Jordan Spieth missed the cut in his first competitive week as world No 1 and in the process, also handed over the honour of being called the best golfer in the planet back to Rory McIlroy.
In the second round of The Barclays on Friday at Plainfield Country Club, Spieth was uncharacteristically sloppy as he followed up his 74 with a two-over par 72 and missed the cut in the opening event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Playing partner Bubba Watson (68) had taken the clubhouse lead at seven-under par 133. It was the 11th missed cut of Spieth’s career and only the third this year. The 22-year-old American needed to finish solo 14th or better to keep McIlroy at bay.
The Northern Irishman is not playing this week, but will be back in action during next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship, second of the four-week FedEx Cup Playoffs.
The Texan, who climbed to the top of the world rankings when he was solo second at the PGA Championship, began the day in bright fashion, making a birdie on the first. But a brace of bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes, followed by another brace on the seventh and eighth, effectively took the wind out of his sail.
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He did make back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th, but again lost the momentum with a bogey on the par-5 12th hole.
Also missing the cut was former world No1 Adam Scott, who shot rounds of 71 and 73 to finish on four-over par. At the time of finishing his rounds, the Australian was projected to be outside the top-100 of the FedEx Cup standings and will miss the rest of the Playoffs.
Only the top-100 in the rankings move up to next week, which will be further pruned to 70 for the BMW Championship before the top-30 qualify for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
