Weekly Recap: A Spectacular Win for Spieth

Do you like riding roller coasters? If so, you'd love watching Jordan Spieth play golf.

More than just about any other golfer, Spieth makes the most miraculous of shots followed by the most confounding of flubs, combining the highest highs and some of the lowest lows into an exasperating thrill ride for his fans, his caddie and especially for himself.

On a Sunday filled with electrifying eagles and hair-pulling misses across 18 holes, Spieth sent a final bunker shot to seven inches and tapped in for par to defeat Patrick Cantlay on the first playoff hole to capture the RBC Heritage at storied Harbour Town Golf Links. Seven other golfers finished one stroke back on a day when maybe two dozen guys had a legitimate chance to win.

The victory was the first in a year for the one-time -- still? -- Golden Boy, and this one moved him back into the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time since 2018. Spieth broke a four-year winless stretch at last year's Valero Texas Open, which coincidentally also concluded on Easter Sunday. (Next year, Easter Sunday is also Masters Sunday, for those of you who believe in those things, and you know you do.)

Spieth was coming off last week's first-ever missed cut at the Masters, so this didn't seem like the week for him to get back into the winner's circle. But that's the up-and-downness that is Spieth.

On Sunday, he finished long before the 54-hole leaders did and held the lead in the clubhouse at 13-under-par. With misses from inside four feet and inside six feet on the back nine, he could have held an even bigger lead. But then when Spieth needed his putter most, he drained a 10-footer for birdie on 18. It was only 24 hours earlier on that very same green that Spieth missed a par putt from 18 inches.

Naturally, 'The Other Spieth' came out early Sunday morning and pocketed two eagles in five holes, holing a nearly 60-foot bunker shot on No. 2 before sinking a 24-foot putt on No. 5.

Eighteen-inch misses. Sixty-foot bunker shots. It's enough to give you whiplash.

Spieth got a bit of luck in the playoff against Cantlay. They both piped drives on the famed 18th hole leading to the red-and-white lighthouse. They both then left their approaches short in  the heavily trafficked greenside bunker. But while Spieth had a nice, fluffy, uphill lie, Cantlay was plugged. He had no chance to get close, and his 35-foot putt for par wasn't close.

"Unlucky," Spieth said to Cantlay as they shook hands.

Spieth was fortunate his playoff bunker shot went to seven inches, leaving it far closer than 18 inches (snark!). He had a terrible tournament on the greens and in fact has had a terrible season on them. This from the one of the best clutch putters perhaps of all-time.

Right after hugging his wife and infant son, Spieth told Amanda Renner of CBS Sports, "I won this golf tournament without a putter."

Spieth ranked 60th in Strokes Gained: Putting of the 71 golfers who made the cut. On the season, he is ranked 179th on Tour. Most weeks, as we have seen from him in 2022, that won't cut it. Spieth ranked first at 7,200-yard Harbour Town in SG: Tee-to-Green.

He likely won't be able to do that on a course that's much longer. He'll need his putter.

"I've been hitting the ball really, really well all spring, better than I did last year, and I just haven't been scoring, Spieth told reporters on Hilton Head Island. "So I just, I put in a lot of hours on the putting green this week, and to be honest, if it helped incrementally, it was just enough.

"I've got a lot more work to do. I've been putting a lot of work into my full swing, and that certainly takes away some of the time you put into other parts of your game, including putting.

"So I think I can kind of shift the other direction now and get to really working on the stroke, which is what I tried to do this week off of last week. That was the frustration."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Patrick Cantlay
After losing a playoff to Scottie Scheffler in Phoenix, Cantlay went into a bit of a tailspin, going four straight tournaments without a top-25. That likely won't happen again after this playoff loss, so let's think that the world No. 4 has had his slump for 2022 and will contend multiple times the rest of the season.

Matt Kuchar
One week after having Masters week of for the first time in forever, Kuchar came up just short in his bid to get back to Augusta. At one of the handful of tracks he can still compete on, Kuchar was in the seven-way tie for third. That comes after his co-runner-up a the Valero last time out. Kuchar is now back up to 82nd in the world, a number that didn't seem possible a few weeks ago. Can he crack the top-50 by year's end?

