Jordan Spieth vs Justin Thomas. Who has the best career?

[3jacker]

Oh. Then how many Perkins waitresses do we think each will nail in a church parking lot?

That is a key stat, to me.

[vanillafunk616]

The sports dialogue usually goes "count the rings"(majors in this case). So probably spieth.

[DK<80]

Spieth's career is currently 3 times better than JTs and DJs

Majors certainly do not define success on the tour.

Majors most certainly define success on the tour. Ask any retired one win player whether they'd want their win to be a regular event or a major. I'm betting every one of them would trade their John Deere Classic for a US Open or Masters. Every one of them. Ergo, major championships define success in professional golf, wouldn't they?

 

Imho PGA Tour wins (including Majors) define success on Tour. Major wins alone define success in golf history.

 

At the end the number you have next to your name will always be the number of Majors:

• Jack 18
  
• Tiger 14
  
• Arnie 7
  
• Rory 4
  
• Jordan 3
  
• JT 1
  
• Sergio 1
  
• DJ 1
  
• Webb 1
  

You left out Phil.....lol

43 wins 5 majors?

[imakaveli]

Spieth's career is currently 3 times better than JTs and DJs

Majors certainly do not define success on the tour.

Majors most certainly define success on the tour. Ask any retired one win player whether they'd want their win to be a regular event or a major. I'm betting every one of them would trade their John Deere Classic for a US Open or Masters. Every one of them. Ergo, major championships define success in professional golf, wouldn't they?

 

Imho PGA Tour wins (including Majors) define success on Tour. Major wins alone define success in golf history.

 

At the end the number you have next to your name will always be the number of Majors:

• Jack 18
  
• Tiger 14
  
• Arnie 7
  
• Rory 4
  
• Jordan 3
  
• JT 1
  
• Sergio 1
  
• DJ 1
  
• Webb 1
  

You left out Phil.....lol

43 wins 5 majors?

 

I left out Gary Player as well, lol, maybe listing all the main major winners was not my point...

[Shilgy]

I left out Gary Player as well, lol, maybe listing all the main major winners was not my point...

My problem is and always will be that with that logic ....

Larry Nelson > Johnny Miller

Andy North> Davis Love

[KRAMER1997]

Funny looking back on this 2.5 years later. Justin Thomas is the number 1 player in the world and has 9 wins since the 2017 British Open while Spieth has 0 wins and is outside the top 50.

[mosesgolf]

I like Justin's chances.

Fastest to 13 wins by age. 1. Tiger 2. Jack & then JT. Wow is that some great company or what.

[elwhippy]

Ask this question in 2025. JT is a more complete player.

[Golfjack]

He's looking like he will have a long successful career. But he's still "only" won 1 major. I don't think he's really comparing himself to Spieth, more just winning majors and being the best. I think though most people are surprised at the dropoff Spieth has experienced. He was winning at Tiger's pace, and then lost himself 10 years too early.

[ColinKelvin]

JT is obviously on top of the game just now and looking very strong while JS... isn't; however, beware of recency bias.

Spieth has 3 majors - and they are the three proper ones. He also has several 2nd and 3rd places. JT has one USPGA, which should be considered as a total of 0.5 majors. He needs to win a Masters, an Open and a US Open to overtake Spieth, because Majors are how careers are determined in almost all cases. Meanwhile, Spieth could sort his game out and have a second wave of winning as he has a great mindset.

One to revisit in 15-20 years...

[Smada962]

I get that the PGA doesn't have the prestige or history maybe of the other 3 majors, but to call it .5 of a major is kind of ridiculous.

[tiderider]

?? ... spieth never won at tiger's pace ... one 5 win season does not equal tiger's pace ... several of those in a row might ...

[MattyO1984]

So by those calculations, Tiger is going for 14 this week?! Haha.

[mocokid]

to quote the great man Austin Powers, 'Never saw that one coming baby!"

[iBanesto]

JT's major record is not as good as what most would expect for someone of his calibre.

Hopefully he improves on it.

[Brock Savage]

Tiger was in a different league, all right. Here's an article ranking his PGA seasons, and one of his five-win seasons is ranked 13th!https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/ranking-all-23-of-tiger-woods-seasons-as-a-professional-on-the-pga-tour/

[Golfjack]

I remember hearing this on a broadcast. Think it was just a comparison of their 22-24 yo years or something. Comparing their wins, Speith won 11 times (3 majors) at 24, and Tiger won 13 times (2 majors) at 24 yo. Obviously after that it was no contest, but it actually was legit at one point.

