PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Standing on the ninth tee box, his last hole of the second round at the Players on Friday, Jordan Spieth was 2 over par and probably needed a birdie to make the cut and stick around for the weekend.
Spieth’s tee shot sailed far right and was headed for the water along the fairway. Almost immediately, Spieth turned back to his caddie, Michael Greller, and asked, “Is that out of play?”
Instead of getting wet, Spieth’s ball bounced off a fan’s knee on the fly. Then the ball hit a cart path curb and bounded forward into the fairway. On the second shot, Spieth hit a 3-wood from 277 yards. His ball landed in rough short of the green. Then, in typical Spieth fashion, he chipped in from 26 feet for an eagle on the par-5 hole.
Spieth shot 3-over 75 in the round. His 36-hole total of even par should be good enough to make the cut at the Players, which saw second-round play suspended due to weather Friday afternoon.
“I got an extremely lucky break on 9, or I wouldn’t be playing the weekend,” Spieth said after the round. “Trying to get that guy’s information and see literally whatever he wants this weekend because everything from here on out is because it hit him.”
Spieth walked over to the fan and handed him a glove. The fan gave it to a boy standing near him.
“I mean, it’s the equivalent of flying a green towards a hazard and hitting a grandstand and coming back on the green in a way,” Spieth said. “Needing to probably birdie to make the cut, I can’t really birdie having to drop it over in the right rough. It would have been a one-in-a-million make. Instead, I ended up making a 3.”