A roller coaster at Disney World should be renamed The Jordan Spieth Experience, because each one of his rounds is a truly wild ride.
Six days after a second-round 65 consisting of eight birdies and a four-putt double-bogey vaulted the 26-year-old into contention at Colonial, Spieth was at it again. Thursday at the RBC Heritage, Spieth started poorly but ended with a flurry of highs.
He parred the first two holes at Harbour Town Golf Links before he hit his third tee shot of the day out of bounds. On the same hole, one of the best putters in the world missed a 4-footer to card a triple-bogey seven.
He rebounded quickly with a birdie on No. 13 - his fourth hole of the round - but Spieth didn't officially take off until he made the turn at 2-over par.
On No. 2, the three-time major champion made easy work of the par 5 for his second birdie. Then he hit his approach shot on No. 3 to 5 feet and on No. 4 to 2 feet for a stretch of three-straight red numbers.
And the ride wasn't over.
Spieth added circles to the scorecard on Nos. 5, 6, and 7 for six straight birdies, the longest such streak of his career, according to the 15th Club's Justin Ray.
He also hit 11 consecutive greens in regulation for the longest run of his season.
And Spieth ended his day with his eighth birdie to post 29 on his second nine and a 5-under 66 total.
Though it's rare on the PGA Tour, it's not the first time Spieth's carded seven or more birdies in addition to a triple bogey in a single round.
0.11% of PGA Tour rounds the last 2 seasons have had 7+ birdies and a triple bogey (31 out of 27,000+).
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) June 18, 2020
Jordan Spieth now has 2 of them in that span (today, last year at TPC Southwind).
While it's always entertaining to follow one of Spieth's 18-hole laps due to the extreme peaks and valleys, an inability to avoid big numbers is a key reason for his nearly three-year winless drought. He currently ranks 185th in bogey avoidance on Tour and was 114th in that category last season.
Compare that to the seasons he won major championships and was No. 1 in the world: In 2015, Spieth was third in bogey avoidance and in 2017 he led the Tour.
One positive sign is that his birdie-making ability seems to have resurfaced. For seven straight years from 2013-19, Spieth ranked inside the top 11 in birdie-or-better percentage. This season, he's tied for 57th, even with last week's 22-birdie performance. His standing should improve after Thursday's eight-birdie showing.
Given an incredible birdie rate that provides glimpses of the former world No. 1, combined with a propensity to look completely lost and make double- and triple-bogeys with ease, are Spieth's roller-coaster rounds his new norm? Unless he can make some drastic changes to the mental side of his game, it certainly appears that way.
