Jordan Spieth happy to be 'on the rise' after the Memorial Tournament, third-straight top-10 finish
Jordan Spieth was in position on Sunday at the Memorial Tournament.
Spieth sat in a tie for third at 11-under heading into Sunday’s final round, just four back from the leader, and was in contention to pick up his first PGA Tour win since July 2017.
Despite a pair of birdies on the front nine — which offset an early bogey — Spieth flatlined. He made six straight pars at Muirfield Village before making two more bogeys in his final four holes to finish one-over for the day, which dropped him into a tie for seventh.
Even though he likely wishes he had a few shots back, Spieth likely wasn’t going to catch Patrick Cantlay anyway.
Cantlay, who was tied with Spieth heading into the final round, fired an eight-under 64 on Sunday — bringing him to 19-under on the week, enough to win Jack Nicklaus’ annual tournament by two strokes.
Regardless, Spieth said his end goal this week wasn’t to hoist the trophy.
“I wasn't necessarily trying to win today, I was trying to just go out and shoot a number, and if it was good enough, great.” Spieth said, via the PGA Tour. “I wasn't really going to do much scoreboard watching, and I didn't. I thought it was a good, solid week, just needed some better wedges out of the fairways, and kind of par-3 game.”
Jordan Spieth trending up before U.S. Open
Spieth struggled to start the year, and only cracked the top-30 in three of his first 13 events. He missed the cut in three of those, too, including at The Players Championship.
Yet following the AT&T Byron Nelson last month — where he finished in a tie for 29th — Spieth has looked much improved. He finished in a tie for third at the PGA Championship, which marked his first top-10 finish in nearly 10 months. He then followed that up with a tie for eighth the next week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Counting Sunday, that’s three top-10 finishes in a row.
“Right now I’ve been in a position come Sunday the last three weeks of having a chance to probably do something special and win,” Spieth said, via the Golf Channel. “This is where I like to be. I feel like I didn’t play fantastic golf this week by any means, and I’m in the top 10 and had a chance to win. That’s where I’d like to live week-to-week, and then when it’s on, I’m out in front.”
Spieth will not play in the RBC Canadian Open this week, instead turning his focus to next week’s U.S. Open.
While anything can happen at one of the world’s biggest events, the 25-year-old can finally feel himself trending up — and he’s thrilled.
“I’m kind of on the rise from kind of a trough, and it feels good to be on the rise,” Spieth said, via the Golf Channel. “It feels good to have some momentum.”
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