Jordan Spieth is putting about as well as he ever has. He just needs to find a few more greens and get himself a lot closer to the hole.
After an opening 65, Spieth fought Colonial Country Club to a draw Friday with an even-par 70.
For the second week in a row, he is leading a PGA Tour event in strokes gained: putting. And through two rounds in Texas, he’s holed 307 feet worth of putts.
It’s what’s happening en route to the putting surface that has him four off the pace set by leader Jonas Blixt.
Spieth has hit just 13 of 28 fairways and 20 of 36 greens. He’s 114th out 118 players in the field in proximity to the hole, at 45 feet, 9 inches.
“[The putting] feels good,” Spieth said. “I’d really like to hit the ball a bit better, hit some more greens, so that I have [chances] for birdie instead of par.”
Spieth this season is 198th on Tour in strokes gained: off the tee (-.567) and 123rd in strokes gained: approach the green (-.029). But he’s 11th in strokes gained: putting and once again picking up shots on his fellow Tour pros one season after cratering at 123rd on Tour (-.034).
For so many Tour pros, a merely average week on the greens combined with typically superb ball striking is enough to win. For Spieth, some Tour-average ball striking combined with this red-hot putter should put him in position to snap a nearly two-year-long winless drought, dating back to the 2017 Open.
“To see some of these long ones go in – and they kind of look like they’re going in with 10 feet to go – I mean, that’s really cool,” he said. “It’s been a couple years in the works, and it feels back to where – it was kind of ignorance is bliss before, where I didn’t know why I was kind of on, and now I do. Hopefully, I can’t stray very far off from this anymore. …
“I’d like to hit some more fairways though. The guy who are leading I’m sure have been in double the amount of fairways I have. It’s just tough to play this golf course out of the rough. Certainly, to have a chance on Sunday, I’m going to have to do a better job off the tee.”