Weekly Recap: Back in Business

It's now officially official: Jordan Spieth is Back! (Yes, with a capital B and an exclamation point.)

Now the big question is: Can he go back … to back?

Spieth ended a nearly four-year winless drought at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday and the 24-hour news cycle waited all of 14 seconds before wondering whether he can now win the Masters this week.

The short answer is: Yes, he can.

This collision course of Spieth and Magnolia Lane has been building for months, since he began showing signs of becoming his old, No. 1 self. They first surfaced in early February at Phoenix, where he held – and blew – a 54-hole lead and tied for fourth. Talk of Spieth being B … A … C … K has consumed the golf world ever since. He blew another 54-hole lead the following week in a tie for third at Pebble Beach, then added a tie for 15th at Riviera (a course not his best fit), a tie for fourth at Bay Hill, a T48 at THE PLAYERS (another dicey fit) and a T9 at the Match Play.

Until Phoenix, there was no indication – and no guarantee – that this would happen. Superstar athletes stop being superstars all the time, though it's not usually the very best in a sport when they are still in their 20s.

But when the funk goes on this long, after Spieth last won at the 2017 Open Championship, it's fair to eventually think those thoughts. Spieth kind of said as much when interviewed by Todd Lewis on NBC just moments after completing his two-stroke win over a gallant Charley Hoffman.

"There were a lot of times I wasn't sure, you know, if I'd be here with you, talking to you about this right now," he said. "I never really doubted in myself to be able to get back to where I wanted to go. But when you lose confidence, a lot of times it's hard to see the positives going forward."

Actually, it sounds like there was some doubt, or even a lot. And that would not be surprising, especially after almost four years.

Spieth paid homage to his team, including caddie Michael Greller. And that brings up an important point: We see struggling golfers switch caddies and coaches and other support staff all the time, and a lot sooner than four years. Spieth stuck with what got him to No. 1 and, it turns out, that was the right call. Really, it cannot be overstated how hard that must've been for Spieth – to realize that it was him, and not them, who was the problem.

Okay, so now we're off to the Masters, where Spieth has a win, two runners-up and a third, though he was T21 in 2019 and T46 last November. We ranked him fifth in the Majors Value Meter written before the Valero, so the feeling even before this win was that he could capture another Green Jacket. Would we move him even higher now? Hmmm, perhaps a spot or two.

After the Valero win, Spieth immediately became the No. 2 betting choice at 10-1 behind only defending champion Dustin Johnson at 8-1. He had been 60-1 or more a few months back.

Spieth is up to 38th in the world rankings, moving from 53rd last week. But pretty much the entire golf world views him as a top-10 player right now.

Top-10 players win the Masters 38th-ranked players? Not so much.

Golf Twitter and the rest of golf did not let Spieth bask in the moment of his win, immediately pointing toward Augusta. Truth be told, he probably did the same thing.

But let's give him his due: "This is a monumental win for me," Spieth told Lewis, "one that I've thought about for a long time."

It's hard to quantify how big this win was. Other than Tiger Woods winning Tournament No. 83, there is nothing bigger in golf right now than a Jordan Spieth win. Actually, there is one thing bigger than a Jordan Spieth win – a Jordan Spieth major win.

Usually you would think it's hard to win a second week in a row on Tour. But this win is different. It is so huge, and such a confidence builder, and breathes so much life into Spieth that this will invigorate him this week at Augusta National.

"Really for me going into the Masters," he told reporters, "I miss the cut this week or I won the golf tournament, there would be very little difference in my mindset going into Thursday at Augusta."

He sounds confident. Confident like you can feel only when you are fully … Back.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Charley Hoffman
It was a great week for Hoffman, even though he fell short of victory and getting into the Masters. Sure, he's Mr. Valero Texas Open, the tournament's all-time leading money winner, but at age 44 he is also having a great season. He was top-20 at THE PLAYERS and top-10 at both Bay Hill and Pebble Beach. He is back inside the top-100 OWGR for the first time since the 2019 playoffs, now ranked 72nd.

