Jordan Spieth is trailing the leader, Daniel Berger, by 12 Shots
Jordan Spieth is 12 strokes behind Daniel Berger at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with two rounds left to play at Bay Hill.
Spieth hasn’t picked up a win on the PGA Tour since April 2022, and he’s putting in plenty of work this year to get back to his best.
This week at Bay Hill hasn’t been easy for him so far. He’s opened with rounds of 72 and 71, leaving him a long way off the pace heading into the weekend.
The former world number one admitted he could have ‘gone off the rails’ after a rough start on Friday, but managed to steady himself enough to make the cut.
Even so, he’s still facing a tough challenge from where he currently stands in this tournament.
Jordan Spieth shares thoughts on Bay Hill chances
The Dallas native has plenty of work ahead if he’s going to get back into contention over the weekend in Orlando.
Spieth was asked by reporters after his round if he still saw a path to victory by Sunday.
“I think if you can be — well, if there’s only one guy, then you never know,” he replied.
“But if there’s, if you’re within, say if you’re within four of the next two guys, you know, ideally you’re within five of the leader. So I think the course is playing the same or harder than yesterday. So hopefully scores come down a little bit, and you just have a group of guys that are you know, 5-, 6-under is second place and maybe the leader is at 8 or something like that.”
Spieth also discussed how difficult Bay Hill can become when conditions firm up and wind picks up speed.
He added: “But when you’re ahead, it’s one of those, I can play to the center of greens, which is the way you’re supposed to play anyways. So if he’s in control of the ball, putting it nicely inside of six, seven feet, you know, he may not drop any.
“They do give you, if you hit the fairway on 12, and the fairway on 4, they give you, you get a few greenside opportunity up-and-downs for birdie.
“But there’s enough — I don’t know how many courses it’s like where, if you miss the fairway, on most of the holes it feels like it’s almost a full-shot penalty. So I guess the reason I’m saying that is because if the wind picks up and it continues to firm out, then anybody’s in it that’s under par.“
Jordan Spieth reflects on his best shot so far at Bay Hill
Spieth reached the green in two from the bunker on the par-five 16th during Friday’s round. Afterwards, he was asked how he managed to pull off the shot.
“I hit a hybrid out of the bunker, yeah,” Spieth said.
“That was one of my better shots I remember hitting in a long time. Yeah, it was 231 into the fan off the left. I hit a hybrid. I was trying to hit it on the right half of the green, but I got a bit fortunate, it drew a little bit and ended up 10 feet away.“
Spieth missed his eagle putt but can still take plenty of positives from how he steadied himself after a shaky start to Friday’s second round at Bay Hill.
The Dallas native may now need back-to-back rounds of 67 at worst to give himself a chance by Sunday afternoon.
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