Midway through the final round of the WM Phoenix Open, Jordan Spieth walked off the 11th green with a smile as wide as his home state of Texas.
He had just made an all-world four, saving par on one of the most challenging holes at TPC Scottsdale. Spieth sailed his drive well right of the fairway, and his ball settled beneath a bush in the desert. An unplayable lie quickly became possible, but Spieth did not want to take a drop — and a penalty stroke — because that would leave him no better options. So he and his caddy, Michael Greller, faced a perilous decision. Should Spieth try to hit a 3-wood from there and advance the ball as far as he could on the ground? Or would a 3-hybrid suffice? What about his putter?
They ultimately decided on the flat stick, and Spieth flipped it around and hit it backward. His ball rolled about 35 yards forward, barely avoiding another shrub before coming to rest not far from the cart path. He now had an opening into the green, with 123 yards left for his third shot. Spieth then stuck it to 13 feet and drained the side-winder for par.
“I couldn’t get to it right-handed. It was going to be too hard. My hands were going to have to stop well short of the ball, and it wasn’t until like the last second because I thought about left-handed, but I thought about left-handed with like an iron up to the side. It wasn’t until the last second I was like, I’ve got a flat spot on the back of my putter, I can at least nudge it up here, it’s better than an unplayable, and dodged the bush,” Spieth explained after his round.
Spieth ultimately shot a 3-under 68 on Sunday and tied for fourth, finishing eight strokes behind Thomas Detry, who won his first PGA Tour title.