[SwooshLT]

I believe the concern was back then ......YJS couldn't survive with making everything he looked at vs JT's ballstriking prowess......JT hanging around with El Tigre has helped him more than we realize......JT has been in contention more often but now it has to be in the BIG 4

[Naptime]

JT and JS are on opposite trajectories at this point. So I'd say JS "had" a better career to date, but JT will have had a better career in the end.

[Cincy_Ken]

I think that thinking is pretty dismissive of Spieth's ball striking. He was top 15 both off the tee and approach in 2015. Was basically top 50 both off the tee and approach in 16-18, except his SG approach was around 80 in 2016. In 19-20 he's outside the top 120 both off the tee and approach. So his ball striking is just not tour caliber anymore after being elite at his peak.

[doublehans]

JT just doesnt have any weaknesses. IF he can stay healthy, it feels like he'll stay he'll have a great career. Jordan has felt like there was a higher peak, just for the insane putting and elite shortgame. Those give Jordan an extra gear when he's on even if he has weaknesses (And sometimes you need that extra in majors). Different types of guys. Its not hard to see Jordan getting it back together and going on another tear, but its also not hard to see him just kinda doing what he's been doing and maybe popping up with a good week every few years for a win.

The trick tho is majors are hard to come by. Phil just has 5 majors despite having a longer career than most. If JT ended up with 30+ wins and 3 majors we'd probably call that in line with what he's done so far. So then it becomes a question of how many more will Jordan win, because the thing is he already has 3 majors. Given how hard majors are to win, its hard to bet against the guy with 2 more majors already. Justin certainly seems likely to have a better career going forward. But a two major lead is a big lead.

And hey, maybe this is only a question because Spieth lost his mojo after JT pried him away from Patrick Reed. Maybe Stricker does Spieth a solid next year and puts the band back together.

[dlygrisse]

Jordan went chasing distance and screwed up his swing. Until he figures out how to become a world class ball striker again he won’t win. No matter how many putts he makes. And he is a great putter. Great short game too.

jordan has the edge so far, but that won’t last long if he doesn’t turn it around soon.

[tacklingdummy]

When both started their careers, Spieth just had a lot of confidence and that confidence really equated into some unbelievable play. Whereas, Thomas was raw in the beginning on tour and had some inconsistent ball striking. Fast forward to now, Spieth's confidence is not great and in my opinion is overthinking rather than just playing like he was before. Thomas has really learned how to control his ball striking much better and has a ton of confidence now.

I'm guessing Thomas will have the better career. Jordan won't be going away though.

[SwooshLT]

YJS started chasing distance and screwed up his swing.....he was never short; just more middle and his irons were solid.....now it looks like he's near a shank with every swing.....I think he's good for the game but needs to tighten things up a lot.....not being dismissive but no one ever put him high on any list of elite ballstrikers

[Cincy_Ken]

Not to reiterate the stats I referenced earlier If people didn't consider him an elite ball striker they were simply wrong. His number 15-17 (not 16 as much as 15, 17) were elite and won 3 major titles. Maybe he did get caught up chasing distance or maybe his swing fell apart just because golf happens to people sometimes.

[rafal]

Justin Thomas didn't rush into marrying a random girl way too early in his 20s. He won't have the same problems as Spieth.

[Drewsky34]

i laughed. But your right he is so fidgety and uncomfortable standing over the ball and some of his shots he’s just not hitting the ball like the other guys do. I can’t figure out why but his swing is just not good and the ball flight is sketchy. No idea where the ball is going most of the time.

[ingy]

does anyone have a close up photo of his hands when holding a club?

 

I've never been able to work out what he does, but from TV his grip and everything looks really unorthodox

 

[grm24]

Jordan married his high school sweetheart and not some random girl as you stated. He didn't rush into anything with his marriage. He married at 25. They were together at least 6-7 years before he proposed and were married around a year later.

[Hankshank]

A lot of guys seem able to handle a missus at home even though young. Pat Reed even had his SO at the bag until the kids. Spieths problem seem to be in the swing area. Wasnt exactly Furyky straight even in his hey days. His putting is more of a mystery to me. The super putters like Crenshaw, Ballesteros, Stricker and Jacobsson normally pretty much goes through their careers putting great all the time. And Spieth was just ridiculous with his putter, especially from a little longer distances in his best years. I cannot really see how someone loses that.