Jordan Spieth chasing yards, accuracy in offseason work
Jordan Spieth Stalker PGA Tour

Jordan Spieth chasing yards, accuracy in offseason work

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Jordan Spieth finished 2015 just four strokes away from winning the single-season Grand Slam. So, while five wins, including two majors, and the FedEx Cup were great, Spieth is looking for ways to improve in his short off-season.

In particular, Spieth is looking for some extra yards off the tee.

"There are definitely ways that I can fine-tune and get better," Spieth said Wednesday in China ahead of the WGC-HSBC Champions.

"Obviously I would like my short game to stay consistent with how it was this year and I can certainly improve tee-to-green in different categories. But I can get longer, is something I can do over the off-season. It's a combination of swing and what I do in the gym. But there's definitely stuff that we can fine tune."

Spieth finished tied for 78th on the PGA Tour last season in driving distance, averaging 291.8 yards off the tee. By comparison, world No. 1 Jason Day was third at 313.7 yards. Rory McIlroy didn't play enough to qualify in the PGA Tour's season-long ranking, but his 304-yard average would have ranked 14th.

It's a danger to chase more distance, but Spieth, at just 22, is still several years from reaching his physical peak.

Spieth isn't just looking for extra distance. He wants better touch with his full-swing wedges and short irons.

"I can just dial in a bit more," Spieth said. "I've already looked at some of the stats from this past year, and it was 125 to 150 yards wasn't consistent with where I was inside of that and outside of that compared to everyone else on Tour."

We wouldn't agree with that assessment. Spieth was 22nd on Tour last season in approach proximity to the hole from that range. He struggled more from 75-100 yards, where he ranked 146th.

No matter where Spieth chooses to focus in his downtime, he has to remember he led the Tour in the most important statistic last year: scoring average.

 

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Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is the founder, owner and operator of Golf News Net.

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