Smylie Kaufman breaks down Jordan Spieth’s game

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by NBC’s Smylie Kaufman who is here to dive into his friend Jordan Spieth’s inconsistent game and what he can do better.
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obviously you’re very close with Jordan spe his game’s not quite where he wants it right now know a little bit of a wrist issue don’t know how serious it is he’s kind of push that away but what do you what are your thoughts on Jordan and where his game’s at right now it’s funny right because if you go and look at the stats and you get confused because if you would have supplanted his driving ability this year in any other year yeah it’s he’s winning maybe not in a Scotty Sheffer dominant year but he’s at least finishing top five couple different times he’s in contention has a chance on the back on Sunday this year man it’s just been a total opposite of his of what his career has been he’s always been able to lean on his wedge game his short game and his iron game really just his ability to shape shots and be comfortable shaping it both ways his putting was good to start the year but his putting lately is is really tailed off and now he’s got an iron and wedge game that is just mediocre from his standards and a inconsistent putter inside of 10 fet weight we so I I don’t know it’s it’s I keep wanting to believe that one week it’s all just going to come together but when you have so many things that are just slightly off it’s it seems like he pushes a little bit too much on some days to try to make something happen instead of just letting the tournament come toing and letting his game come to him which we all are guilty of when we’re playing on the PGA tour to try to get and reach those expectations cuz you want your work ethic to match your results and he’s been working his tail off off he’s never driven it better he’s never driven it further he’s hitting it hard right now and he’s and he’s probably just having this season that just doesn’t make any sense by the metrics and by his standards so I don’t know I my opinion it just seems like he’s always been an artist right I mean he’s never driven it good like you said I mean you think back to the Open Championship when he hit it on the damn range by the Titleist trailer like down there and ended up making a ridiculous par but to me it just seems like he’s gotten so technical with the golf like he’s doing the weird the weird rehearsal and everything I wish he would just go back to just hitting shots and being the artist that he that’s what made him great that’s a great Point that’s a great point and I think probably needs to get back to a little bit more of that and yeah he’s he’s arguably when when he was going through that stretch that was really bad and his really bad golf still found him in final group pairings which tells you how good of a golfer he is and how good his ability is to get the golf ball in the hole so if you show up to the golf course and with that mentality of I got what I got let’s just go play golf and be Jordan spe and be the guy that I know who I am which is better than you at being able to get around a golf course that’s probably to your point what he needs to get yeah but because you watch like when he gets it in just an awful situation around the greens that’s where he shines and there’s no thought there’s no nothing he’s just Jordan Speed and he has magic hands and he steps up there and hits a lot of shots that other people can’t yeah totally and uh it’s it’s so fun to watch we always say it too much it’s almost like a broken record anytime he gets in a situation I wouldn’t be surprised if he chips this in it’s like just press the button but I think uh to maybe maybe there’s a correlation to when when you make swing changes you start hitting it further sometimes there’s a driver swing that guys have and there sometimes there’s an iron swing that guys have and I think he’s kind of caught a little bit in between really good feels with his driver and Rory actually talked about this a little bit this year had this amazing feel with his with his driver where his right arms going up the line but with his irons it just was giving him results that were resulting in mainly pulls the face was rotating on him face wasn’t stable through the shot and I I wonder if if maybe his iron game right now is going through a little bit of the technical technique stuff that he has in his driver and his feels doesn’t match up with his driver feels and I think there’s a little bit of that going on too and that’s the teeter totter with golf which makes it mind-numbing right it’s just like all right I’m not a great dri everything’s great except my driving I got to improve my driving so what do you spend all your time on getting better at driving the golf ball which he’s done right and then all of a sudden when you spend that time it takes away from time but now all right now my wedge game my iron game is not as good it’s so hard to balance that teeter totter and I think Jordan’s like a victim of his own success in the sense that he came out so early so young on so easily and so often that it’s like that’s the bar as opposed to like that’s one of the greatest stretches we’ll see it’s like that’s the standard and to live up to that year after year you just can’t play golf I don’t care who you are Scotty Sheffer will go through a run where he’s not Scotty Sheffer right now you can’t do it and Jordan’s in it right now I think data golf has been really nice tool for us to be able to go back and and look at guys stats over the last decade of what they’ve done well and when you go look at Jordan’s little I don’t know what is it a pentagon those little things that they have you ever been on data golf yeah the chart the little chart thing five sides a pentagon it’s not a pentagon is it one two know whatever iton perhaps could be could be whatever the shape is go check it out yourself I yeah got you yeah maybe a penson it’s a shape Jordan’s year in 15 man it was it’s how good he was putting it well I just don’t think it was ever sustainable no that’s what I’m saying but that’s what that’s the first time people got to see him right it’s your first impression it’s like oh my God he’s a greatest putter to ever walk the planet that’s going to happen for the next it’s like when one guy wins a major and they’re playing great like he’s going to win we just start to scale it out for the next decade and it doesn’t work like that in golf when you’re playing good you never feel like you’ll you’ll ever miss a cut or ever make a bogey and when you’re playing bad you never feel like you’re ever going to win again you never feel like you’re going to make a birdie never feel like you’re going to make a cut it’s just the game’s frustrating itself hell