Jordan Spieth Feels it is "a bit unfair" to Expect Him to Replicate His 2015 Season

Jordan Spieth had a stellar 2015 season. He won his first major championship at the Masters and followed that up with his second major championship win at the U.S. Open. Spieth barely missed a playoff at The Open in 2015, and finished second behind Jason Day at the PGA Championship later that year.

It was a tall ask to expect Spieth to replicate his 2015 season in the majors, and after getting off to a fast start at Augusta National earlier this year, Spieth finished the tournament with two rounds over par. Spieth didn’t break par at the U.S. Open and didn’t break par through his first three rounds at the 145th Open Championship. Of course those rounds of par or worse were going to lead to questions regarding his recent performances in majors.

"“I think it’s tough. I think, had last year not happened, I’d be having a lot of positive questions. Instead most of the questions I get are comparing to last year and therefore negative because it’s not to the same standard, and then it’s tough to convince yourself that you’re having a good year when no one else; even if you guys think I’m having a good year, the questions I get make me feel like I’m not.” “So that’s a bit unfair to me, but don’t feel sorry for me. I’ll still be OK. But I would appreciate if people would look at the positives over comparing to maybe hopefully what would happen to me a few times in my career a year, like last year. It seems a bit unfair at 22 to be expecting something like that all the time.”"

Is it unfair to compare Spieth’s 2016 season to his 2015 season? To an extent, it certainly is, but look at how he started the 2016 season:

• Nov. 5-8 – China for the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions where he finished tied for seventh.
• Nov. 26-29 – Australia for the Australian Open where he finished tied for second.
• Dec. 3-6 – the Bahamas for the Hero World Challenge where he finished fourth.
• Jan. 7-10 – Hawaii for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, which he won.
• Jan. 21-24 – the United Arab Emirates for the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship where finished tied for fifth.
• Jan. 25-28 – Singapore Open, where he made $1.2 million dollars for just showing up, he finished second.

Based on that sort of start to 2016 it looks like Spieth just continued moving right along and posting good scores. He did hit a rough patch and finished outside of the top 15 in four straight tournaments that included missing a cut, but is finishing in the top 20 really a slump?

Spieth entered the Masters this year as the favorite and he played like one until that now infamous collapse on the par-3 12th in the final round, and still ended up finishing tied for second. The takeaway felt like Spieth was easily going to continue to replicate his 2015 season, and even though he missed the cut at the Players he won a couple of weeks later at the Dean & DeLuca, giving him two PGA Tour wins this season.

Heading into the U.S. Open Spieth had already come extremely close to winning a third major and had won two other events in 2016, but from the third round of the Masters through the U.S. Open and up until the final round at The Open Spieth had 10 straight rounds of par or worse in major championships. He finished tied for 37th at the U.S. Open, and even after a good final round 68, which broke the streak of 10 rounds at par or worse in majors, he finished tied for 30th at The Open.

Spieth is only 22 years old; he’s got plenty of time left in his career. Phil Mickelson just posted one of the best scores in Open Championship history that would have won him 141 of the 145 Open Championships and he is 46. Spieth will hit rough patches and had he been able to replicate his 2015 season in major championships that would have been amazing, but even though he’s had disappointing finishes in his last two major outings, he was still just two bad shots away from a third major championship.

Let’s give the kid a break. He’s still the number three ranked player in the world and he’s got more than enough time to add to his major count.

The same can be said about Rory McIlroy, who has been criticized repeatedly for his work in the gym. McIlroy just finished tied for fifth at The Open and had the lowest round by a guy not named Phil Mickelson or Henrik Stenson who put on a performance for the ages.