PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Jordan Spieth wouldn't mind a boring day at the office. Those are rare with him, and Thursday at The Players Championship was no exception.
By the time he played six holes of the opening round, he already had an eagle, birdie, par, bogey and a double bogey on his card. Wild cheers when he holed a bunker shot. Groans when he pulled a tee shot into the water.
It added to a 2-under 70, a reasonable start on a course that takes as quickly as it gives, and Spieth can do that on just about any course. He is still finding his way back to some level of normal coming off surgery on his left wrist last August that kept him out for five months.
“I feel like I'd like it to be boring," he said. “I'm still not at the place I want to be and just trying to work my way there. So when that happens, there's going to be volatility.”
And there was plenty of that.
He got off to what he called a “dream start,” hitting wedge to a foot for birdie on the 10th hole. On the par-5 11th, his bunker shot from just short of the green two-hopped into the hole for an eagle, and just like that he was 3 under through three holes.
But then came the 14th, where his tee shot headed left and stayed there until a splash into the pond. Spieth wasn't sure where it last crossed land and left nothing to chance, taking his penalty drop on a slope below a forward tee box.
“It may have covered a little bit of land, but they said it landed even with the red stake,” he said. “Even though it was just barely in, I can’t feel good about dropping one up there if it’s that close and I’m leaning towards it’s most likely not.”
That led to double bogey, and he was back to even par on the 15th hole when his approach took a nasty hop to the left, his chip hit the hole and he missed a 5-footer. Typical Spieth.
And then he had mud on his golf ball in the middle of the 16th fairway, and aimed left expecting it to move right — water is all the way down the right side. This stayed left and in a gnarly lie in the rough. He chipped that in for eagle. Typical Spieth.
A long three-putt bogey on the 17th was followed by a shot into 3 feet for birdie on the 18th.
It added to a 34 on the back nine. It looked like it could have been anything. He had one birdie, one bogey and seven pars on the front nine. Boring, but he'll take it.
“You like to see that there's firepower,” he said. “If I made 16 pars and two birdies, I would be like, ‘Oh, what do I need to do to make more birdies?’ But if it was from hitting every green to 15 feet and you hit good putts, then you know it’s coming. So sometimes it’s easier to get rid of bogeys when you know you’re going to make enough birdies.”
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