Jordan Spieth details the bizarre swing obstacle at Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – When it comes to Jordan Spieth at Pebble Beach, it can be easy to forget that some things Are a matter of life and death.

Like, for example, the strangest swing thought of his professional career, which arrived on the cliff above the 8th hole at Pebble Beach in 2022.

“Let’s not shift our weight forward or we might die,” Spieth said with a chuckle, recalling the cliff scene from ’22 Thursday. “That’s probably the weirdest thing [swing thought] I had it once.”

Fortunately, the 2026 visit to the Monterey Peninsula has proven to be at least a little less deadly. The three-time champion finished Thursday’s opening round at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at 6 under, good for T11 in a loaded Signature Event field, the strongest signal of his 2026 season to date. Traditionally, Spieth’s opening round was filled with at least one small adrenaline – he dunked his approach shot on the 18th hole (his ninth of the day) for an eagle 2.

But as it turned out, the holeout was far from the most exciting event Spieth faced in the early stages of the action from Pebble Beach. In fact, it paled in comparison to the … unusual swing obstacle he had to work through leading up to the tournament: himself.

“On Friday I got into a bad mental situation,” Spieth said, referring to the second round of 75, which ended his week at the WM Phoenix Open prematurely with a missed cut. “I gave it a good wave and decided to tell myself it wasn’t. I was just having a bad day.”

If you’re cringing as you read these words, you’re not alone. The golf world has had to look hard for signs of a Spieth comeback in recent years, as golf’s former golden child has entered a frustrating prime. Spieth, currently ranked 89th in the world, has faced both injuries and mental obstacles in the nine years since his last major win at the 2017 Open Championship. He’s tried one reset after another in that time — most recently having surgery to correct a wrist tendon problem that had plagued him for years last off-season – to little progress.

But there are signs of life. Spieth’s wrist took a while, but now he says it has fully healed, allowing him to regain range of motion for the first time in a long time and, crucially, to play golf pain-free. His swing returns to the feel that helped spark one of the most exciting three-year stretches of golf in recent memory.

Under these auspices, Friday’s hiccup at the WM Phoenix Open is concerning, but not disqualifying.

“Things are better there than they seem,” Spieth said. “That was just a strange deal. I came here, I played a nice round with my brother at Pebble on Sunday morning. Saturday I hit a few balls when we came in. But I played Pebble and Cypress on the same day, Sunday. I just had a fun day. Played a loop, we didn’t play them all. When Monday hit, it was just getting ready for a normal week and just throwing it out the window.”

Spieth wiped the slate clean Thursday at Spyglass Hill, recording four birdies, the aforementioned eagle and no bogeys. The boredom on his scorecard came courtesy of an excellent performance around the greens, where Spieth finished with a perfect seven for seven scramble.

Thursday’s performance wasn’t enough to completely erase last Friday’s bad taste, but it did the trick was enough to dilute it. There’s a bit of reverse psychology at play there: Spieth has historically played well in Phoenix before faltering — maybe now, post-MC, he can flip the script.

“I mean, it was just a bad day and a week that is normally really good for me,” Spieth said. ‘The last five [or] For six years, Phoenix has been a big stepping stone for me, and I thought, let’s just forget about it and use this as our pseudo-Phoenix and try to get dialed in.”

Again, it’s not like Spieth is a stranger to this kind of subterfuge. He is perhaps the most compelling golfer in the world, and his vacillation between brilliance and disaster is a big part of the reason why. The dark moments seem… terribly dark. But they never seem to hang around.

“I just thought I was kind of having a crappy day,” Spieth said. “Last Friday I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

After all, that’s the fun of living and dying with Jordan Spieth: He may be staring over the edge of the cliff, but he won’t stay there.

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