Longhorns Legend Spieth Fires Career-Low
Former Texas Longhorns golfer Jordan Spieth shot a career-low 61 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Saturday, pulling himself into a first-place tie with Xander Schauffele heading into Sunday’s final round.
Spieth entertained the crowd with a 31 on the front side of the course, followed by a 30 on the backside. That included long birdie putts on the par-3 16th hole and par-4 17th hole, which put Spieth within one more birdie of shooting 60 for the round.
The round got Spieth trending on Twitter after the round was complete.
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It was like the old days for Spieth, who took the golf world by storm when he left Texas midway through his sophomore season for the PGA Tour. With Texas, he led the Longhorns to the 2011 NCAA Championship and earned All-America honors.
While Spieth has three major championships — one each at The Masters, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship — and 11 PGA Tour victories, he’s had a bit of a dry spell of late. His last win on the PGA Tour came in June of 2017, when Spieth won the Travelers Championship. A month later he claimed his most recent professional win and major, winning the Open Championship by three shots over Matt Kuchar.
Spieth’s best finish this season was a tie for 38th place at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek. He also claimed a tie for 41st at the Zozo Championship. Entering the weekend Spieth was No. 179 in the FedEx Cup and had won just $101,112 on the PGA Tour this season.
So a win on Sunday would represent a return to the winner’s circle for Spieth. He might also have to fight off a fellow Longhorns in Scottie Scheffler, who is three shots off the lead.