WILMINGTON, Del. – Jordan Spieth felt like his playoffs got started a week late.

Sure, he was in the field for last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, but he sensed it might be a short stay.

“I was just not ready to play,” he said.

There was a reason for that.

Spieth took a few weeks off after consecutive top-10s in Scotland, but he admits he may have gone a bit too long without working on his game. By the time he was ready to ramp up again for the playoffs, well, he ran into an issue: all of the courses at home in Dallas were shut down for summer maintenance.

“I didn’t know that until I got back home,” he said.

After spending a little time with swing coach Cameron McCormick, he decided to head to Nashville, Tennessee, to play golf with Justin Thomas. His game there, though, was predictably rusty.

“I’m like, Man, it’s not great right now, but I’ll try and figure it out,” Spieth said.

And when he got to Memphis for his first tournament in four weeks, Spieth was on his own – McCormick didn’t travel because he had family in town. TV cameras caught Thomas trying to offer Spieth advice on the range, but a second-round 74 doomed him to a missed cut in the playoff opener.

After a round at Pine Valley on Sunday (he played in the group behind world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler), Spieth resumed his practice in earnest at the start of BMW week. 

“I feel like I got my playoffs started on Monday,” said Spieth, who entered the week at No. 17 in the standings. “Unfortunately missed out on some last week.”

His form appears to have returned at the BMW, where he has made only two bogeys through two rounds and sits just a shot off the lead heading into the weekend. Spieth carded a 67 Friday in increasingly firm conditions.

“I feel like I’m doing everything good, nothing spectacular,” he said, “but I feel like in every facet of my game it’s trending and improving, and I know what to do to get it better and better. Certainly feels really good.

“Coming into this weekend, it’s a good opportunity to just have a lot of trust and focus on trying to win this golf tournament.”