{"id":414689,"date":"2026-01-17T05:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T05:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/414689\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T05:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T05:44:08","slug":"jordan-spieths-10-year-breakthrough-and-vijay-singh-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/414689\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Spieth’s \u201810-year’ breakthrough and Vijay Singh magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I\u2019m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We\u2019ll have thoughts. We\u2019ll have tips. We\u2019ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I listened to Drake\u2019s \u201cOne Dance\u201d<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

And the Lumineers\u2019 \u201cOphelia.\u201d<\/a> And the Weeknd\u2019s \u201cStarboy.\u201d<\/a> The earworms from a decade ago. The ones where after flipping on the car radio and hearing them, they found their way into your mundane chores. (Sing it with me now, grocery store shoppers: Oh, Ophelia, what aisle is the turkey meat?)\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019d found the songs after hearing a few others as part of social media\u2019s 2016 challenge, where folks have been sharing photos and such from the time. It\u2019s cute. Me? Ten years ago, my wife and I were in Omaha \u2014 for 11 months. It was our funkiest year, by far. We quit jobs. Got hired at new ones. Sold a house. Sold two cars. Looked in the rearview mirror at the life and routine we knew. And on Dec. 30, two lifelong Midwesterners and two cats somehow found themselves in Brooklyn. Life happens like that sometimes. There was some plan. But mostly not. It was ready-shoot-aim. Just keep moving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Worlds away, Jordan Spieth<\/a> was doing some of that, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember him back then? He held pro golf in his palm like you would a golf ball. The year previous, he\u2019d won the Masters, the U.S. Open and the Tour Championship, before following it up with two victories in 2016 and three in 2017. How many more majors could he win? Any number seemed doable. But zero was what he got. Hmm. A drought came. Injury. Searches. Questions, chief among being:<\/p>\n

Would he ever return?<\/p>\n

To a degree, he has. He\u2019s won twice since 2021. He also feels he\u2019s fully recovered from surgery on his troublesome left wrist. On Thursday, after he opened his \u201926 season at the Sony Open<\/a>, Spieth sounded optimistic. He thinks he can trust his swing. There\u2019s more, though. He\u2019s also been thinking some about the past 10 years. And the next 10 years. He\u2019s been thinking about what he should have done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And what he wants to do moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to enjoy myself more \u2026\u201d Spieth said. \u201cIt was a bit of a grind last couple years, and if I\u2019m not having fun out here \u2014 I mean, I know 10 years from now I\u2019m going to wish I had these 10 years back. I certainly wish I could go back 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, if you\u2019re not having fun, what are you doing out here? All that together should really help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should, meaning we\u2019ll find out. But if you\u2019re looking for real signs of rebirth from Spieth, and if you\u2019re wanting to believe Spieth could be Spieth again, this is what you hope to hear.<\/p>\n

To quote \u201cOne Dance\u201d:<\/p>\n

Baby, I like your style.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m saying if you\u2019re not being present,\u201d Spieth said, \u201cand you\u2019re not enjoying the fact that you\u2019re living out your dream and if it feels like a job and hard work and all that, and I tell you it has and it really shouldn\u2019t. There\u2019s no need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2. From the same interview, the video below<\/a> was also good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3. This story here<\/a>, from The Fried Egg\u2019s Kevin Van Valkenburg, was also good. It\u2019s about Spieth \u2014 and nostalgia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One takeaway for the weekend\u00a0<\/p>\n

4. Vijay Singh<\/a> didn\u2019t just use a PGA Tour career-money exemption this year.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s cashing checks with it.\u00a0The 62-year-old is at two-under through two rounds of the Sony Open, and he\u2019ll play the weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And his Instagram account also posted this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

One takeaway from the week that was\u00a0<\/p>\n

5. Brooks Koepka<\/a> is heading back to the PGA Tour. And Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Camerson Smith aren\u2019t \u2014 for now<\/a>. OK. And OK.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So when does the civil war end?<\/p>\n

