Jordan Spieth shocked by heat at PGA Tour event: "I was wrong. I'm humbled"

Lucas Glover has the 36-hole lead at the FedEx St. Jude Championship but the American is being chased by Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood.

Ben Smith

11 Aug 2023

Jordan Spieth shocked by heat at PGA Tour event: "I was wrong. I'm humbled"

Lucas Glover has the 36-hole lead at the PGA Tour's FedEx St. Jude Championship but Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy are within striking distance of the American.

Glover's eagle at the par-5 16th helped the 43-year-old to a bogey-free round of 64 to reach 10-under par at TPC Memphis.

Three-time major champion Spieth, who is without a win this season, is in second place on 9-under.

Northern Ireland's McIlroy fired a second round of 66. World No.1 Scottie Scheffler (66) is three back.

Jon Rahm is currently leading the FedEx Cup Standings, but the World No.3 has looked out of sorts. He improved on day two, posting a 67 after an opening 73 but is considerably off the pace.

The competitors had to deal with sweltering heat, with the temperature reaching as high as 35 degrees.

Spieth said it contributed to some 'lazy' decisions at times.

"I've been telling Michael [Greller, his caddie], this is nothing, this is nothing this week, and then today I'm like, man, I was wrong. I'm humbled. It's just a different kind of heat," Spieth said, adding:

"But it felt like it was just coming off the ground. Like you could just feel the water coming off the ground.

"I'll bring two shirts from now on and change at the turn because that was -- I was struggling a bit early in the round. I had some goosebumps -- it was something that shouldn't happen.

"I just was taken aback a little bit.

"I probably overdid the warmup and stuff and may shorten it a bit tomorrow. But that was hot. It was a tough day. But I think staying home and playing in the heat probably helped, but more just playing golf."

Jordan Spieth shocked by heat at PGA Tour event:

England's Fleetwood is still searching for his maiden PGA Tour title. He lost in a playoff at the Canadian Open earlier in the season.

Then he looked as if he was going to mount a charge at the 151st Open but his challenge to Brian Harman faded at Royal Liverpool.

He missed this tournament last year because his mother passed away.

What would his mother Sue be saying to Fleetwood heading into the weekend?

"She would have sent her usual text saying well played, good luck tomorrow or something," said Fleetwood, who carded consecutive rounds of 66 to be sitting on 8-under.

He added:

"Yeah, I've been very, very lucky that I've had great parents. Not everybody is as lucky as I am to have the support and the commitment that they put into everything that I did up until -- yeah, the day that she passed, she was still texting me every day, every time I played golf.

"I think they gave me a lot of lessons in how to be a parent, and yeah, there's a lot of -- I'm a parent myself now, and there's plenty of things that I'll try and emulate throughout my life."

The winner of the FedEx St. Jude Championship banks a whopping $3.6m.

Only the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup standings advance to next week's BMW Championship in Chicago.

From there, only 30 make it to the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake.

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