Lexi vs. Lydia: Battle of the Brickyard

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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – It’s a dichotomy that has a drastically different meaning to each player. Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth both save their best performances for majors. For Koepka, that disparity is by design. Spieth’s perplexing record is the result of a frustrating slump. The two American twenty-somethings with multiple majors are in contention at another one. They both shot 5-under 137 over the first 36 holes at Royal Portrush to sit three shots behind 36-hole leader J.B. Holmes. Spieth continued to struggle with his driver, but rode a hot putter to a 67 on Friday. Koepka showed us at Pebble Beach that he can win a major without his best performance on the putting surfaces. That was the case again Friday. Koepka is trying to continue a run of dominance that can be compared only to Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. He has finished first or second in all three majors this year, and five of the last six. Adding the claret jug to his pair of U.S. Opens and PGAs would give him three legs of the career Grand Slam. He’s trying to become the first person since Tiger Woods to win multiple majors in consecutive seasons. RELATED: Leaderboard | Tee times | Tiger finishes 6 over after 36 holes For Spieth, The Open is a reminder of better times. His 2017 victory at Royal Birkdale represents his last win on the PGA TOUR. His best opportunities to add a 12th PGA TOUR victory have come in majors. He threatened Augusta National’s course record before bogeying the final hole of the 2018 Masters and falling two shots short of Patrick Reed. Then Spieth played in the final group of last year’s Open at Carnoustie. This season, as his struggles increased, his T21 at the Masters was his first top-25 in a stroke-play event. Then he played alongside Koepka in Saturday’s final group at the PGA Championship. The long and brawny Bethpage Black, where thick rough necessitated a pitch-out for all but the strongest players, did not seem to fit Spieth. He rode the best putting week of his career (according to the Strokes Gained: Putting statistic) to a T3 finish. On Friday, Spieth played a four-hole stretch from Nos. 5-8 in 5 under par. It started with a two-putt birdie from 80 feet on No. 5. Then he knocked a 6-iron within 10 feet on the par-3 sixth hole. He holed a curling putt from off the green to eagle the seventh hole. Another 25-footer gave him a birdie at 8. He was 1 over par the rest of the way. “I posted a score that was pretty incredible from where I played my second shots from,â€� Spieth said. He’s hit just 11 fairways in two rounds at Royal Portrush. On Thursday, he compared this year’s venue to Royal Birkdale, the site of his 2017 Open triumph. Both courses require more aerial approaches than the typical links course. Spieth was second on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach two years ago, though. “My game is in a different place than it was then,â€� he said. “And I’m working to get it back to where it was.â€� He ranks 141st in that statistic this season and 179th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. Missing the fairways on Friday may have helped him in his continued quest to fix his swing troubles. It forced him to be creative instead of thinking of swing thoughts. “My shots out of trouble today were really, really nice, and I got some good breaks off of where I hit it to,â€� Spieth said. “But every now and again you’ll get one that sits down in a hole, like on 9, and you can barely get it out. So it’s not worth continuing to try and hit those cool shots. But I’ve got my money’s worth for two days.â€� In his previous two events, Spieth finished T65 at the U.S. Open and missed the cut at the Travelers. He worked hard on his game since his last start, but said he’s at least a few weeks away from trusting those swing changes. Koepka hasn’t been in contention in his most recent starts, either. He finished outside the top 50 in both the Travelers and the 3M Open. Unlike Spieth, Koepka isn’t bothered by those showings. They’re by design. Koepka insists that he doesn’t prepare for the standard PGA TOUR event. “When you see me on TV, that’s when I play golf,â€� he said in his pre-tournament press conference at Royal Portrush. He’s become an expert in bringing his best stuff to the majors. He finished runner-up at the U.S. Open after a T50 in his preceding start, at the RBC Canadian Open. Like at Pebble Beach, Koepka is contending despite being dissatisfied with his putting. Spieth aside, Royal Portrush rewards strong ballstriking. It’s difficult to play run-up shots to the elevated greens. The slopes around the greens repel mishits and make recovery shots more difficult. The rough is lush, as well. Koepka has hit 25 greens in two rounds and 19 of 28 fairways. “I haven’t made a putt all week,â€� Koepka said. “I just need to figure that out. If I can make some putts I could very easily be 10-under, and really maybe more.â€�

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SANDWICH, England – Jordan Spieth says “living in the external” is where he belongs, and it was the key to an impressive start at The 149th Open. The former FedExCup champion continued his return to form this season, putting everyone on notice at Royal St. George’s with a very tidy 5-under 65 during the early wave. The 2017 Open champion sat just one off the pace set by 2010 champion Louis Oosthuizen as he relied on feel and instinct, much like he did in his giant-killing years of 2015-2017 that yielded 10 victories. His mastery of the blustery winds on the seaside links course helped provide six birdies over his last 14 holes including a run of four straight on the front nine but perhaps more impressive than the birdie barrage was the mentality the 12-time PGA TOUR winner showcased post round. “There’s a lot of external factors over here, and I think that external is where I need to be living. You get less swing-focused and more shot-focused over here because the second you take your brain off of what you’re hitting, you may not find your ball,” the Texan explained. Since February’s Waste Management Phoenix Open where he tied for fourth Spieth has notched up eight top 10s from just 13 starts including his drought breaking win at the Valero Texas Open, a runner up finish at the Charles Schwab Challenge and third place efforts at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am and the Masters. From 2018 until Phoenix this year, Spieth went winless and had just 12 top 10s in 70 TOUR starts. He spent most of that time preaching patience as he worked through swing issues but now he’s talking up his chances. “To be honest, the path that I’m on and where I’ve been before in the game, I feel really good about my chances going forward, (being) as good as they have been historically,” he said as a warning shot to the field. “I feel like I’ve been trending the right way and certainly had a chance this year already at Augusta. Made some mistakes in the first round and second round that I shouldn’t have made that I very well could have won that golf tournament this year. I like where I’m at. “By no means do I feel like I’m where I want to be mechanically yet, but this year has been a really, really good progression for me, and that’s all I’m trying to do is just get a little bit better each day.”

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