By: Michael Bamberger August 6, 2020

Jordan Spieth, pictured at Harding Park this week, hasn't won since the 2017 British Open at Birkdale.

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Ed. note: Weve heard the chanting outside our windows, at odd hours of the day and night, so here it is: the fourth of eight installments of Bamberger Briefly, PGA Championship-style. Previous installments: player-caddie relationships; Tigers memoir; Tour players grips.

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A myth of the business is that the sportswriter doesnt root and a clich of the business, borne in truth, is that the sportswriter roots for the story. A famous example of the latter would be the 1971 Masters, won by Charlie Coody, with Johnny Miller and Jack Nicklaus finishing second. You dont have to wonder what Dan Jenkins was thinking on that Masters Sunday afternoon.

I have been rooting for Jordan Spieth since before he turned pro, and will be rooting for him this week, at the PGA Championship at Harding Park. Im drawn to his honesty, his intelligence, his memory, the way he interacts with his family, fans, reporters, fellow players, the wacky things he does on the golf course, his light steps in deep rough.

Hes 27 and he already has three majors: the 2015 Masters, the 2015 U.S. Open and the 2017 British Open. If he wins this week, he becomes the sixth: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods. You may know that when Sarazen did it, there was no catchy name for the feat, but now there of course is: the career Grand Slam.

At last years PGA in May, at Bethpage Black Spieth finished in a tie for 3rd, miles behind the winner Brooks Koepka. A fellow reporter and golf nut, Jeffrey Toobin, and I followed Spieth there, up and down the Bethpage hills, with Spieths teacher, Cameron McCormick, at times a chip shot away and looking worried. Jeff was there on a busmans holiday. His main beat is the Supreme Court and national politics. (When he arrived at a club for a game a while back, a club employee recognized him and said with notable nonchalance, Slow news day?) Jeff, like me, is a Spieth-o-phile.

I asked Jeff the other day what it is about Spieth he liked so much. He said, I love watching him because he doesnt just talk to himself and his golf ball but because he seems to have intelligent conversations with both.

Thats good. Spieth famously talks to himself and his golf ball on the course. The opening line of a three-part sonnet entitled Softly, by Spieth and edited by Alan Bastable after the 2015 Masters, begins majestically with this line:

hit it wind hit it wind just a little bit just a little bit

But Toobins insight here is that Spieth has a relationship with his golf ball, that its a two-way street. In other words, Spieth has all manner of internal battles. We all do, of course. But not many world-class athletes will admit to these internal struggles.

After he won the 2017 Open at Birkdale, Spieth described the dialogue inside him as he seemed to be kicking away the tournament. Stuff goes into your head, he said on that Sunday night. I mean, we walked for two minutes, three minutes in between shots. And you cant just go blank. You wish you could, but thoughts creep in.

As it happens, Spieth has not won a tournament, of any kind, since then. You dont hear people talking about the magic synchronicity between Spieth and his schoolteacher caddie, Michael Greller, anymore. Something has happened to Spieths boyish ease.

Justin Thomas, his close friend and fellow member of the class of 93 (Thomas is three months older than Spieth), is, like Tiger Woods, a bachelor who lives in South Florida. They play a lot of golf together, at home and on the road. Jordan, married to his college girlfriend, is in faraway Dallas. He didnt make Tigers 2019 Presidents Cup team on points and he wasnt one of his four captains picks, either. Woods picked Tony Finau, Gary Woodland, Patrick Reed and, about a month before the event, Rickie Fowler, after Brooks Koepka pulled out with a knee injury.

I dont know how much that hurt Spieth, but I know how much it hurt me and I have a pretty good guess as to the pain Toobin endured, too. Jeff was trying to find hope for Spieth on the basis of his mans T-13 finish at the Memorial last month.

Were looking for this week to be even better.

Michael Bamberger may be reached at Michael_Bamberger@Golf.com

Michael Bamberger writes for GOLF Magazine and contributes to GOLF.com. He also participates in podcasts, primarily in tandem with Alan Shipnuck. Earlier in his career, he was a senior writer for Sports Illustrated for 23 years and a reporter on The Philadelphia Inquirer for nine years before that. He has written a half-dozen books about golf and other subjects. His magazine work has been featured in multiple editions of The Best American Sports Writing. He holds a U.S. patent on a utility golf club called the E-Club. In 2016, he was given the Donald Ross Award by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the organizations highest honor.

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Why Jordan Spieth is the most relatable (and likable) superstar in... - Golf.com