SAN ANTONIO — Jordan Spieth graces the cover of the April issue of Golf Digest under the headline, “Turn a slow start into a strong finish.” Spieth is off to a good start of doing just that this week at the Valero Texas Open. The 2015 FedExCup champion, who enters the week ranked No. 177 in the FedExCup standings, signed for a 4-under 68 at TPC San Antonio’s AT&T Oaks Course and trails first-round leader Si Woo Kim by two strokes. “The swing feels good, it’s getting more consistent,” he said. “It’s getting there. I’d call it a ‘B’ today.” Spieth sprayed his driver, hitting just five fairways, but recovered to hit 12 of 18 greens and was perfect at scrambling. Spieth made birdie at three par 5s, pitched to tap-in range at 17 and canned a 19-foot birdie at No. 9. When showed a replay of that stroke, Spieth said, “That’s a good example of me using the big muscles and getting in a position at setup reminiscent of when I was playing at my best and simply rocking the shoulders.” Spieth’s lone blemish on the card was a 3-putt bogey at 15 from 61 feet. Spieth has had other promising starts this season, but could this one give him a boost of confidence heading into the Masters? The 2015 champ has never finished worse than T-11 in five previous appearances at Augusta National, but he’s also never been on the cusp of the first major playing so poorly.       Spieth hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish since The Open Championship last July. This season, Spieth ranks 167th on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total, 135 positions lower than his rank in this statistic last season. And not to belabor the point, but Spieth ranked 33rd in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green in 2017-18 and ranks 131st this season. Related: Si Woo Kim opens with 6-under 66 | Fowler’s late equipment switch pays off | Featured Groups, tee times | Insider: Former Valero champ Bowditch upbeat in return from back injury The sub-head of the Golf Digest story poses the big question facing Spieth: How to get your swing back before it goes off the rails. Spieth, for one, has preached patience and since THE PLAYERS has been stating that he’s on the verge of a breakthrough despite the fact that he’s missed three cuts and hasn’t finished better than T-24 this season. Shortly before his Wednesday pro-am round, Spieth hit balls on the range while caddie Michael Greller stood behind him and videoed Spieth’s swing on his smartphone. After each shot, Spieth stopped and reviewed his motion. Following his opening round and post-media commitments, Spieth returned to the range for a post-round session. Last year, Spieth entered the Houston Open in what amounted to a slump for him and finished T-3, then flirted with the course record at Augusta on Sunday and finished third. Count NBC/Golf Channel analyst Jim “Bones” Mackay among those observers who remain firmly in Spieth’s camp. “He may not be striking it quite like he did, but hanging out with the caddies like I do and hearing stories like I do about what an absolute killer that guy is between the ears, I don’t worry too much about him getting back,” Mackay said. “It’s just a question of when.” When will Spieth turn a slow start into a strong finish like in the article he authored? Maybe it could happen this week. When asked what he’d consider to be a good week, he said, “”Having a chance to win.”
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