Jordan Spieth sounded a little too excited for his Sunday flight out of town.
Fear not, Hawaii golf fans, the world’s No. 2-ranked golfer still considers Hawaii a must-visit stop on the PGA Tour, especially if he’s competing in the winners-only tournament at Kapalua to start the new calendar year.
“I’d like to make these two weeks a regular stop every year,” Spieth said Wednesday before the start of the Sony Open in Hawaii. “I really enjoy this golf course. You actually have to learn quite a bit of how to map yourself around this place, and the ball rolls a lot more here than it did any place else.”
Already a three-time major winner at age 24, Spieth is a headliner everywhere he goes, something the tournament at Waialae Country Club needs.
His patience was tested all week, especially after his quadruple-bogey 8 on hole No. 8 — the 17th of his first round.
By the end of Saturday’s third round, Spieth, who also went through the ordeal with the missile strike alert error, seemed almost giddy to get out of town.
“It’s weird. The alarm’s gone off a couple of times at the hotel this week,” he said. “Just get through (Sunday) and head back home and have a couple weeks off.”
He still had another round to go and had a chance to extend his top-10 streak in tour events to seven.
Instead, he settled for a 4-under 66 and 18th-place finish after a par on the closing par-5 18th.
Emblematic of his entire week, Spieth had a 4-footer for birdie lip out. Known as one of the top putters on tour, Spieth finished outside the top 55 in the field in strokes gained putting.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do with the putter. It’s as simple as that,” Spieth said. “Everything else is plenty ready to win.”
Spieth took a month off between his tie for third in the Bahamas at the Hero World Challenge and teeing it up last week in the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua.
He got engaged to longtime girlfriend Annie Verret and came to Hawaii early to spend some time relaxing with friends.
Spieth finished ninth out of 34 golfers at Kapalua after opening with a 2-over 75. He shot two rounds of 69 and a 65 on Friday at Waialae before closing with 66. His 21 birdies would have been close to contending, but the quadruple bogey on Thursday, when he hit a tree with four consecutive shots, was a heavy setback.
Despite that, he finished seventh in strokes gained off the tee and tee to green, but again, couldn’t overcome the putter. He attempted at least 30 putts in each of his four rounds.
“I didn’t have high expectations like I mentioned going into the first (tournament) in Hawaii,” Spieth said. “I said quite a few times that it’s going to be eight to 10 rounds before I can get comfortable with the putter with adjusting back to where I used to be.
“I don’t take a lot of stock out of this. It was a lot of trial and error — just kind of see where things are and where adjustments need to be done … I got a three-week stretch coming up in a couple of weeks that was really successful last year and hopefully can start to springboard (this) year.”
