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Jordan Spieth rates his season and says this part of his game will be a lot better next season

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Jordan Spieth was once one of the best putters on the PGA Tour.

From 2014 to 2017 he was constantly in the top 50 on tour, plenty good enough if you have the tee-to-green game of a world No. 1. Indeed, the affable 29-year-old was a permanent fixture of the world’s top 10 until late in the 2018 season, regarded as making up-and-downs that nobody (bar Tiger Woods) ever had the temerity to do before in the modern game.

Witness Spieth’s first victory, a playoff win at the 2013 John Deere — against event stalwart Zach Johnson and David Hearn — when a holed bunker shot on the 72nd gave notice of the short-game to come.

Yet, as is golf, as it came, it went, and Spieth ended 2020 and 2022 outside of the top-100 in strokes-gained-putting, with this latest season his worst performance yet, 153rd in the stats table.

Jordan is unique, though. Never scared of saying what he thinks, a perfect subject for the on-course mic, he told Golf Digest that his effort this year rates, “Probably like a 7.5.”

The good news is that he fully admits the issue and is confident of turning it around for the new season that starts in a couple of weeks’ time.

It’s not been a terrible year, certainly improved from the barren seasons of 2018 to 2020, when his world ranking dipped from second to 80. His victories at the Texas Open and RBC Heritage were the impetus for a spell back inside the world top-10, and finished T13 over the weekend at the Tour Championship.

Still, expect better next season.

“Going into next year, I should putt a lot better,” said the three-time major champion to Golf Digest after the third round at East Lake Golf Club. “I found some key stuff to work on in the offseason, and then continue to get better in the full swing as well.”

Golf experts have found Spieth experimenting with all kinds of methods throughout the year, requesting caddie Michael Greller to study AimPoint, tinkering with his pre-shot routine and swing, and even crediting his wife, Annie, for his latest victory at Harbour Town.

However, Spieth is happy with the way things are shaping up.

“I wish I was more consistent this year. I struck the ball better than last year and felt I putted better, too. I just felt like I couldn’t really get anything to go in this year. Kind of one of those years.”

On the thinking behind the future tweaks, he revealed:

“Yeah, a bit [technical] but really a lot of set-up stuff and the start of the stroke; for a while I was having to save it a bit and now I feel a lot better,” Spieth said. “I got really off in 2018, finished [123rd] in putting, was in top five the next year. But this [year] was different than the ’18 year. I felt way more comfortable, felt my stroke was a lot cleaner. Some tournaments, you get the ball going in from the beginning and I didn’t seem to get many of those.”

Whilst the 2022 major season was a single top-10 better than two years ago, it wasn’t up to the Spieth standard, missing the cut at Augusta for the first time in nine career starts.

“I normally judge it [the season] off majors, and this was my worst majors season by far,” the three-time major winner said. “It was just weird.… I felt everything was in place, but I just didn’t score well.”

It was certainly strange for Spieth fans and golf viewers alike, but expect a return to the norm in the 2022-2023 wraparound season, and certainly as we approach the first of those “Big Four.”

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19th Hole

Butch Harmon reveals what he worked on with Rory McIlroy during visit earlier this year

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While speaking on the “Son of a Butch” Podcast, legendary swing coach Butch Harmon revealed what he worked on with Rory McIlroy when the four-time major champion went to visit him after the Players Championship this season.

“The work I did with him wasn’t a tremendous amount of changing what he did, it was his attitude and the way he played certain shots. From 150 yards and in he made a full swing like he was hitting a driver and I wanted him to make more 3 quarter swings and chop the follow through off a little. He’s a very high ball hitter, but with short irons high balls aren’t good, it’s hard to control, we wanted to bring the ball flight down.”

The work certainly seemed to help McIlroy, as he went on to win the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry and the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in back-to-back starts.

Rory will now tee it up at Valhalla for the PGA Championship, which is the site of his most recent major victory in 2014.

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Brandel Chamblee says this technological development was key to Phil Mickelson winning major championships

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While speaking with GolfWRX, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee shared that he believes the solid core golf ball helped Phil Mickelson win major championships.

“One of the consequences of the solid core golf ball coming around was it put the straightest of hitters in the rough.

“Phil started winning majors in 2004, I don’t think that’s any coincidence. I think he started winning majors after the solid core golf ball came along and put everybody in the rough.

“And so [Phil] is like ‘I got you in the rough, I’m going to kick your a**. This is my game. I’ve been in the rough my whole career. I can go over trees, through trees, around trees.’

“Because he’s got that amazing creativity and Phil is an underrated iron player, phenomenal iron player. Great, great great out of the trouble. If you put the top-40 players on a list and ranked them in terms of accuracy, he would be 40th.

“So, I think that was one of the consequences of the solid core golf balls was it allowed Phil to win major championships.”

Mickelson went on to win the Masters in 2004 as well as five additional majors from 2004-2021 including three total Masters, two PGA Championships, and an Open Championship.

Check out the full interview with Chamblee below:

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19th Hole

Former Augusta National employee pleads guilty to transporting stolen Masters memorabilia; Arnold Palmer’s green jacket among stolen items

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According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, a man was charged in Chicago with stealing millions of dollars’ worth of memorabilia from Augusta National last month.

The man, Robert Globensky, was charged with transporting the memorabilia across state lines.

The report states that between 2009 and 2022, Globensky allegedly transported “millions of dollars’ worth of Masters golf tournament merchandise and historical memorabilia” from Augusta National “and transported to Tampa, Florida, knowing the same had been stolen, converted and taken by fraud.”

The document was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Since then, more details have emerged about the case.

According to Darren Rovell of Cllct, one of the items that was stolen was Arnold Palmer’s green jacket.

The Chicago Tribune also reported that Globensky was able to steal the merchandise due to his role as a former warehouse coordinator at Augusta National who oversaw the Masters merchandise that was sold.

Rovell states that “A source with intimate knowledge of the case said an Augusta National member, who knew the jacket was missing, contacted a well-known collector who had gained a reputation for tracking down rare items. The member’s goal was to return the jacket to Augusta under the guise of purchasing it in a private sale.”

The plan worked, and the man agreed to sell the jacket for an agreed upon price of $3.6 million. After the sale was complete, the FBI swarmed the house of the thief.

Cllct also reported that Globensky pled guilty in a federal court in Chicago on Wednesday and now faces up to 10 years in prison.

The Chicago Tribune adds that Globensky’s plea deal includes an agreement to provide the government a cashier’s check for $1.5 million in the next few days.

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