ATLANTA – Jordan Spieth is going to be a dad.
The three-time major champion said Friday at East Lake Golf Club after the second round of the Tour championship that he and his wife, Annie, are expecting their first child November 21st.
“We’re pretty private, but now it’s something you can’t really hide,” Spieth told NBC. “We’ve known since March. It’s been a really cool year. We’ve been blessed with a lot of friends.
“Overjoyed that everything has gone well so far. So it should be an exciting fall with the Ryder Cup and (the birth).”
Spieth does not know the sex of the baby.
“We weren’t like hiding or anything like that, it was just more private life. But, yeah, very excited,” Spieth later told reporters. “She feels great, that’s the number one priority and everything’s going smoothly.”
Spieth, who won The Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup in 2015 and broke his nearly four-year winless stretch with a victory in this year’s Valero Texas Open, has moved to 8 under in the staggered scoring format after rounds of 1-under-par 69 and 67. He was seven shots behind with leader Patrick Cantlay still having three holes to play.
“I thought I turned a 5-under round into 1 yesterday and I thought I turned a 6 into 3 today, which is a really good sign. I’ve learned to really be excited about that because I normally get the most out of my rounds, and when I’m playing really well and just not quite scoring, typically the scoring follows,” Spieth said. “I actually feel like I’m still in this golf tournament, maybe seven back with two rounds to go, but the way that I’m playing, the way I feel over the ball and the way I’m driving the ball, I feel if my putter gets hot, then I can make that up.”
Spieth is not one of the six automatic qualifiers on the U.S. Ryder Cup team but he is definitely in the mix to be one of captain Steve Stricker’s six discretionary picks for the tussle with Europe at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin Sept. 24-26.
And he expects to be paired with good friend Justin Thomas. The two played well in Paris in 2018, going 3-1-0 as a team.
“Me and Justin have been joking with Strick for quite a while now about sending him our best ball scores when one of us plays really well and the other doesn’t,” Spieth said. “And I feel like Justin might withdraw from the team if he doesn’t pick me, so I feel pretty good about it.
“But, I mean, you don’t ever want to rely on a pick, but when we have talked, I think he’s got, it’s going to be tough. There’s a number of guys for a number of spots. Obviously Harris (English) has played really well, too, in that 10 spot. I think I’m in the 9. But then you got some options to close out the team, I think, and which is good. Competition is good and what a difficult top 6 to make.”
