The Open cut line 2016: Jordan Spieth’s major struggles continue at Troon

Jordan Spieth, hovering around the projected cut line and needing a strong start to his second round of the Open Championship, kicked off Friday’s play by swinging for the fences.

Unfortunately, the fences were in foul territory way left of the fairway, and after Spieth’s wicked hook off the tee flew the first one, Golf Channel analyst Nick Faldo let out some sort of oinking pig grunt. Lovely.

Not so lovely was Spieth’s next attempt. From a decent drop in the juicy rough, the two-time major champion yanked his second shot back into the crowd.

And just like that, last year’s golden boy dropped a shot to fall to the cut line of 1-over on the number. He picked up the shot on No. 4, when his tight pitch shot left him a tap-in for birdie. Spieth appeared ready to lose another stroke when his tee shot on the next hole came up short and left into a pot bunker. A stellar wedge shot left him another tap-in.

Spieth blamed a balky putter for his opening-round struggles but he was happy with his ball-striking on a gorgeous day for scoring.

“I struck the ball as well as I’ve struck it since Hawaii, maybe,” Spieth said Thursday, referring to his first-round even-par score as well as his win at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. “I really hit the ball phenomenally well today. I probably hit it as well as anybody in the field and shot five, six shots over the leader, so that normally doesn’t happen for me. That’s normally my really low round. So if I can keep my rhythm and my swing as we lead into these tougher condition days, the next couple days, I should be able to make up some strokes.”

His putter continued to let him down on Friday, as he missed a short par putt on the par-5 sixth to put the MC back in play. What followed was even uglier, when his second shot from one of those dastardly bunkers on the Postage Stamp eighth hole landed in front of the green and circled back into the sand.

The first double-bogey of the day on the iconic hole belonged to Spieth, whose 2016 bears no resemblance to his grand slam-seeking 2015. Prior to the double, Johnny Miller noted that Spieth owned a cumulative 54-under in all four majors last year but was 8-over, with not a single sub-par score in his last eight major rounds, so far this season.

“It’s been a different year so far,” said Miller.

With a par at the ninth, Spieth made the turn at 3-over leaving much work to do on his back nine. Meanwhile, world No. 1 Jason Day seemed on the same trajectory until he canned a couple of birdies on Nos. 3 and 5 to get to 1-over, which was then a shot clear of the cut line.

Starting the round at even-par, Day fought a case of the lefts on Friday.

“He said his irons have been terrible, double-crossing his fades and double-crossing his hooks,” Miller noted after Day’s approach to the par-5 fourth went way right. “He said he was hitting everything left with his irons yesterday. Probably worked on that, obviously, on the range. Now he’s left himself a super-hard up and in.”

With his ball “chiseled” into the gorse, as Roger Maltbie observed, Day called for an official to help him identify it. ID complete, Day was somehow able to advance the ball to a swale in front of the green and escaped with a par.

Day, who hurt a rib earlier in the week, grimaced as he walked down to the green, so that bears watching down the stretch on Friday, and possibly into the weekend.

A birdie on the par-4 seventh got Day to red numbers. But should he stumble on the back nine and miss the cut, he would be just the fourth top-ranked player — joining Fred Couples (1992), Tiger Woods (2009) and Luke Donald (2011) to exit early at The Open.

Here’s the group hovering around the cut line:

Place - Player - Score

T72 - Marco Dawson - 3
T72 - Zander Lombard - 3
T72 - Luke Donald - 3
T72 - Ryan Palmer - 3
T72 - Jon Rahm - 3
T72 - Justin Thomas - 3
T72 - Branden Grace - 3
T72 - Thongchai Jaidee - 3
T72 - Jordan Spieth - 3
T72 - Hideto Tanihara - 3
T72 - Russell Henley - 3
T72 - Robert Rock - 3
T72 - Brendan Steele - 3
T72 - Scott Fernandez - 3
T86 - Graeme McDowell - 4
T86 - James Hahn - 4
T86 - Ryan Evans - 4
T86 - Colin Montgomerie - 4
T86 - Harris English - 4
T86 - Kevin Chappell - 4
T86 - Jim Furyk - 4
T86 - Paul Lawrie - 4
T86 - Brandt Snedeker - 4
T86 - Danny Willett - 4
T86 - Chris Kirk - 4
T86 - George Coetzee - 4
T86 - Matthew Fitzpatrick - 4
T86 - William McGirt - 4
T86 - Rikard Karlberg - 4
T101 - Robert Streb - 5
T101 - Ernie Els - 5
T101 - Marcus Fraser - 5
T101 - Richie Ramsay - 5
T101 - Victor Dubuisson - 5
T101 - Shane Lowry - 5
T101 - Ross Fisher - 5
T101 - Patton Kizzire - 5
T109 - Jordan Niebrugge - 6
T109 - Todd Hamilton - 6
T109 - Mark Calcavecchia - 6
T109 - Justin Leonard - 6
T109 - Steven Alker - 6
T109 - David Lingmerth - 6
T109 - Jimmy Walker - 6
T116 - Joost Luiten - 7
T116 - Tommy Fleetwood - 7
T116 - Anthony Wall - 7
T116 - Colt Knost - 7
T116 - Callum Shinkwin - 7
T116 - Sang-hee Lee - 7
T116 - Kiradech Aphibarnrat - 7
T123 - Clement Sordet - 8
T123 - Nick Cullen - 8
T123 - John Daly - 8
T123 - Yusaku Miyazato - 8
T123 - Brian Gay - 8
T123 - Fabian Gomez - 8
T123 - Jeunghun Wang - 8
T130 - Kristoffer Broberg - 9
T130 - Paul Casey - 9
T130 - Bernd Wiesberger - 9
T130 - Brandon Stone - 9
T130 - Scott Gregory - 9
T130 - Thorbjorn Olesen - 9
T130 - Louis Oosthuizen - 9
T137 - Yosuke Tsukada - 10
T137 - Jack Senior - 10
T137 - James Heath - 10
T140 - Seung-yul Noh - 11
T140 - Lasse Jensen - 11
T140 - Satoshi Kodaira - 11
T140 - Marc Warren - 11
T140 - Scott Piercy - 11
T140 - James Morrison - 11
T146 - Stefano Mazzoli - 12
T146 - Paul Howard - 12
T146 - Paul Dunne - 12
T146 - Jamie Lovemark - 12
150 - Danny Lee - 13
151 - Steven Bowditch - 15
152 - Oskar Arvidsson - 17
153 - Ben Curtis - 18
154 - Sandy Lyle - 21

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