Tag: Jordan Spieth

Jordan Spieth’s caddie made a beer bet that he probably regrets, but worked perfectly

Jordan Spieth seems like a great friend…who would still pull a devastating prank on you

What’s a bet between a couple of friends, right? It’s generally harmless. That’s probably what Jordan Spieth’s caddie, Eric Leyendecker, thought when he made a ridiculous bet with Spieth at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

Leyendecker is a close friend of Spieth’s and a former high school golf teammate. He subbed in for Spieth’s usual caddie, Michael Greller, at Hero for the weekend, according to Golf.com’s Dylan Dethier.

Because Spieth and Leyendecker are so close, Leyendecker felt comfortable making a bet that, well, let’s just say it might be a little rough on him.

Leyendecker made a beer bet with Spieth that required him to drink one beer for every birdie Spieth hit during the opening round of the Hero while they both watched the Cowboys game later.

Here are the details from Dethier.

“How to best pump up his player? On the first hole, Leyendecker tested his motivational tactic. For every birdie Spieth made, Leyendecker would drink one (1) beer that night while he and Spieth, both massive Dallas Cowboys fans, watched Thursday night’s game against the Seahawks. That was a dangerous proposition; betting on Spieth’s golf is like using a stick of dynamite as a candle. But maybe it’s a caddie’s job to light a fire under his player.”

Seems innocent enough, right? What could go wrong here? Spieth could start cooking. That’s what could go wrong.

And it absolutely did.

Spieth started hitting birdies on top of birdies. He even hit an eagle following this insane stroke here.

He wasn’t done with the Eagles. You can’t tell me Spieth wasn’t trying to cook his friend here. Look at this put. From 60 feet away? Are you kidding me, Jordan Spieth?

Dude. That’s unreal. Imagine being Leyendecker here. There’s no way to properly prepare for all the beer headed his way.

All in all, Spieth hit six birdies and two eagles, which pushed Leyendecker’s reward (or punishment?) up to 12 beers.

Luckily, Spieth is a good friend and didn’t make him drink all of it, Dethier writes.

“Post-round, Spieth added that he’d even picked out the brand — Kalik, a local lager known as “the Beer of the Bahamas” — but admitted that he didn’t think Leyendecker would — nor should — pay his debt in full.”

What a pal you are, Jordan Spieth. What a pal.

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Tiger struggles to commit, Tony Finau adds speed and Jordan Spieth’s ‘electric factory round’ among 5 things from Hero World Challenge

Catch up on the action here.

NASSAU, Bahamas – Tiger Woods threw a clump of grass in the air on the eighth tee. He did so not once, not twice, but three times as he tried the to judge the breeze and calculate the club to hit and the distance to carry at the par 3. His concentration broke for a moment, something uncommon for him but it became a recurring problem as the round continued.

“I just didn’t quite commit to what I was doing and feeling,” he said.

Woods’ game showed some rust on Thursday. On the bright side, he made four birdies, but he carded five bogeys and a double bogey for a 3-over 75 at Albany Club in the opening round of the Hero World Challenge. Still, it was a victory of sorts just to be back in his element, playing competitive golf for the first time in 235 days since undergoing surgery to fuse his right subtalar joint after the Masters in April.

“You take it for granted, I guess, when you’re playing all the time,” he said. “OK, the wind, it’s coming up, move the ball back, you just kind of lean on it just a little bit, just flight it down a little bit, add a couple yards in. Instead of reacting to it, I was thinking about doing it. Then as I was thinking about it, should I do this or not, by then I’m pulling the trigger. I shouldn’t really pull the trigger. Hit a bad shot. I kept doing it time and time again. It was a lack of commitment to what I was doing and feeling. I’ve got to do a better job of it… Now I know mentally what I need to do better. I think that’s something that physically I knew I was going to be OK. Mentally, I was really rusty and made a lot of errors in the mind that normally I don’t make.”

Woods showed he still has plenty of power, ripping six drives of more than 300 yards. Woods noted he has less mobility after his injuries and as a result, his hips are going forward before the club is reaching the top and limiting how far the club goes back. It’s allowing him to create more power with a more efficient coil and a smoother transition. In all, he hit six of 13 fairways, 10 greens and took 30 putts, the best of which was a 48-foot bomb for birdie at No. 11.

