility instead after being nominated for the player director position in November, and he now faces the same challenge McIlroy did: balancing his efforts on the course and in the boardroom.
And now, Spieth has been cruelly cautioned that he is a ghost of the force he once was, with Golf Channel expert Brandel Chamblee claiming the 30-year-old has suffered from excessive tinkering with the swing that propelled him to world number one position.
“Look at him.” Since 2017, how many times has he won? Three times. You look at his strokes gained total from 2013 to 2017, and then look at his strokes gained total now, and he’s about half the player he was,” Chamblee told GolfWeek.
“That is not oblivion by any means, but going from winning majors and lighting the world on fire to where he is today is a significant shift.
“I believe the most dangerous spot on any golf course, not out-of-bounds or in the water, is the driving range. That’s the most dangerous position on a Tour course. We talk a lot about players who make adjustments and improve. That’s just the nature of our job, given that they’re at the top of the scoreboard. So it’s a great story.
“They were this player before, they’re this player now; they’ve made the changes, and we applaud whoever they’re working with and the modifications. We don’t talk about or even mention all of the players who make modifications and end up at the bottom of the ranking because they disappear.”
Spieth hasn’t won since the RBC Heritage nearly two years ago, and after missing the cut in his last two attempts and shooting a one-over-par opening round at the Texas Valero Open on Thursday, few believe he has a shot to win the green jacket at Augusta National last week.
Chamblee believes Spieth’s troubles stem from his deviating too much from the swing that brought him so much success early in his career. He added: “Jordan Spieth’s modifications to his golf swing may not be visible when you simply watch him, but if you put it on video and compare it to 2015, I think it’s significantly different.
“He used to have a small cup in his wrist at the top. The club was set up brilliantly. Now he has a bow in his wrist and his face is slightly closed since the entire world has fallen in love with strong grips, bent left wrists, and tremendous rotation.
“Did he do that to gain some speed? He did. However, experimenting with your golf swing is a dangerous thing to do.”
