Jordan Spieth's backward shot in San Antonio is still a talking point at the 2024 Masters
How insane was the line Jordan Spieth took during the final hole of Saturday’s third round at the Valero Texas Open?
It was still the talk of the tournament at Augusta National Golf Club this week, as the Texas Longhorns product prepared for the 2024 Masters.
After pulling his drive left through the fairway on the 618-yard par 5, Spieth’s second shot ended up near a drainage ditch in an area. It appeared like he’d punch the ball back into the fairway, but he then turned the opposite way and launched a wedge that found a gutter atop the TPC San Antonio clubhouse. The move had social media buzzing. Spieth wound up making double-bogey after three-putting and he said Sunday that he regretted his decision-making process.
“I should have just hit it left-handed out into the fairway," Spieth explained. "I thought I could get it — I asked the rules official, he told me there’s no out-of-bounds and that if you could get it up here and you know where it is, then you drop it by the scoreboard, which is better than if I were to hit it lefty up towards the fairway. So I tried. It didn’t come out very good and sure enough I was left with the same kind of situation on the next shot and then I did it. If I didn’t three-putt, I maybe felt like I would have saved a shot, but ultimately, I could have just re-teed and made a better score.
“It looks weird. I actually played a really, really solid tee-to-green golf course this week and of course highlighted by a weird hole yesterday that makes it look all crazy. But I was just asking questions and to be honest, if it was out of play here, I probably would have made a better score playing the normal route out. I thought I could finagle a stroke, saving a stroke out of it and it didn’t quite do so.”
Spieth said he did not intend to hit the ball on top of the clubhouse but merely was trying to advance it far enough for a good drop.
“I just needed to get it far enough up to where I would be close enough to the pin to where my drop would be past the hazard,” Spieth said. “So I had to get it far, but you still had to know where the ball was.”
The former Texas star rounded out the week with a 69, putting him into a tie for 10th place on the week at 6 under. He also finished the day with a birdie on 18, avoiding any gutters along the way.
“I feel like I came into the week unsure if I was confident in being able to win (at Augusta) and I think I come out of it saying I’ve got a couple things I’ve got to work on, but overall I think I’m in a good place to be able to have a chance," he said. "Mission accomplished in that sense, but I do wish that I didn’t kind of give away a few that I gave away.”
Scheffler’s time with caddie paid dividends
Before Scottie Scheffler’s Masters win in 2022, he had a chance meeting with legendary Augusta National Golf Club caddie Carl Jackson. The rest, as they say, is history.
“Well, I’m not going to expand too much on Carl’s secrets in front of people, but … No, it was maybe my second Masters, it was either my second or third," Scheffler recalled. "I sat kind of in the back of the caddie house with Carl. And, yeah, he gave me a yardage book that had some of the — where he — I think he called it grain, where some of the slopes are. And it’s just a yardage book that has some arrows in it.”
Scheffler still studies the yardage book to this day.
“I’m not going to tell you where the arrows are pointing,” he said, laughing. “But it’s something that I’ll kind of review at night and I always look at it in the lead-up to the tournament just because there is kind of some weird stuff that goes on around the golf course. And, I mean, he’s such a peaceful guy. So, it was really nice just kind of listening to him talk about the golf course.”
Manor’s Terry takes Drive, Chip and Putt
Hogan. Crenshaw. Scheffler.
Texas Terry.
On the 40th anniversary of Ben Crenshaw’s first Masters triumph, a fellow Austin product made history on Sunday at Augusta National. Competing in the 10-11 Boys Division, Texas Terry outlasted Georgia native Hudson Knapp by one point.
“I told Texas, ‘If you want to go to Augusta, you have to earn it,’” Jim Terry, Texas’ father, said. “I couldn’t be more proud of his work ethic and how much he’s accomplished.”
Terry’s parents both attended Texas, while his mom, Coral, twirled for the Longhorns.
When it came time to name their son, Coral admits, “We had a bunch of friends name their kid Austin, and we wanted to go bigger. We wanted Texas to have something to live up to.”
The fifth-grader made the Lone Star State proud.
Texas was victorious in the chipping portion of the competition, placed third in driving, and needed to lag his final putt to within one-foot, seven-inches to win the overall title.
“My heart rate was racing and my legs were shaking,” Texas said. “I was a noodle.”
Texas made it clear that his dream is to play golf for the Longhorns, while his father said, “He can go anywhere but Oklahoma and Texas A&M.”
Sunday marked the Terry’s first trip to Augusta; they’ll attempt to come back next spring.
When asked what he’ll tell friends back home, the kid said, “I’ll tell them, ‘I went to heaven. I went to Augusta, Georgia.’”
Tim Schmitt is the managing editor for Golfweek, golf coordinator for the USA Today Network and lives in Round Rock. Will Cheney and Doug Stutsman contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Golfer Jordan Spieth prepares for this week's Masters golf tournament
