Jordan Spieth is in a good place these days.
Literally.
For the first time since 2018, Spieth greeted the new year on the island of Maui in the 50th state of the Union, which is home to the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua’s Plantation Course.
The location is his reward for a drought-breaking 2020-21 season in which he had nine top-10s in 19 starts, highlighted by his win in the Valero Texas Open, his 12th PGA Tour title and first since winning the 2017 Open Championship. He also recorded runner-up finishes in the Charles Schwab Challenge and the Open and tied for third in the Masters and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
After starting 2021 ranked 84th in the world and then falling to 92nd after missing the cut in his first event, he’ll start 2022 as the world No. 14.
Getting back to Maui after three years was one of his top goals, a thought that was certainly front and center in his head during his struggles.
“It was something I thought about during the final round, to be honest,” Spieth said, referring to the final round of the Valero Texas Open. “And I had to kind of throw it out of my head because I had thought about it a couple other times during previous events in the season when I had leads on Sunday and it just adds a little extra to it, when you take your focus off of just closing out a tournament.”
But he remained engaged at the task at hand and mentioned he was going back to Maui within minutes of winning.
The victory was testament to what he has often called the grind, his endless grit and work ethic to get things back to when he was No. 1 in the world. There were no excuses; just sweat and a few tears.
And the work continues.
“I’m honestly just trying to get back to my DNA. I got away from that and I was swinging in front of my body and just, there’s a lot of specifics, I guess, but I’m really just kind of looking back to my DNA from high school, college, into the first few years on Tour, and really just trying to map stuff to there, recognizing that your body changes and not everything’s going overlap,” Spieth said. “I feel like this is the first offseason in quite a few years where it felt like I was very confident each day going out, that what I was doing was pushing me to the better. If I could get 1 percent better each day, I went out with the idea that that was very feasible, given I wouldn’t be second-guessing anything and instead felt very confident in what I was working on and what the final product is.
“It feels better than it has all last year.”
His confidence, combined with his track record at Kapalua, suggests he’ll start 2022 on a good note. In four starts here, Spieth won in 2016, finished second in 2014, tied for third in 2017 and was ninth in 2018.
“It’s obviously a fun course to play,” he said. “Every hole you either look forward or you turn around and you get some of the most amazing views we get all year.
“And then a lot of slope, Bermuda grass, a lot of wind, kind of got to shot-make a little bit. Then you got to hit putts aggressively and play a significant amount of break a lot of time and I kind of like when that’s the case.”
He kind of likes his home life these days, too. Make that loves it. Spieth and wife, Annie, welcomed their first child, son Sammy, into the world on November 14.
“Obviously right when he was born is, I mean, I don’t think anyone really forgets that moment,” Spieth said. “And since then, the last couple weeks, just starting to see a little bit of opening his eyes and smiling here and there, just a little more personality, and that’s probably, that’s been the most fun for me.
“Right now it’s so early that there’s not a whole lot I can provide as far as, Annie keeps the kid alive, essentially, so I help when I can. It’s been a lot of fun just in how much things have changed over the last couple months. So I’m excited to see what this year entails, and we plan on traveling together and it should be a fun journey.”
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