He hit one wild drive at No. 15 to the left and paid the price, trying to whack his second shot from a bush and barely advancing it. That led to a double bogey and he compacted the error with bogeys at No. 16 and 17. There was plenty of curiosity about how Woods would play among the competitors in the 20-man field.

“Looks like he could suit it up for the Dawgs on Saturday,” said Brian Harman of his beloved Georgia Bulldogs football team that is set to play in the SEC Championship game and a reference to Woods’ buff physique. “He is one heck of an athlete. I hope he feels good, I hope he’s moving good, I hope he’s pain free and can play a little bit more.”

After the round, Woods said on multiple occasions that he felt sore. “Everywhere,” he said, and when pushed to name where he felt it most, he added, “Leg, my back, my neck.”

Three more guaranteed days of Tiger is, as Fred Couples put it, Christmas comes early. On Friday, he’s paired with Rickie Fowler at 11:02 a.m. ET. Here are four more things to know from the first round of the Hero World Challenge.

Hero: Friday tee times

Jordan Spieth makes just five pars in wild round at 2023 Hero World Challenge

Spieth made just one par on his closing nine holes and is one shot off the lead.

There’s rarely a dull moment following Jordan Spieth and Thursday at the 2023 Hero World Challenge was just about as Spieth-y as a round of golf can get.

The 13-time winner on the PGA Tour made two pars to start his day at Albany in the Bahamas and then made just three more pars over his next 16 holes and ultimately signed for a 4-under 68 on a colorful scorecard that looked more like a geometry quiz, especially on the back nine. Spieth made two eagles, six birdies, five pars, four bogeys and a double and is somehow just one shot behind opening leaders Tony Finau and Brian Harman. His lone back-nine par came at the closing 18th hole.

“It was an electric factory out there, for sure,” Spieth said of his round. “Some rusty putting, a couple toe balls and then a lot of really, really good stuff. So all in all I would have probably signed for 4 under when I was warming up today, I just didn’t think I’d get there this way.”

“My drive on 16 was really bad. I was just so not committed, I changed shots when I was over it,” Spieth said of his worst shot of the day. “My best was my hybrid on 3. I hit a hybrid to about a foot for eagle to get going.”

Nobody talks to themselves or their own ball more than Spieth, and the three-time major champion was in midseason form in both departments early at the November silly-season event. His two eagles were the product of a beautiful approach and bomb of a putt. After he lost a wayward shot to the left on the par-5 6th hole, Spieth hit a provisional and then said the famous last words, “I think the first one is fine.” He wound up playing the provisional, which led to his lone double bogey on the day.

The man constantly delivers entertainment on the golf course and Thursday’s round was the ultimate Jordan Spieth experience.

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Jordan Spieth figured out his wrist injury and is now figuring out a path forward for PGA Tour

“This is a pivotal moment in time for professional golf and the PGA Tour.”

Although he hasn’t played competitive golf in two months, Jordan Spieth has been busy.

He and his wife, Annie, welcome their second child Sophie in September. He also aggravated a wrist injury he dealt with in the spring. And last week, Spieth had another big task put on his plate: PGA Tour Player Director.

The three-time major winner is in Albany, Bahamas, ahead of the 2023 Hero World Challenge for his first stroke-play tournament since the Tour Championship. The time off has given Spieth plenty of time to work on his game. In those spare moments, he figured out what was actually going on with his wrist, and with the news of him replacing Rory McIlroy on the Tour’s policy board, now he has to figure out what’s the best path forward for the PGA Tour.

“I’d been pretty involved since June in a lot of stuff going on and so I didn’t — doesn’t really change a whole lot of what I’ve been involved in other than kind of officially being able to know, be in the know a little bit more,” Spieth said. “And I thought the other player directors and a lot of other players had to pretty much have the confidence for me to kind of be the guy to help be that sixth vote, that majority the board to help see through what the next at least few months looks like.

“And then for me it’s nice because it’s not a full term, which I had said that I wasn’t interested in for the time being given two little ones now and trying to get my game where I want it. But I think that this is a pivotal moment in time for professional golf and the PGA Tour and I felt like I could be of help.”

Hero: How to watch Tiger Woods | Thursday tee times

Spieth said there’s nothing but optimism among the player directors and collectively, they feel they’re going to get something great done for the Tour.

