Jordan Spieth shoots 63 after help from YouTube videos
MEXICO CITY — Jordan Spieth woke up Saturday trying to find something that would turn his week around.
Through two rounds he was 1 over in the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, his 72-71 leaving him shaking his head and 10 shots out of first place. His putting stroke was off, his tee-to-green game a tad wayward. The elevation – Club de Golf Chapultepec is 7,500 feet above sea level – doubled as a challenge to overcome. And something he ate Thursday left his stomach in knots.
Spieth said he just wasn’t himself.
“I was searching this morning,” he said.
The journey was short and led him to, of all places, YouTube. For the first time that he can remember, Spieth called up some videos of his past success and studied the images playing out on his phone in the morning.
It worked wonders.
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Spieth signed for a course-record 8-under-par 63 in the third round and vaulted 30 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 10th. While he has an outside shot to win in the final round — he’ll start five shots in back of his good buddy, Justin Thomas, and has Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and five others in front of him — Spieth is feeling much better about his game even though his stomach is still giving him fits.
“Tomorrow, if I can beat the course record, then we would have a good chance to win,” said the world No. 6, who made six birdies and an eagle-2 on the first hole a day after he made a 7 on the first hole and another 7 on the 11th.
The videos he watched – the main one was from the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational – did as much for his head as they did for his swing.
“I've got enough wedge opportunities and I've been putting pretty well on poa annua this year so it was almost just a matter of time in my opinion,” Spieth said. “I felt like it was close. I've been working on a few things in my swing. It's been a little off and today I just trusted it. I didn't think too much about my swing, I just eyed the pin and just took it back and worked ball flights. ...
“I went to YouTube and I was kind of looking at highlights of a couple tournaments where I knew I was swinging it well just to see kind of the commitment in the swing and where it was and how I could possibly compare.
"I did a pretty good job of just committing through the swing … but the biggest improvement today was I played really aggressive off the tee and I hit the ball straight, and when you do that on this course you can take advantage.”
Spieth, as is his nature, still wasn’t satisfied. After the round – and four rounds of interviews and a long session of signing autographs for a huge gallery of kids – he headed to the range. After hitting about 35 golf balls, he then went and putted for 25 minutes.
“I'm still not totally confident in the swing,” he said. “And we hit quite a few shots really close to the hole today and I didn't have to work too much with the putter to get to 63. It's hard to say after an 8‑under round that I felt like my putting still isn't where it should be, but I had a chip‑in, I had four or five other birdies that were inside of six feet.
“I want to say five‑ to 12‑foot range I haven't been very solid this week. I'm working on it. Made a little adjustment in ball position and weight after yesterday evening, and it helped today. I felt like I got better strikes on the ball. But yeah, I’m still going to go and work on it.”
He knows he has his work cut out for him in Sunday’s final round, but 18 holes on Saturday changed his standing and his mindset. The two-time major champion has wins in Australia and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a third, a tie for third, a tie for sixth and a tie for ninth in his last seven starts so his play, and confidence, are intact. It just took him longer to find them in Mexico.
“Five shots back on a course like this is very doable,” Spieth said. “It's tough to make birdies. These pins, they're tricky. Some courses that's probably too far behind, but out here, where it's very difficult to protect a lead, we’ll see.”
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