Based on his finishes, Jordan Spieth’s 2025 season has been largely forgettable. The three-time major champion will play in his 17th event of the year when he tees it up in the PGA Tour’s regular-season finale this week at the Wyndham Championship, but he’s collected just two top-five finishes and seven top-20 finishes.
Spieth has rarely sniffed weekend contention outside of another run at the WM Phoenix Open in early February and a Moving Day surge at the Memorial before he tripped up coming home. However, despite the lack of quality results that jump off the page, Spieth remains confident that the underlying metrics in his game are much better than what has been put on paper.
And the thing is, he is right.
“I’ve had nine holes here where I didn’t make anything. It could have been 4 under on nine holes to spark a round, or I had nine holes of some poor iron shots where you kind of throw yourself out of it, so I end up finishing somewhere seventh to 13th instead of having a chance to compete,” Spieth said ahead of the Wyndham Championship.
“It’s just a little bit of the consistency in some ball-striking and some putting. Both are ahead of average, both are gaining shots on the field on average, but I’m looking to have kind of consistent gains round after round,” he continued. “I’m showing I can do that day after day, whether I’m playing at home or playing out here. It’s started to really come together lately, so now I just have to execute when it matters.”
Spieth ranks 16th on the PGA Tour in total strokes gained. Based solely on the numbers, that suggests he has been a top-20 player this season. He is ahead of winners like Ryan Fox, Viktor Hovland, Chris Gotterup, Kurt Kitayama, Harris English and Andrew Novak, but behind most of them when it comes to the FedEx Cup standings.
In fact, Spieth finds himself on what has turned into the bubble on the eve of the postseason. Entering the Wyndham Championship at No. 50 in the season-long race, the former FedEx Cup champion finds himself in a precarious position given the magnitude that comes with finishing inside the top 50 in the standings.
Those who do and qualify for the second week of the postseason (the BMW Championship) will also qualify for all eight signature events in 2026. Access to these tournaments provides a buffer for the best players on the PGA Tour given the limited fields, no cuts, and increase in both prize funds and FedEx Cup points.
Spieth was a participant in these tournaments in 2025, but it was not due to his play; rather, it was due to his name value as the 32-year-old relied on sponsor invitations to secure a spot on the tee sheet.
“I didn’t like asking for exemptions this year at all. I was fortunate to receive a lot of them, but you just never know,” Spieth said. “And when you miss out on elevated events, the way it’s structured, they’ve got the best players in the world at all of them and you don’t want to miss any of them. It’s a big reason why I’m here. When I sat out, I moved from 38th to 39th all the way down to 48th essentially just by not playing. It would be nice to have a huge boost this week and not have to worry about it next week, but I’m fully prepared to have some stress next week on that 50 number, and ideally a good start this week or next week really takes a lot of that off.”
Spieth played in last year’s Wyndham Championship amid news that he was going to undergo an offseason procedure to alleviate pain in his left wrist. He hoped to improve his postseason standing but failed to do so, missing the cut in his first start at Sedgefield Country Club in four years and ultimately missing the BMW Championship with another poor outing at the St. Jude Championship the following week.
This year, Spieth arrives in much better spirits and much better health. He is convinced he is on the path to playing better golf on a more consistent basis and one offseason away from returning to the player that he used to be. Even so, Spieth would like to push that offseason as far as possible into the future with this week’s Wyndham Championship possibly serving as a launchpad.
“The way to have a good start is to not think about it and just play the way I’ve been playing, but obviously that’s an added element that I don’t want to have to have that I do have, and it’s just part of this year,” Spieth continued. “I missed the first month of the year and I missed another couple events for different reasons, so … I’d like to finish strong this year.
“But next year’s going to be a really good year for me, I can feel it. It’s all coming along. I’ll be healthy, and just structurally putting, the mechanics are all getting really, really close. One good offseason should get me nailed down to where I could be as good as I’ve been. That’s my goal.”