A week after the Ryder Cup, Spieth said he injured his wrist, which forced him to withdraw from his hometown event, the AT&T Byron Nelson, in May, and lingered for nearly two months.

However, he and his doctors were finally able to diagnose the issue.

“It ended up being a nerve thing, which is nice because I wasn’t doing anything either time that I hurt it that should have caused what happened,” Spieth said. “Both MRIs were very similar and shouldn’t have been in the pain and lack of mobility that I had initially after it happened. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense off the MRIs, and so then just did a bunch of tests and some work. Turns out it was my ulnar nerve, which is not anything to mess with, so I’ve been trying to take it very, very carefully.

“As long as I’m on top of it treating, it’s kind of all through neck, chest, over and down, so it’s loosening things up. It’s not really a rest or ice thing. It’s not an inflammation thing, which is how I treated it in May thinking it was an acute injury to the wrist. It’s more use it, but don’t overuse it. Listen to it. But I’ve been at full practice for weeks now and here or there when I feel like it gets close to being overdone, gym, practice, combination of a day, then I stay off of it. But I have no reservations on my abilities to just do what I need to do going forward given the progress that’s been made over the last month and a half.”

2023 RBC Heritage
Jordan Spieth plays the second playoff hole from the 18th tee during the final round of the 2023 RBC Heritage. (Photo: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports)

In the 2022-23 season, Spieth didn’t collect any victories on Tour but did fall in a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage, where he was the defending champion.

With his wrist figured out, Spieth said his confidence and game are getting back to levels and feels he had during some of his prime runs. He’s hoping for a solid showing this week, similar to when he won in 2014, to springboard him into the 2024 season.

However, a big part of his schedule the next month will be being entrenched with the PGA Tour Policy Board. He said no one reached out to him directly to take McIlroy’s spot when the latter resigned, though Patrick Cantlay was one who pushed him to take the position.

Now, the focus turns to the framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, where Spieth and PGA Tour members have to find the right path forward.

“There would have to be some — there’s some kind of like non-negotiables that I think the players of the PGA Tour should have, and I’m not sure that that could be met with PIF,” Spieth said. “And maybe it could, and I’m not sure. I think it’s going to come down to what the players want.

“Me giving an opinion is not my job. If you’re just asking me a regular question, I can give you my opinion elsewhere, but if you’re asking me as a player director that’s not my job to answer. But second part was do I — what would my vision be ideally? I think there’s — I don’t think there’s one answer to that either. I think that there are options that I think could be super beneficial, but I don’t know if they’re possible.”

Every winner of the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year Award (some names may surprise you)

Meet all 33 players who have received the Arnold Palmer Award.

The silly season debate on who deserves to be the Rookie of the Year will make for an interesting few weeks during the PGA Tour’s offseason this winter, as both Eric Cole and recent winner Ludvig Aberg are the frontrunners vying for the honor.

The PGA Tour has given the Arnold Palmer Award to its Rookie of the Year annually since Robert Gamez was the inaugural winner in 1990. Many a major champion have earned the honor – including the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, to name a few – but a few of the winners may surprise you.

Meet all 33 winners of the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year Award.

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Jordan Spieth elected to replace Rory McIlroy on PGA Tour Policy Board after shocking resignation

Spieth previously served as a player director from 2019-2021.

After consistently standing up and speaking for the PGA Tour over the last two years, Rory McIlroy shockingly left his role as a player director on the Tour’s Policy Board with a year to go in his term last week.

Monday morning PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan sent an email to players stating the five remaining player directors had elected Jordan Spieth to serve the remainder of McIlroy’s term, which expires at the end of 2024. Golf Channel was first to report the news.

Spieth, 30, previously served two years on the Tour’s Player Advisory Council in 2017 and 2018 and was PAC Chairman in 2018. He was then a player director from 2019-2021. The 13-time winner on Tour joins fellow player directors Patrick Cantlay, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati, Webb Simpson and Tiger Woods. Current PAC Chairman Adam Scott will replace Hoffman as a player director in 2024.

McIlroy, 34, has been the Tour’s most vocal advocate in the two years since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and LIV Golf joined the scene and has also spent considerable time in leadership positions with the Tour. The four-time major champion was a member of the Player Advisory Council from 2019-21 and served as the PAC Chairman in 2021. For the last two years, he has been a Player Director on the Policy Board.

