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Jordan Spieth Had the Most Predictable Jordan Spieth Moment After His Tee Shot Landed Under a Trash Can

Andy Nesbitt|
Jordan Spieth made an incredible birdie after finding his ball under a trash can.
Jordan Spieth made an incredible birdie after finding his ball under a trash can. | @PGATour

Jordan Spieth hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2022 but he remains a fan-favorite because every round he plays seems to have a moment, or multiple moments, that feel like they only happen to Jordan Spieth.

That happened again during Thursday’s first round of the John Deere Classic, and it made for some fantastic early-morning viewing on ESPN+.

MORE JOHN DEERE: It’s About to Get Real for the PGA Tour’s Next Big Thing

Here’s what happened: Spieth’s tee shot on the par-4 15th hole (his sixth hole of the day) sailed into the right rough, which isn’t crazy at all. But then when he walked up to his ball he discovered that it came to rest under a trash can.

For real.

Spieth then moved around the trash cans to get a look at his ball, and after a ruling by an official he was able to move his ball and get a good lie in the rough. His next shot was a predictable thing of beauty that ended up just over three feet from the hole. He would then drain that putt to move two-under par on his round.

Here’s how that played out:

I know what you’re thinking: Did that unlikely birdie allow Spieth to get some momentum and make an early charge up the leaderboard? No, of course it didn’t. This is Jordan Spieth we’re talking about! Instead of getting hot, he closed out his front nine by putting his approach shot from the fairway on 18 into the water and carded a double-bogey six. Then he backed that up with a bogey on his 10th hole of the day to fall to one-over par.

From two-under to one-under in under 40 minutes. That’s the Jordan Spieth experience we’ve all grown to love/hate in recent years.

UPDATE: Spieth ended up shooting a 1-under 70 on Thursday.

Golf fans had lots of jokes about Jordan Spieth’s run-in with the trash cans

Spieth latest must-see TV moment had everyone on social media making jokes.

How Jordan Spieth has fared this year on the PGA Tour

As we said above, Spieth hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2022 RBC Heritage. This year he has played in 18 events and has only missed two cuts, which is pretty darn impressive. But while he’s been playing a lot of weekends, he hasn’t really contended at all on Sundays.

Spieth doesn’t have a top-10 finish this year. His best finishes are a pair of T11s at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Valspar Championship.

He has made the cut in all three major championships, including the Masters where he finished T12 at five-under par. He finished T18 at the PGA Championship in May and then a few weeks ago at the U.S. Open he stumbled to a T56 finish. Last week at the Travelers Championship he finished a disappointing T66.

Now he’s battling the course, and some likely demons, at the John Deere Classic, a tournament he has won twice before in his career. If he’s somehow able to contend this weekend, that birdie from the trash cans will certainly be a highlight that gets shown a number of times on the CBS broadcast.

Buckle up, Jordan Spieth fans. And enjoy the ride.

Oh, and take a second to watch this video of Spieth rating pizzas last week at the Travelers in Cromwell, Conn. It’s tremendous.

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Andy Nesbitt
ANDY NESBITT

Andy Nesbitt is the assistant managing editor of audience engagement at Sports Illustrated. He works closely with the Breaking and Trending News team to shape SI’s daily coverage across all sports. A 20-year veteran of the sports media business, he has worked for Fox Sports, For the Win, The Boston Globe and NBC Sports, having joined SI in February 2023. Nesbitt is a golf fanatic who desperately wants to see the Super Bowl played on a Saturday night.

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