Jordan Spieth goes from lead to missed cut at Sony Open in Hawaii

HONOLULU – Jordan Spieth went from leading the tournament to missing the cut.

One day after carding an opening-round 64, Spieth made six bogeys and a birdie and shot 75 to miss the cut by one at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

“It was just a bad day,” he said. “It didn’t feel like it was much different. I feel like I was on a really bad deck of cards today. I made a couple bad swings off the tee but other than that I didn’t play that different. I just ended up a foot into the rough here, or right behind a tree here.

“It was a weird, weird day,” he continued. “Left like six or seven putts short, in the heart, thought the greens were going to be faster. Just a really off day.”

Spieth’s problems started with inaccuracy off the tee, as he hit just six fairways. That was only one fewer than in the opening round, but on Friday his misses were far more costly.

“I just didn’t drive it as well today,” he said.

At the par-5 ninth his tee shot caught a gust of wind, hit the cart path, and went in the water, and he had to make a 10-footer just to save bogey. At the 10th his tee shot wound up in a terrible lie in the greenside bunker from which he had almost no play in the direction of the hole. And while he gave it a go, and the ball very nearly cleared the top lip, it came back into the sand.

“I didn’t think I could reach the bunker,” he said, “and it kind of went to where the slope meets the flat, and I’ve never shanked a bunker shot, I hit the hosel, but there wasn’t much of a play.”

He missed the green at the par-3 11 hole, and bogeyed that, too.

Even after another bogey at the par-4 15th hole, Spieth had a chance to get to the weekend if he could birdie the par-5 finishing hole. He missed the fairway left, and from a terrible lie chased his second up next to the green. His pitch shot stopped 11 feet short, and he missed the putt.

In the end, Spieth said, he simply got the ball in the wrong spots at the wrong places, and on a course that prizes hitting the fairway. At 29, he’d achieved a career first.

“I’ve never led a tournament and missed the cut before,” he said.