Will it?<\/p>\n

Is Koepka\u2019s move the one that squashes LIV? Or is this just like a free agent transaction, of which baseball has seen a few? (Apologies to anyone not bleeding Dodger blue<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you have thoughts. To me, a pair of quotes this week are worth noting. On Wednesday, during a LIV season-preview event, LIV executive vice president of team business operations Katie O\u2019Reilly said this, when asked when LIV\u2019s 13 teams would start selling stakes:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to build 13 billion-dollar franchises. That is our goal. Are we there yet? No. But right now we are building the foundation for that.\u201d (Front Office Sports\u2019 David Rumsey wrote more about the subject, and you can read his story here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Rory McIlroy\u2019s thoughts on LIV following the Koepka news. He was interviewed at the DP World Tour\u2019s Dubai Invitational by The Telegraph\u2019s James Corrigan, and you can read his story here<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as if they made any huge signings this year, is it? They haven\u2019t signed anyone who moves the needle and I don\u2019t think they will. I mean, they could re-sign Bryson for hundreds of millions of dollars, but even if they do, it doesn\u2019t change their product, does it? They\u2019ll just be paying for the exact same thing. And they\u2019ve lost Brooks, so they\u2019ll be paying out all this money and \u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another takeaway from the week that was\u00a0<\/p>\n

6. The video below<\/a> is good. At this week\u2019s Korn Ferry Tour\u2019s Bahamas Golf Classic, Roger Sloan\u2019s tournament went like this:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Started as an alternate\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014 Moved into the field as players withdrew, including Noah Goodwin<\/p>\n

\u2014 Arrived in the Bahamas a day before the tournament, but the tournament hotel was booked and he had no caddie\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014 Got a message from his regular caddie saying, \u201cHey, I got a guy\u201d \u2014 and that guy could caddie and had a room\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014 Wait, why was Goodwin singled out a few lines above? Because the \u201cguy\u201d who could help out was Goodwin\u2019s dad, Jeff\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sloan finished runner-up\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m going to get a caddie and a roommate all in the same go? Sign me up!” <\/p>\n

Roger Sloan earned a last-minute spot @BahamasKFTour<\/a> at Atlantis Paradise Island as an alternate, and he’s one off the lead into the final round \u2026 with Noah Goodwin’s dad Jeff on the bag \ud83d\ude2e pic.twitter.com\/LRdnBFQ9lm<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) January 14, 2026<\/a>
\nA golf story that interests me\u00a0<\/p>\n

7. The video below<\/a>, starting at the 22-second mark, was good. It\u2019s golf. It\u2019s college football. It\u2019s Nick Saban.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another golf story that interests me\u00a0<\/p>\n

8. The five videos below are, uh, something. Watch them in order. (A hat tip to Golf Digest\u2019s Greg Gottfried<\/a> for spotting them.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

One more golf story that interests me\u00a0<\/p>\n

9. This story here<\/a> is good. Written by USA Today\u2019s Marcus Smith, it tells the story of a man\u2019s wallet \u2014 after it was taken by a seagull at Pebble Beach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What golf is on TV this weekend?<\/p>\n

10. Let\u2019s do 10 items! Here\u2019s a rundown of golf on TV this weekend:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Saturday\u00a0<\/p>\n

2:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m. ET: Dubai Invitational third round, Golf Channel\u00a0<\/p>\n

11 a.m.-2 p.m. ET: Latin America Amateur Championship third round, ESPN News\u00a0<\/p>\n

7 p.m.-10 p.m. ET: Sony Open third round, Golf Channel\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2013 Sunday\u00a0<\/p>\n

2:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m. ET: Dubai Invitational final round, Golf Channel\u00a0<\/p>\n

11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET: Latin America Amateur Championship final round, ESPN2\u00a0<\/p>\n

1 p.m.-2 p.m. ET: Latin America Amateur Championship final round, ESPN News\u00a0<\/p>\n

2 p.m.-5 p.m. ET: The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic first round, Golf Channel\u00a0<\/p>\n

7 p.m.-10 p.m. ET: Sony Open final round, Golf Channel\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some good news for the weekend\u00a0<\/p>\n

11. Let\u2019s do 11 items! This week, Bubba Watson and LIV\u2019s Range Goats team donated $75,000 to the LPGA Foundation in honor of the LPGA\u2019s 75th anniversary. A video from Watson is below<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n