Shane Lowry
Lowry was leading the tournament until an inexplicable turn on the par-3 14th, when he sent his chip clear across the green into the water for a double bogey. He still had a chance coming to 18 but finished a shot out of the playoff. Lowry has been playing as well as almost anyone the past few  months, non-Scottie Scheffler division. He's up to 27th in the world. He could probably use a week off but he's headed to the Zurich Classic to partner with Ian Poulter.

Harold Varner III
The 54-hole leader didn't win for the first time on the PGA Tour, but he hung tough and nearly sank a 34-foot birdie try on 18 that would've landed him in the playoff. This hasn't been a good season for Varner, accuracy-wise, but he was great at Harbour Town, finishing T2 in greens in regulation. That's more like him.

Cameron Young
Young continues to impress as he builds a case for Rookie of the Year. He led after 18 holes and never went away, tying for third. That's on top of his two runners-up earlier this season. He's now up to a career-high 43rd in the world.

Sepp Straka
Straka came within an eyelash of the playoff, bogeying the 72nd hole. Out of nowhere, he won the Honda Classic back in February and now came close to being a two-time winner in the first four months of this season. We would not have predicted that for Straka, but results don't lie and he's 53rd in the world, his personal best.

Cam Davis
Davis tied for third, and this was his first top-25 since winning the Rocket Mortgage last July (he was 10th at the Tournament of Champions, but there were only 38 golfers there). Frankly, like with Young, it's impressive that Davis could deliver on a track that mutes distance. But this could very well be a one-week aberration for a golfer who had been struggling badly.

J.T. Poston
Poston has not played well for a couple of years now but he has shown he can play Harbour Town and he did it again, in another vote for course history over current form. Poston finished sixth in 2019 and eighth in 2020, and now tied for third. But having fallen clear outside the top-200 in the world rankings before this result, we'll need to see more from Poston before thinking this result was a one-off.

Erik van Rooyen
van Rooyen led for a decent chunk of Sunday before falling back and tying for 10th. We have seen him come up big in quality fields on a number of occasions, notably last year's playoffs, and it wouldn't surprise to see him on the first page of leaderboard again sometime soon.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood tied for 10th, giving him five straight stroke-play top-25s. He's doing it on all kinds of different tracks. This has been his best stretch since before the pandemic.

Justin Thomas
Unlike some other guys who played meaningful minutes last Sunday at the Masters, Thomas made the cut. But he clearly had nothing special this week, and he tied for 35th.

Webb Simpson
Simpson made the cut on the number with a 69-73 and did exactly the same thing on the weekend with another 69-73 to tie for 60th. This is not a good sign for a golfer who has plummeted outside the top-40 in the world rankings. This is one of Simpson's go-to tracks where he is great virtually every year, along with the Wyndham and the RSM. We were looking at this week as a litmus test for Simpson to show at least something, but he did not.

Morgan Hoffmann
All eyes were on Hoffmann, who made his first PGA Tour start since the 2019 Shriners. His story has been well chronicled – diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, moved to Costa Rica to seek alternative medical treatments. He still is under a major medical extension and had three tournaments left to earn 238 FedExCup points. Hoffmann shot 71-72 and unfortunately missed the cut right on the number. It really was better than anyone could've expected. We don't know when we'll see him next, but the likelihood of getting those points in two tournaments is quite slim. Hoffmann would likely see no shortage of sponsor invites after that. But of course all of that is secondary to Hoffmann's health.

Cameron Smith
Smith missing the cut just days after his soul-crushing finish at the Masters was predictable. It surely was honorable for him to keep his commitment to the RBC Heritage, but he had no business playing golf with Sunday at the Masters still so fresh. There's no assurance that Smith will be ready to go this week, when he and Marc Leishman defend their title at the Zurich Classic. But we suspect the jovial nature of the tournament and playing with a good bud will put Smith in the proper frame of mind to contend.

Dustin Johnson
For a South Carolina native, Johnson was not an automatic entry into the RBC Heritage ever year. Now in the RBC stable, he's played it the past five years. He had finished top-20 three of the previous four years before missing the cut on Friday. No biggie. Johnson has been playing better of late and we don't think this result will impact what lies ahead.

Matt Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick is amid a great year, has always talked glowingly of Harbour Town and usually has played quite well there. But not this year. He missed the cut. Hey, it happens even when least expected. We'll remain bullish of Fitzpatrick.