Spieth Rockin’ & Rollin’ In Memphis With Lowest PGA Tour Opener In Over Two Years

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Triple major-winning Jordan Spieth was a rockin’ and a rollin’ atop of the board with his lowest opening round in over two years, producing a sizzling 63 to secure a one-shot lead on the opening day of the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.

Spieth produced an eagle and five birdies in a flawless display over the host TPC Southwind course.

The proud Texan capped his round holing a 50-foot chip shot for an eagle ‘3’ at the par-5 16th to end the opening day of the opening FedEx Cup Play-Off series event at seven-under and one clear of South Korean Tom Kim.

The last occasion Spieth kick-started any tournament with a 63 was in late May 2021 on route to second place finish at the Charles Schwab in his home state of Texas whereas he also shot a 63 on day one of the 2017 Travelers and converted that into one of his current 16 PGA Tour triumphs.

And in teeing-up this week in Memphis, his 63 is a lowest round since a second round 63 back in mid May on route to a sixth place result at the WM Phoenix Open.

Spieth was quizzed after his round what aspect of his game had he been working on since he last tournament, and that being his share of 23th at last month’s 151st Open Championship.

“Quite a bit of putting,” he said.  “I played really well at the British. Tee to green, I played well enough to win. I didn’t feel like I missed many of my lines. I just couldn’t quite get the matching of the line and speed on the greens.

“Now we come to slopey Bermuda and very fast slopey Bermuda where I feel a little more comfortable picking lines and kind of feeding the ball in using gravity. I think that helped, along with quite a bit of work as best I could in Texas right now, which is really from the hours of 7:00 a.m. to noon before it’s almost unbearable.

“Just tightened some things up. I tried to play a lot just to shoot scores. I had kind of taken off playing a bunch, and I think that that helped a bit in the last couple weeks”.

Spieth arrived in Memphis looking to secure a first PGA Tour title in well over a year having captured the 2022 RBC Heritage in a play-off but then lost out in a play-off in defending the event back in April.

“I was telling Michael (caddy) maybe sometime on the back nine, I was like, I feel good, but it doesn’t quite feel as tight as some of the days in the last week or so ball-striking,” said Speith.

“Then all of a sudden I ended up hitting a good one on 15 and then chipping in on 16, and all of a sudden, now it’s three strokes better, so it’s like, how can you not — yeah, I think it was solid, but I will say that I was using the entire — I used the heel of the driver a lot today, and I don’t want to keep doing it.

“I’ve been driving the ball really, really nicely and everything kind of goes from there. If I feel really confident stepping into a driver, getting in front of some shots and hitting some nice ones, that normally feeds to the rest of the bag, so I’d like to improve a bit on just where — I hit some fairways, but I hit some pretty far off the heel and then I toed one on 17.

“Just kind of getting some contact on the middle of the face again”.

Speith also arrived in Memphis lying 31st on the FedEx Cup standings and with the 2015 PGA  No. 1 projected to jump three places to 28th.

 

 

 



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