Jordan Spieth’s 11th hole during the second round of the Memorial Tournament required going shoeless, putting a shot near a cart path and still somehow finding a way to make par.
On the par-5, 583-yard hole, Spieth hit his opening shot 309 yards and saw it bounce perilously close to the water. In an effort to try and save the round without taking a penalty, Spieth doffed his shoes and went barefoot into the muck to see if he had a chance of hitting his way out.
The answer was no, he determined, and Spieth took a drop and one-stroke penalty.
“I took the drop because I couldn’t get a stance,” he said. “The creek’s too deep, so I couldn’t actually stand in the water. Also I could reach the green, which was a big reason why I took a drop. If I took a drop I could still reach the green, and if I were to chip out I was only going to get 20, 30 yards out of it.”
The decision was made relatively quickly, he said.
“I took my shoes off just to see if I could get in and see if there was like some footing, if the creek was shallow or something,” he said. “Because I could see the ball, and I could have definitely got a club on it. It was, off the tee it was just hanging, hanging, hanging, it looked like — I just hit it off the heel and so it pulled.”
His next shot landed in the rough 44 yards from the hole, but he was able to hit his next shot within four feet of the hole.
“I got really lucky on the lie I had after the third (shot),” he said. “It was sitting really nicely, and if it had gone another yard I couldn’t have hit it high because I would have been under the tree. The lie was good and the greens were a little softer. So all in all, it was a really good save, just to not have to make a long putt or anything. But it was, walking over there, that was as good as I could have asked for.”
After all that, Spieth putted for par. And he didn’t have to take his shoes off to do it. He finished the day at 3 under, tied for fifth after two rounds.
