Jordan Spieth is competing at TPC Deere Run for the first time since winning the John Deere Classic way back in 2015 — two years after securing his inaugural PGA Tour victory in the same event.

A decade later, the Texan — with four major championships, 13 career PGA Tour wins, two children, but amidst a lengthy drought — is hoping the friendly confines of Quad Cities can help him rekindle the form of his early 20s.

“It brings back great memories,” Spieth said at his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday. “I don't have support like this anywhere outside of DFW, so hopefully that continues this week and I can pick up where I left off.”

The 30-year old has struggled in 2024. His only top-5 came at the first event of the year, the Sentry. He hasn't cracked a top-10 since the Valero Texas Open in March. He's missed five cuts — including the Players, the Masters, and the Memorial. He placed outside the top 4o at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open.

“I was pretty excited about the idea that I would be coming back the Deere this year, now that we're here, it's crazy. It really does feel like a second home.”

Spieth's world ranking has slipped to 32nd. DataGolf's holistic metric puts him 55th. Spieth ranks 44th in total strokes gained and 46th in strokes gained: tee to green on the PGA Tour this season.

Spieth said starting a family during the intervening years has allowed him to compartmentalize his underperformance.

“I think on one side it hasn't changed my drive. I think it's changed, kind of, what is my drive? Like I accomplished most of the actual written goals I wrote down by the time I was 22 years old. That's an unusual situation and leaves you in a spot like, what now?

“…I think having kids and recognizing that, where golf was life, I don't think it's necessarily a very healthy thing. I would like to be a lot of other things, and what I do is play golf, versus it was all-encompassing. So that frees your mind up a little bit to not maybe take a little bit of pressure off on the bad weeks. But my drive is to be as close to where my ceiling is at because it allows me to have the most fun I can have doing something that I love.

“It's a very high bar, so you're not always going to live at that. But the drive to be as close to or at my ceiling in every level is just as high with or without kids. It's just finding the right balance to be able to get enough work in to be able to keep inching that way while living life on the side.”

In 2013, a 19-year-old Spieth outlasted David Hearn and Zach Johnson in a thrilling playoff to enter a PGA Tour winner's circle for the first time. Two years later — with a green jacket title in his closet (2015) — Spieth bested Tom Gillis in a playoff to complete an all-time comeback.

Spieth has never been a bomber, though he does rank 37th in driving distance (305.7 yards) on the PGA Tour this year. In 2013, he averaged 295.4 yards off the tee.

“I think out biggest difference right now in how I'll play it, clearly I'm not saying I'm the same player I was when I was here last time I was here, but I hit it quite a bit further now,” Spieth said Wednesday. “So attacking the course off the tee will be a little bit different.

“I think as much as I could hopefully draw on good memories and spots and where to play from in the past, maybe I'll be able to take advantage of my length on a couple holes that I didn't maybe of back then.”

Spieth (+2200) has the fourth-shortest odds to win the Deere, tied with Davis Thompson and Dennis McCarthy. His last victory on the PGA Tour came at the RBC Heritage, in April 2022.

“There is no such thing as too much positivity,” Spieth said about his mindset this week in Silvis. “My plan is to continue to try to play with a smile on my face around this place like I've done before and hopefully yields a bunch of birdies.”