After failing to make the top 50 in the season-long points race at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Jordan Spieth left Memphis deflated, knowing he’d have to figure out another way to play his way into the 2027 signature events.
“I just feel like I’m kind of getting back to playing really good golf, like it’s close to kicking off, and I’m not going to play a tournament for a long time,” he said in August.
A long time turned out to be until this week. Spieth, 33, is making his third start at the Baycurrent Classic and first trip back to Japan since 2019.
“So far since being here, I think I've added five pounds already, I can't stop eating,” Spieth said. “We were in Tokyo last night and found a sushi spot there. Then the food at the golf course has
been second to none.”
What did he do during his long layoff?
“I took close to four weeks off. We left town, spent some time in Montana. Came back home and started back up,” he said.
The 13-time PGA Tour winner and three-time major champion had an unusual year by his high standards. On the one hand, he was the picture of consistency, 10 top-25 finishes in 22 starts this season. But he hasn’t produced a top-10 finish since a T-7 at the 2025 Memorial with a best of a pair of T-11 finishes in March and hasn’t tasted victory since the 2022 RBC Heritage.
Spieth enters the week No. 55 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings, looking to protect his spot in the inside the top 60 to earn a berth into the first two signature events of 2027 at Pebble Beach and Riviera, two of his favorite hunting grounds.
“I think that I had a lot better season than the results showed. I felt like I was getting better as the year went on. I'm really excited about what the next bunch of years can produce going forward," Spieth said on Tuesday during a pre-tournament interview ahead of the Baycurrent Classic. "I feel as healthy and strong as ever. I don't feel like I have restrictions like I did for a couple years. I feel that my mechanics are more sound than they've been for a while. It's just about giving myself more and more opportunities to get comfortable at or near the lead again where I can push ― where I finished 11th to 19th most of the weeks this last year, I can push that up to having a good chance when I tee off on Sunday and being at or near the lead.
"So, I like the position I'm in. I feel that I can stay the course, and it's close. I've been in a lot of different positions in my career and this is a very exciting one, gets me excited to go out and work and love what I do.”
Two years ago, Spieth was sidelined after wrist surgery and missed the Japan stop. Last year, he was in the midst of revamping his swing and wasn’t ready to test it out in the heat of competition yet. This year, he has a better outlook about the state of his game.
“I just need to be playing more and practicing knocking in more putts, so that's what I've been doing. I've been trying to play a lot of golf, kind of get back right where I was and just slightly improve but get back to playing a lot,” he said. “Then working on trying to get back to making a lot of mid range putts and that will be this week but then I don't think anything's going to change after this week by the next time I play. I think it's just kind of what this offseason looks like, which is a lot more fun than working on swing stuff.”
Spieth is approaching a decade since his last major victory. His trip to play at Yokohama Country Club, situated about 20 miles south of Tokyo, is shades of Bill Murray's character Bob Harris ― a fading, middle-aged American movie star experiencing a deep mid-life crisis in the movie "Lost in Translation."
And yet Spieth could change the way he remembers this season should he end his victory drought, but at the very least, a strong finish could go a long way in shaping the direction of the rest of his off-season. While the goal is to win, Spieth sees this week as a potential springboard into a very important 2027 season for him.
“When you play tournaments on difficult golf courses, you get a better gauge on that than when you're just practicing at home,” he said. “I came here to try to win the golf tournament, but also coming out of it I'll know a lot on what I want to do over the next couple months to get ready for what I think is going to be a really good season next season.”
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Lost in Translation: Jordan Spieth looks to find his form at 2026 Baycurrent Classic
