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Jordan Spieth Receives Brutally Honest Message From PGA Tour Legend After Disappointing 2025 Campaign

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Jordan Spieth Receives Brutally Honest Message From PGA Tour Legend After Disappointing 2025 Campaign originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Jordan Spieth has faced a tough stretch, and his struggles extend beyond just the 2025 season. His challenges on the PGA Tour have persisted for years now, with his last win coming back in 2022 at the RBC Heritage.

Few could have predicted the slide from Spieth after he burst onto the scene as an amateur in 2013, capturing his first PGA Tour victory at the John Deere Classic. Since then, he has accumulated 13 wins, including three major titles at the Masters, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship. He still needs the PGA Championship to complete the career Grand Slam, a feat achieved by only six other golfers.

However, that goal currently seems far-fetched. After missing the cut in the final two tournaments of the year due to the FedExCup standings, Spieth finished the season ranked 51st in the world, falling out of the top 50 for the first time since 2021.

Gary Player Comments on Jordan Spieth’s Struggles

Following this downturn, he received a brutally honest assessment from golf legend Gary Player during an appearance on “The Golf Supply” YouTube channel.

“Jordan Spieth I think is the best golfer in the world but in my opinion he was taught the wrong thing,” Player said. “And he just went downhill. He went downhill…. If you had a man like Ben Hogan teaching Jordan Spieth he would be the best in the world. He’s such a competitor, such a wonderful man. A wonderful guy for golf, the best short game, best course management but he just can’t hit the ball. That is a tragedy.”

Calling Spieth the best player in the world might be a stretch given Scottie Scheffler’s dominance over the past couple of years, but at one point, Spieth was certainly in that conversation—and he still has the ability to return to that level.

The 32-year-old recently made a bold prediction about his 2026 season, vowing to bounce back.

“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,” Spieth said. “One good offseason should get me nailed down to where I could be as good as I’ve been. That’s my goal.”

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 14, 2025, where it first appeared.

The first round of the FedExCup playoff finale begins Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.

Players are paired based on FEC standings entering the third of three postseason tournaments, but everyone starts at even par and with no points. The winner of the 72-hole, stroke-play event will be declared the FedExCup champion.

As they did at last week’s BMW Championship, top seeds Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will play alongside one another on the opening day. Players will then be repaired for Day 2, based on Round 1 scores.

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Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper to play qualifiers in opening round at Flushing Meadows

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The draw is set for the US Open with Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper meeting qualifiers in the opening round at Flushing Meadows; the US Open is live on Sky Sports Tennis and Sky Sports+, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app from August 24

British stars Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper will both play qualifiers in their opening matches at this year’s US Open.

Raducanu, who could face former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the third round, will be first on Louis Armstrong Stadium as the tournament begins on Sunday, live on Sky Sports from 4pm.

Draper appears set to start his campaign on Monday as he looks to build on the success he enjoyed at Flushing Meadows last year. But he could meet defending champion Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals if both win through.

Both Raducanu and Draper must await the completion of the qualifying tournament on Friday evening before learning the identity of their first-round opponents.

Back at the top of the British rankings, Raducanu is playing probably some of her best tennis since her remarkable US Open triumph in 2021 – although that bar is lower after a turbulent few years due to injury.

Her informal coaching arrangement with Mark Petchey appeared to be working, with the 22-year-old enjoying a run to the semi-finals of the Washington Open, but she has now brought in Rafael Nadal’s former coach Francis Roig ahead of the Grand Slam in New York.

Spanish coach Roig worked alongside Nadal and with Nadal’s uncle Toni for the majority of his career, where he won 22 Grand Slam titles.

The other British women have been handed tough draws, with Katie Boulter taking on 27th seed Marta Kostyuk and Sonay Kartal meeting 11th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Draper warmed up for the singles tournament reaching the mixed doubles semi-finals, with him and Jessica Pegula beating Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz along the way.

World No 5 Draper is hoping to be a force this year. In 2024 he reached the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows before losing to eventual champion Sinner.

Ahead of the tournament he had to withdraw from events in Toronto and Cincinnati due to a forearm injury, but has now recovered ahead of this US Open return.

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Scottie Scheffler on what’s ‘taken a lot’ out of him ahead of the Tour Championship, it affected his preparation

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Scottie Scheffler revealed that something has taken a lot out of him in the build up to the Tour Championship.

The PGA Tour is set for its final event of the postseason – the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. 30 of the best golfers on the PGA Tour will battle it out over four days to become the FedEx Cup champion.

Scottie Scheffler enters the championship as world number one, and leads the FedEx Cup standings by a considerable margin over Rory McIlroy in second. He beat Robert MacIntyre to win the BMW Championship last week, and now seeks to retain his FedEx Cup title.

But his preparation has been affected by something that he admitted has taken a lot out of him.

