Spieth scrambles to opening round 66

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DUBLIN, OHIO - MAY 30: Jordan Spieth watches his tee shot on the 14th hole during the first round of The Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on May 30, 2019 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Jordan Spieth eagles No. 5 with 37-foot putt at Memorial

DUBLIN, Ohio – Jordan Spieth’s revival continued on Thursday at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, where the former FedExCup champion opened with a 6-under 66.

But the 11-time PGA TOUR winner was measured with his thoughts after a round that had him just one shot off the early lead.

Spieth was able to climb the leaderboard thanks to some brilliant scrambling and pure putting. He chipped in twice and dropped in a 35-foot eagle putt over the course of his round.

“It was okay. Some more work to do on it. I missed three greens with wedges and plugged one in a bunker with a punch 8-iron. So I had four opportunities, ended up off the green on all of them,” Spieth said post-round.

“Some of those short clubs can certainly get a little tighter. Two chip-ins certainly helped. I felt like I stole a couple early in the round to be under par, and then just kind of played the shots that needed to be played.

“I hit a lot of fairways, which was nice, which gave me plenty of looks at birdie, and seemed to capitalize on quite a few of them.”

Spieth is winless since the 2017 Open Championship, but ended a 10-month drought without a top-10 over the last two weeks, as the Texan finished T3 at the PGA Championship and T8 last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Given Spieth's trend this season has been good early scores but fades on the weekends, he wasn’t getting carried away.

The 2015 FedExCup champion says all the work on revamping his swing is showing results and the important mental side of believing he’s on the right track is paramount.

He was also particularly cognizant of saving energy, given this is a fourth straight tournament, a run he is using to really ingrain things.

“Trying to trust things on the golf course in tournament play is big for me now because, like I said, it's kind of a significant type of feeling through the swing that if I took a couple of weeks off and came back, it's a little harder to trust that right away,” Spieth explained.

“But if you're used to trusting it, it's almost like playing through the… I don't want to say slump… but playing through anything that's been a little off. And more trusting the golf course the better.”