{"id":800065,"date":"2026-07-13T22:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800065\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:59:14","slug":"jordan-spieth-returns-to-royal-birkdale-looking-for-the-magic-that-made-him-a-british-open-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800065\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Spieth returns to Royal Birkdale looking for the magic that made him a British Open champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Spain’s Angel Hidalgo on the 18th green during a practice round at the British Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale, Southport, England, on Monday.Peter Morrison\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Jordan Spieth was four days shy of turning 24 when he delivered pure magic in the final hour at Royal Birkdale to win the British Open for the third leg of the Grand Slam. It was among the most astonishing finishes in a major championship.<\/p>\n

Perhaps even more astonishing? He has only two PGA Tour victories since. He has played in the final group at a major only once. <\/p>\n

What hasn\u2019t changed is his optimism that he can get back to his best golf, now matter how far away that looks for a player who is No. 51 in the world, who has not been to the Tour Championship the past two years, who has not been in the conversation at a major in five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you give up on reaching your ceiling, then I don\u2019t see a point in playing anymore,\u201d Spieth said Monday. \u201cSo for me it\u2019s always about I\u2019ll do everything I can to be trying to be at the very best in the world, because I know that I can be. I have been. It\u2019s nice to have the blueprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blueprint was nearly a decade ago \u2014 the pursuit of the calendar Grand Slam that ended with a bogey on the 17th hole at St. Andrews in 2015, his British Open title two years later, and playing in the final group at Carnoustie in 2018 as he tried to keep possession of the claret jug.<\/p>\n

He feels he is on the right track and keeps getting a bad hand. The analogy he used earlier this year was having a bad shoe at the blackjack table, staying put because as soon as he walks away, fortunes surely will turn.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still at the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite frustrated with the results considering I know where my game is at,\u201d Spieth said. \u201cIt\u2019s better than it was four or five years ago when I got back to top 10 in the world. It\u2019s without a doubt better than it was then. It\u2019s just not quite showing up in results.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s a stay-the-course mentality,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes you get rewarded right away, like I did back then maybe in a bit of a lucky fashion, and I understand that sometimes it\u2019s delayed. And that\u2019s how it feels like it is right now. … So I\u2019m just waiting for that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The return to Royal Birkdale at least allows him to remember how it felt to walk up to the 18th green with victory secure, sitting on the edge of a pot bunker with the claret jug as dozens of photographers captured the image of a 23-year-old often referred to then as \u201cGolden Child.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he can\u2019t relive is the finish. He lost the lead on the 13th hole even though his bogey felt like stealing a shot \u2014 he took a penalty drop from a dune covered in high grass, hit a blind shot from the driving range and limited the damage with a chip-and-putt for bogey, just like always.<\/p>\n

Then came the 6-iron he nearly holed on the par-3 14th and the 50-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th hole \u2014 \u201cGo get that,\u201d he famously said to caddie Michael Greller \u2014 and two more birdies.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe the best shot and best putt I\u2019ve ever hit don\u2019t exist anymore,\u201d Spieth said with a smile.<\/p>\n

The par-3 14th is gone now. The R&A instead wanted the 15th hole to play as No. 14, and it built a new par-3 15th that measures 241 yards and has yet to get many positive reviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cUndecided,\u201d Rory McIlroy said last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs is always the case in par 3s, you have to wait until a tournament plays to see how the par 3 plays,\u201d Tommy Fleetwood said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest change for Spieth are the conditions. It was wet and green and lush in 2017, the wind coming out of the opposite direction. Now it is mostly yellow, brittle and firm, and much of England is coping with a heat wave.<\/p>\n

Players were in shorts for the Monday practice round, which followed a \u201cLast Chance Qualifier\u201d that Joe Dean of England won with a 68 to secure his spot in the field. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to play quite different than the last time we were here,\u201d Spieth said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had an opposite wind, too, the last couple days. … Holes that are close to being drivable become mid- to long irons, and just with the wind switch, the difference into and down are so dramatic over here that picking a strategy is going to be key.\u201d<\/p>\n

A change of scenery might not be the worse thing for Spieth. He arrived over the weekend and relived some of those shots in the closing stretch, at least on the holes still there. But at this stage in his career, it\u2019s more about looking forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always comparing myself a bit to myself at my best, but not to try to be the exact player, just more so that I know that I can do it,\u201d Spieth said. \u201cI know my ceiling is where that level was, and so I\u2019m going to strive for it with the type of player that I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Spain’s Angel Hidalgo on the 18th green during a practice round at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,622,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-800065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-golf","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}