Jordan Spieth explains the strange obstacle to turn Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – When it comes to Jordan Spieth at Pebble Beach, it can be easy to forget that other things there is a matter of life and death.

Like, for example, the amazing swing he thought of for his high-octane career, which landed on the cliff overhanging 8th hole at Pebble Beach in 2022.

“Let’s not move our weight forward or we’ll die,” said Spieth with a laugh, recalling the fall from 22 on Thursday. “Perhaps that is what is strange [swing thought] I’ve had it.”

Thankfully, the 2026 visit to the Monterey Peninsula proved to be at least as deadly. The three-time major champion finished Thursday’s opening round at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at 6 under, good for T11 in the packed Signature Event field, the strongest signal of his 2026 season so far. As is tradition, Spieth’s opening round was filled with at least a slowly adrenaline – he shot his approach shot on the 18th hole (his ninth of the day) for 2 eagles.

But as it turned out, the hole-out was far from the excitement Spieth was experiencing in the early stages of the action from Pebble Beach. In fact, it paled in comparison to … the unusual skating obstacle he was forced to work through before the tournament: himself.

“I got to a bad place mentally on Friday,” Spieth said, referring to a second-round 75 that ended his week at the WM Phoenix Open prematurely. “I was swinging it well and then I decided to tell myself that it’s not me, I just had a bad day.”

If you cringe as you read those words, you’re not alone. The golf world has been watching hard for signs of a comeback from Spieth in recent years, as golf’s once golden child has aged into something of a disappointment. Spieth, currently ranked 89th in the world, has dealt with both injury and mental setbacks in the nine years since his last victory at the 2017 Open Championship. He’s tried reset after reset at that point – most recently undergoing surgery to correct a wrist bone problem that had plagued him for years. last time offseason — little progress.

But there were signs of life. Spieth’s wrist took a while, but now he says it’s fully healed, allowing him to swing and, sadly, golf pain-free for the first time in a long time. His swing is returning to the feeling that helped kick off one of the most exciting three-year golf stretches in recent memory.

Under these foundations, Friday’s hiccup at the WM Phoenix Open is concerning, but not a withdrawal.

“Things are better than they seem out there,” Spieth said. “That was a weird story. I went up here, I played a good round with my brother on Sunday morning at Pebble. I hit a few balls on Saturday when we got in. But I played Pebble and Cypress on the same day, Sunday. I had a fun day. I played a loop, we didn’t play it all. Then as soon as Monday hit, it was just set up for a normal week and throw it in the normal window.”

Spieth did a great job of wiping the slate clean on Thursday at Spyglass Hill – recording four birdies, the aforementioned eagle and no bogeys. The bump on his scorecard came thanks to a classic game around the greens, where Spieth finished with a perfect seven-under score with seven bogeys.

Thursday’s performance wasn’t enough to completely erase the bad taste of last Friday – but still it was enough to water it. There’s a bit of mental distortion at play there: Spieth played historically well in Phoenix before faltering – maybe now, after the MC, he can still flip the script.

“I mean, it was just an off day and a week that usually goes well for me,” Spieth said. “The last five [or] for six years the Phoenix was a big base for me, and I thought, ‘let’s forget about it and use this as our pseudo-Phoenix and try to get dialed in.’

Again, it’s not like Spieth is a stranger to these kinds of prevarication. He is perhaps the most compelling golfer alive, and his uncertainty between brilliance and disaster is a big part of the reason why. Dark times appear… a lot black But they never seem to come around.

“I just thought I was having a bad day,” Spieth said. “I woke up on the wrong side of the bed last Friday.”

Which is, after all, the good part about life and death with Joridani Spieth: He may be staring at the edge of the cliff — but he won’t stay there.

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