Putting woes continue for Jordan Spieth at Sony Open in Hawaii

HONOLULU, Hawaii – No one at the Sony Open in Hawaii brought up the dreaded ‘Y’ word with Jordan Spieth but it was another struggle on the greens Thursday for the 11-time PGA TOUR winner. Spieth opened his campaign with a very rusty 3-over 73 at Waialae Country Club, low-lighted by the fact he made just 33 feet, seven inches worth of putts. As the afternoon wave headed out on the course, Spieth was trending to losing nearly three strokes on the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. Last season the 2015 FedExCup winner ranked 123rd on TOUR in the putting stats and missed the TOUR Championship for the first time in his career. It prompted Tiger Woods former swing coach Hank Haney to come out and claim Spieth has the dreaded yips. “When I watch him putt, he visibly has the yips. You watch his hands on short putts and there is a tremor in there. I don’t care if the putt goes in or doesn’t,â€� he told ESPN.com. But Spieth himself is far from alarmed. “I felt comfortable with the putter today. Didn’t end up making anything but felt like I hit my lines; felt comfortable,â€� Spieth said in Hawaii. “That’s closer than the swing is. It’s not to where I’m just over it and playing shots or over it and seeing lines and hitting putts. It’ll get there. I’m not worried about it.â€� The former world No. 1 remains concerned with rust in his swing but is trusting his process of rectifying it. The Texan native is trying to re-ingrain the swing that worked for him in the past after falling away from it last season. He hit just seven of 14 fairways and nine of 18 greens. “I went through like a couple different swings today. It was kind of a test I guess,â€� he said. “It’s very unusual. It could take a while, but I got pretty far off and I’m trying to backtrack significantly. But I need to get some tournament rounds to do it, even though it’s humbling at the same.â€� His 73 left him 11 shots back of early leader Andrew Putnam and towards the back end of the field but Spieth was mindful of not letting the scoreboard get into his head. He knows this could be a long-term fix.  “As long as I don’t let it get to me like I did a little bit last year, I’ll be able to get back on track sooner rather than later,â€� he said. “I will come back and try and shoot 5-, 6-under tomorrow, shoot a solid round. The idea is to try and progress each day. “I would really like to have an opportunity to do that on the weekend, so I need to shoot a good round tomorrow just to give myself a chance.â€�

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