“Given the extraordinary time and effort that Rory – and all of his fellow Player Directors – have invested in the Tour during this unprecedented, transformational period in our history, we certainly understand and respect his decision to step down in order to focus on his game and his family,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Policy Board Chairman Ed Herlihy via a statement.

Amid a turbulent time, it made sense for the current player directors to pick Spieth to replace McIlroy given his past experience on the board. Some more opinionated players, like Lanto Griffin for example, might not agree.

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Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler rep Texas Rangers at Game 1 of 2023 World Series

Scheffler is rocking quite the off-season beard.

Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, both raised in the state of Texas, were in Arlington on Friday night at Globe Life Field for Game 1 of the 2023 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers.

We haven’t seen either of them since the Ryder Cup in Rome, and with the FedEx Cup Fall winding down, the best players in the world have some well-earned time at home for the next few months.

So, it’s no surprise that Spieth and Scheffler were at Game 1 to represent their hometown Rangers.

The boys left happy after Adolis Garcia hit a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to earn the Rangers a 1-0 series lead.

Game 2 is Saturday night at 8:03 p.m. ET.

Plus, peep the beard on Scottie.

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2023 Ryder Cup live updates: Team USA vs. Team Europe at Marco Simone in Italy

Live updates from the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy.

It’s all over in Rome.

The 44th Ryder Cup came to an end Sunday when Rickie Fowler conceded a  putt to Tommy Fleetwod, handing Team Europe its 15th point, The Euros needed 14 ½ to reclaim the Cup they lost two years in the U.S.

The Europeans held a 5-point advantage, leading 10½-5½, heading into the Sunday singles matches.

The host course, Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, is a public-access layout with tee times available on the course’s website starting at 190 Euros for international players. The course played to a par 71 with the scorecard showing 7,181 yards.

The Americans, captained by Zach Johnson, tried to win on foreign soil for the first time since 1993 but that streak will continue. Team Europe rode an influx of young talent for captain Luke Donald.

For more info on players, scoring, schedule and course data, check out our Ryder Cup hub.

2023 Ryder Cup Sunday singles matches, tee times feature must-watch showdowns

Set your alarms because you won’t want to miss these final matches.

Set your alarms, folks. You don’t want to miss these final 12 matches of the 2023 Ryder Cup.

European captain Luke Donald and American captain Zach Johnson announced their picks for the 12 Sunday singles matches and a handful are appointment television, no matter the time.

Team Europe holds a 10½-5½ lead after the first four sessions, but the momentum appears to have swung back toward the U.S. after the Americans claimed Saturday fourballs, 3-1. The Europeans need four points to win the Cup, while the U.S. needs at least 8½ to retain.

Check out who’s playing who in the final 12 singles matches of the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.

Ryder Cup: Tournament hub | Photos

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Europe inches closer to winning 2023 Ryder Cup, but U.S. wins Saturday fourballs session to maintain glimmer of hope

The Americans have some work to do Sunday to retain the Cup.

ROME – For the first time at the 44th Ryder Cup, the U.S. won a session at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club.

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After winning the Saturday afternoon fourballs 3-1, the U.S. trails 10 ½ to 5 ½ and will need to erase the largest deficit in Ryder Cup history if it is going to retain the Cup.

But we’re saying there’s a chance, especially after Patrick Cantlay birdied the final two holes, including a 30-foot birdie putt at 18, to flip his match.

“Hopefully have a ray of light and we can build on this session and try and pull off a big victory tomorrow,” Cantlay said.

Two years ago, the U.S. led 11-5 at Whistling Straits before cruising to a 19-9 victory. No team has rallied from more than a 10-6 deficit, but the U.S. only needs to reach 14 points to retain the Cup. In both 1999 and 2012, the winning side earned 8 ½ points in Sunday singles.

The U.S. showed some life winning the first two matches, but the Euros bounced back to win the third match and inch closer to extending the U.S. losing streak on European soil, which dates to 1993. It looked as if it would be a split of the session. That is until Cantlay’s heroics.

“Feels like we have momentum and we go kind of into the locker room laughing a little bit which just feels good,” Max Homa said.

Here’s a recap of all four matches.

Ryder Cup: Tournament hub | Photos | Fans