One last chance to earn a spot in the Tournament of Champions. That’s what an optimistic Jordan Spieth was gunning for at this week’s Mayakoba Golf Classic. But in his final tour event before saying “I do” to fiancée Annie Verret later this month, Spieth frustratingly posted an MC rather than a W.
Spieth arrived in Mexico off a T-55 finish in Las Vegas the previous week, but put his old driver and 3-wood into his bag in hopes of providing a spark. Instead, he posted a middling even-par 71 in the first round at El Camaleon Golf Club that left him eight strokes off the lead and with work to do just to play on the weekend.
In round two, Spieth started moving in the right direction in his morning round, getting to three-under through 14 holes, the cut line expected to shake out around that number. But a three-putt bogey on the par-4 sixth hole, his 15th, was a dagger. Unable to birdie his final three holes, he finished with a two-under 69, only to see the cut move to four-under and his 2018 tour season come to an ignominious end.
Spieth had hoped that his two “extra” appearances during this portion of the 2018-’19 season – it’s the first time he had played in either Vegas or Mexico – might give him some momentum going into 2019 after missing out on the Tour Championship in September for the first time in his career. Instead he finishes the calendar year without a victory for the first time since 2014, without a top-10 finish since his T-9 showing at the Open Championship and his lowest world ranking since 2014.
