Should you go for a lesson when you’re playing well?
Jordan Spieth made his first start of the year at the Farmers Insurance Open and it was a case of same-old 2019 Spieth for the three-time major winner. After a promising opening two rounds, a disappointing weekend left him in a tie for 55th place, a distant 14 shots behind eventual winner Marc Leishman. Check out this incredible stat from last season…
Jordan Speith's scoring splits by round last season were crazy.
PGA Tour season ranks – scoring average by round:
1st Rd – 9th
2nd Rd – 1st
3rd Rd – 170th
4th Rd – 187th— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) January 24, 2020
This trend was a feature of 2019 and the 26-year-old now finds himself outside the world’s top 50 for the first time in almost six and a half years.
But despite his loss of form, Spieth was optimistic when questioned by the media.
“I’m ready to bounce back to where I’ve been in the past,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen right away. Big picture I have a really good frame of mind which should allow me to build some patience into getting my game where I want it to be.”
- Related: Why we need the old Spieth back
In the off-season, Spieth did some “solid research” using 3D motion capture technology in a bid to improve, and when asked if he was working on a new feel to those he’s used in the past, the American’s response should give everyone reason to be hopeful.
“No, I’m looking back,” he said. “I needed some mechanical adjustments that had gotten off with my full swing especially. As I got into the longer clubs, my timing got pretty off, so I was trying to gather that back to where it was.
“The idea is to try and do it [gather swing data] when things are going really well. That’s probably the most important time so you can always get back on track. I’m just simply finding ways to go back in time to where I’m swinging my swing instead of trying to do anything special.”
An interesting take and something I’ve heard from a number of top pros. Just recently, Justin Rose and Eddie Pepperell were banging that same drum too.
- Related: How JT emerged from Jordan’s shadow
So what can we all learn from it?
Well, I see a couple of benefits.
First of all, as Spieth says, going for a lesson or gathering swing data when you’ve hit a purple patch will give you a template to work back towards when the inevitable blip hits.
And second, a lesson when you’re playing well will help you prolong your good golf – it’s a no-brainer, surely.
Conventional wisdom would have us believe the best time to go for a lesson is when our golf is at its worst, but as we should all know by now, this game does not follow conventional wisdom.
Not everyone can hit it like the pros, but we can all learn from things like this and give ourselves the best chance of success.
Will Spieth re-discover his form this year? Let me know what you think in the comments or send me a tweet.
Andrew Wright
NCG's instruction editor. Terrible student so trying my hand at passing on some of the best advice I've never listened to. Member of Royal Troon. Favourite golfer is two-time major winner and hall of famer, Retief Goosen.
