Never tell Jordan Spieth that he’s back.
“I hate that, ‘He’s back,’ ” he said last month. “I never went anywhere.”
True, he still strolled the grounds at PGA Tour events in recent seasons but Spieth, a former world No. 1 in men’s golf, had fallen to 92nd in the rankings just six months ago. The winner of three major championships before he was 24, he had not won a tournament of any kind in four years. Moreover, he looked and sounded lost, a familiar state in his occupation and a condition that can become permanent.