Matt Wallace
After cracking the top-25 OWGR in the middle of 2019, Wallace started to go backward. He had good finishes here and there, but slowly fell out of the top-50 and entered the week at 60th. He barely hung on in the top-50 at year's end to gain entry into the Masters. But his Valero solo third followed a top-20 at Bay Hill and he's back inside the top-50 at 48th. And suddenly the Englishman becomes much more fantasy relevant, perhaps as soon as this week at Augusta.

Lucas Glover
Glover notched a solo fourth, his best showing in more than two years, since a T4 at the 2019 Honda. He had fallen all the way outside the top-150 in the world coming into the week, so this was enormous week for him. He's up to 113th OWGR. The normally great iron player has been only so-so this season. At the Valero, he led the field in greens in regulation. A very good sign.

Anirban Lahiri
Lahiri entered the week 478th in the world rankings and exited at 319th after a solo fifth, his best finish in the States since the middle of 2019 – in a Korn Ferry Tour event.  He's only 33, which coincides with his best ranking ever, though that was years ago and it certainly seemed like his best days were behind him. That's still likely the case, but you never know much confidence a week like this can be.

Gary Woodland
Not much had gone right for Woodland in 2020 and 2021, with back trouble, an injury to a labrum in his hip and a plummeting world ranking to No. 59. He tied for sixth, and you could say it came at just the right time on the eve of Augusta. But more than one week in a weak Valero field will be needed make him relevant again. He crept up to No. 53 OWGR.

Brandt Snedeker
Snedeker is not going to the Masters for a non-injury reason for the first time in more than a decade. You wonder if, at age 40, he's ever going back. He entered the week at 155th OWGR but gave Augusta a run with a tie for sixth. It's his first top-10 in more than a year. He hadn't so much as finished in the top-30 in his prior 11 events, including his beloved Torrey Pines. After seeing him play like this, it's possible to see him contend at another favorite tournament, the Wyndham. For now, he's 136th OWGR.

Chris Kirk
Kirk tied for sixth and, unless you haven't been paying attention, this is no surprise. It's his third top-10 and sixth top-25 already in 2021. He can now make a real run at getting back into the top-50 OWGR, and what a story that would be. He's up to 69th.

Cameron Tringale
Tringale was in the conversation for a good chunk of the week, and in that conversation was the factoid that this was his 297th event on Tour and he's never won. That still holds. But with a tie for ninth he now has three top-10s and seven top-25s this season. If the Tour Championship started today, he wouldn't be in it – but he'd almost be in it at 34th in the point standings. He's also up to 81st in the world rankings.

Matt Kuchar
A week after finishing third at the Match Play, Kuchar tied for 12th. He hadn't had such a good finish in a stroke-play event since Riviera – in 2019. He has a great history at the Masters and now there is reason to think that can continue.

Rickie Fowler
His string of playing in 41 straight majors is now over. He won't be in the Masters. But … Fowler did tie for 17th, and that was after an ugly 76 on Thursday. So, hope? He dropped a tick to 95th in the world but it was his best result on Tour since a T15 at the WGC-FedEx last summer.
  
Camilo Villegas
Villegas came up short at the end of his major medical extension at the Honda, where he came close to fulfilling its conditions with a tie for eighth. Now he's added a T17 and you'd have to go back to early 2015 to find the last time he had two top-25s in a span of three PGA Tour events. He's jumped more than 100 spots in the world rankings, to 289th.

Kevin Stadler
Stadler entered the week ranked 1,829th in the world (that's right, there's a comma in there) and made the cut yet somehow managed to slip in the rankings to ,834th. Stadler making a cut is almost as rare as Spieth winning a tournament. It's just his second PGA Tour check in six years – and also second in a few months after making the cut at Torrey Pines. Stadler continues to play under one of the longest standing major medicals on Tour. He still has 11 events left to earn about $700,000. His major medical is so old that it's still tied to earnings, something the Tour abolished years ago (they are now tied solely to FedEx Cup points).

Tony Finau
Finau missed the cut, which, the week before the Masters, isn't always a bad thing. Except he also missed at THE PLAYERS.

Phil Mickelson
Mickelson shot a hideous 10 on Thursday and missed the cut. He actually had reached the weekend in two straight events at THE PLAYERS and the Honda, offering some hope of a respectable showing at the Masters. Regardless of what happened in San Antonio, the 50-year-old Mickelson can still at least make the cut at the Masters. And after almost three decades of playing there, perhaps even more.