Jordan Spieth was at home last Thursday pondering the calendar. Something told him he should play the Cognizant Classic this week, but he needed one last push. He had never set foot in this tournament in his career. He had nothing against it; it just didn’t fit into his plans, which were always focused on the early season tournaments on the west coast of the United States. It was similar to what happened to Jon Rahm before he went to LIV Golf. Between the west coast and the Arnold Palmer and THE PLAYERS, it was time to rest, and it always fell to the tournament formerly known as the Honda Classic, which kicks off the Florida swing.
The final push to make that decision, which remains unique in his career, came in the form of a phone call. He called his coach and expressed his doubts. Cameron McCormick resolved it in one sentence. “I’ve always thought that the PGA National (tournament venue) is a perfect course for you; it’s not long, it’s very demanding, not many greens are hit, you have to be very sharp around the recoveries, and the grass is Bermuda, the surface on which you putt best,” he said. No more needed to be said. As soon as he hung up the call, he signed up for the tournament, which closed entries 24 hours later.
The conversation with McCormick was one of the reasons that brought Spieth to Palm Beach, but there is one equally or more important. As everyone knows, the Dallas golfer has been sidelined for five months due to a wrist injury that required surgery. He had to delay his return to the courses and feels he lacks competition thinking about the Masters. Yes, already thinking about the Masters. Analyzing the calendar, he concluded that the best way to prepare for the first Major of the season was to face really serious challenges. That’s where Jack Nicklaus, his Champions course at PGA National, and the Bear Trap come in. “I feel that the first tournaments were a kind of ‘let’s see how everything is after surgery.’ So my goal now, looking towards the Masters, is to try to play on difficult golf courses and see what I can improve for when we get to Augusta,” he states.
There are few courses during the year on the PGA Tour more demanding than the Cognizant venue. The design is very demanding, the finish, with that Trap from 15 to 17, is terrible, and if the wind blows, hold on. In fact, of the 53 editions that have been played of the tournament, it has been won with a single-digit under-par score on twenty occasions. And only twice has it exceeded twenty under par.
