Royal Birkdale ….
Those who followed Jordan Spieth during the first round of The 146th Open will have noticed for much of the round he was chewing on gum .. mint gum.
After revealing he began his day with eggs and avocado and toast, orange juice, and a shake the three time Major winner went out to set the clubhouse lead with a five under par 65 in ideal scoring conditions at Royal Birkdale.
It is the current World No. 3 lowest starting round in golf’s oldest Major since shooting a similar five under score but on the par 72 Old Course at St. Andrews.
And when asked about chewing gum revealed why.
“I haven’t cut out anything as I’ll still go have a burger and a beer, but I think as a whole when I’m home I’m just trying to be — just trying to learn a little bit more about what’s best for me to be at my best, he said.
“And it matters, I think, what you put in your body and then how you take care of it, and then how that translates into results that I’ve seen in my swing on the course this year.”
Despite missing a number of fairways early on and then hitting the odd second shot askew, as we saw at ten, the American rated his overall first round a nine out of ten.
“Everything was strong,” the two-time major champion declared. “I give it a nine across the board for everything – tee balls, ball-striking, short game and putting. So things are in check. It’s just about keeping it consistent.”
The American’s bogey-free round was made up of five birdies and 13 pars and was good enough for the former Masters and US Open champion to consider it his “fifth or sixth” best round in a major. “More of the same”, he seemed to be thinking in his quiet and considered way, “and the Claret Jug will be mine.”
Spieth’s confidence is hardly surprising. He won the last tournament he played, when he holed out from a bunker in a playoff to win the Travelers Championship in the US, and played well at the Masters and the US Open, where he felt let down by his putting.
Now his putting is returning to the stellar levels it reached in 2015, the year he became a double major champion and moved to No.1 in the world. Add that to an improved long game and he could take some stopping.
Like all great champions, Spieth is constantly looking for something extra. He has found it, he said, in a new friendship with Michael Phelps, the record-breaking Olympic swimmer whom he met at the Phoenix Open earlier this year.
“We talked for quite a while, late into the evening before one of the rounds … and I enjoyed listening to him,” Spieth recalled. “He wanted to hear from my side of the things – about the good, the bad and everything that comes with what we do.
“He has become a good friend and somebody I could call at any time. He’s offered that and I’d be doing myself a disservice if I don’t keep taking him up on it.”