Scottie Scheffler said being in contention takes a lot out of him

Scheffler has had a historic year. He won the Open Championship and PGA Championship to move a U.S. Open away from the career grand slam, won the FedEx Cup regular season running away, and has cemented his status as the world’s best golfer.

Scheffler’s season has been compared to Tiger Woods and drawn plaudits from Phil Mickelson, such has been his dominance.

Every tournament feels like Scheffler vs the field. He’s in contention week in, week out, and has shown no signs of slowing down. Or so we thought. The American said that this weekend his focus is on rest, as his 2025 dominance has taken a lot.

Speaking to the Golf Channel, he admitted, “After having a week like last week, it takes a lot out of you being in contention. So going into this week I’m focusing on rest for the first couple of days. I’m going to get used to the speed of the greens and get used to the bunkers and the rough.

“I’m not going to be hitting a lot of balls on the driving range. I’m going to play nine holes and do my putting and chipping and then I’m going to get out of here.

“A little bit of a different prep work than a normal week but that’s just because I feel like my game’s in a good spot and I need rest going into this week.”

That’s great news for the rest of the field, especially with the new format pulling Scheffler ever closer.

Scottie Scheffler happy with new Tour Championship format, despite suffering disadvantage

In previous years, Scheffler would have started the Tour Championship with a two-shot advantage as the FedEx Cup leader. This year, the format has changed, and everyone starts from zero. But a confident Scheffler said this format is better for the sport.

“The last few years have been an unusual format. I gave up my handicap this year which is a little different. I much prefer this format. I think having a really good golf tournament to finish off our year is the way to do it, and the way the format was the last couple years, I didn’t think it was a great tournament.”

Giving a two-shot lead to Scheffler is effectively giving him the win. Now, the likes of McIlroy, Fleetwood, and St. Jude Championship winner Justin Rose are all in contention to win the coveted prize.

With Scheffler taking it easy in the first few days, a hot start for any of the world’s best players could give them a significant advantage.

 

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2025 Tour Championship picks, odds: Can anybody upset Scottie Scheffler at East Lake?

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The 2025 PGA Tour season concludes this weekend at East Lake in Atlanta, Ga., and, if we’re being honest, they should just crown Scottie Scheffler the FedEx Cup Champion and save us all the trouble.

Scheffler erased a four-stroke deficit Sunday to win the BMW Championship, giving the World No. 1 his fifth win and 15th top-10 finish in 18 starts this season.

Those results are historic, but he’ll only be crowned as this season’s champion if he can win this week’s Tour Championship.

In previous formats, Scheffler would start the Tour Championship at 10-under par, but the powers that be have decided to do away with starting strokes and put all 30 players on even par for the 2025 iteration.

Not only does that level the playing field, but it also makes this tournament a lot more fun for bettors, who, like casual fans, were pretty tired of the old format.

Even without the head start, Scheffler is a whopping +150 favorite at DraftKings, well ahead of Rory McIlroy (+850), Tommy Fleetwood (14/1), Ludvig Aberg (18/1) and Russell Henley (20/1).

Despite his Tiger-esque odds, you can feel pretty confident that Scheffler will be the most popular bet behind the window this week – and don’t let me stand in your way if that’s your speed – but we’ll pick out a few long shots who look like they’re primed to make some noise in the curtain-closer.

If you’re a regular reader of our Wednesday golf picks, you probably saw this one coming.

We’ve been on Harry Hall the past two weeks, hoping to cash in on the Englishman’s terrific, yet unheralded, form.

It hasn’t worked out just yet, but Hall was right around it once again at the BMW Championship, finishing sixth for his fifth top-10 finish on the season.

The 28-year-old has been remarkably consistent to close out 2025, posting 11 straight top-30 finishes with eight top-20s in that span.

According to Justin Ray of the Twenty-First Group, Hall ranks first in strokes gained: putting, third in scoring average and fourth in birdie-or-better rate since May 1.

He’s doing everything but winning right now.

It wasn’t too long ago that Shane Lowry was in terrific form with nine top-20s, four top-10s and a pair of runner-ups in his first 14 starts in 2025.

A terrible showing at the US Open seemed to cause the Irishman to come unglued, however, and he’s now without a top-20 finish in his last five tournaments.

That said, Lowry finished T23 at the BMW Championship and showed signs of life Sunday.

Known to do his best work on the biggest stages, Lowry’s talent means he’s always worth a look at this kind of price.

Like Hall, Sungjae Im has been a regular feature in this column to no avail, yet.

Like Lowry, this is a buy-low opportunity on a player with the talent to disrupt this field.

It may be a surprise that Im even qualified for this event, but his T17 at the St. Jude two weeks ago was enough to vault him into East Lake in what has otherwise been a down year.

The South Korean has missed four cuts and posted just two top-30 finishes in his last 10 starts, but he has popped at different times this year. He came out of the gates strong with two top-five results in his first three starts, and he was T5 at Augusta in April.

Im also has some strong history at East Lake with a runner-up in 2022 and a sixth-place finish last year.

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