Jordan Spieth charges back into contention at The Masters

Two summers ago after Jordan Spieth’s grand slam chances ended at St. Andrews, the one word I kept using to describe his incredible push to actually win the third leg of a slam was relentless. It may have been a moment of recency hyperbole, but after we buried him multiple times at that Open, I called his desperate push to actually win the damn thing the most impressive moment of his year (you know, the one that included two majors already):

The Grand Slam is something that seems as close to impossible as anything in this game. The crushing pressure and simple odds of it, and then those two mess-ups on back-to-back days, should have eliminated Spieth before the 72nd green. The responses were Tiger-like. He was relentless. I’ll remember this week for that and given the circumstances, it was as impressive as anything he’s done this year.

That relentlessness was back at Augusta National on Friday and it’s probably a trait that Spieth possesses more than anyone in the game. This Masters has been more difficult than his previous starts, where it became a daily tradition to have Spieth on top of the leaderboard each night. Instead of a quadruple bogey late on Sunday, Spieth went ahead and got that out of the way early in the tournament on Thursday, posting an incomprehensible 9 at the par-5 15th.

I caught up with him again at the eighth hole Friday and the mood around the 2015 winner was apathy. His round had stalled out and he’d actually dropped a shot through his first seven holes, falling back to 4-over. It just seemed stuck and for the first time in his remarkable three-year career at the Masters, it looked like Spieth would just be an afterthought. A non-factor finishing somewhere in the middle of the pack or perhaps, if he didn’t watch out, just missing the weekend completely.

Spieth is always going to be a draw around here, but the entire scene just seemed listless. The roars were erupting one group behind him as Phil Mickelson tried to make an early move with his third birdie of the day at No. 7. Spieth has gone 2-1-2 in three years here and that’s a pace that is not sustainable. So it was perfectly fine if he just faded away and wasn’t in the mix for the first time.

Then Spieth did Spieth things and that relentlessness kicked in over his final 11 holes. He got the must-make birdie on the par-5 8th and didn’t drop a shot thereafter. Three more red numbers on the second nine somehow put him back in the damn top 10 at the midpoint. It was uncanny. Perhaps we should have expected a Spieth comeback stretch at Augusta more than his remarkable run of always being in contention to end this week.

“We’re in a position now where we, I think, can go out there and win this thing and certainly make a run,” he said after the fantastic close. “So that right there just kind of gives me chills.”

If Spieth himself is getting chills, then who knows what comes next. Last year, he almost came back from one of the one-hole implosions in Masters history. Then, he only had six holes to get back into it. Now he’s getting chills and after an underwhelming first 27 holes, he’s got two full rounds to get back to the top again.