World No. 5 Spieth visits Tokyo to promote new signature golf shoes

Jordan Spieth is a better golfer than teacher.

 On a chilly Tuesday night in Tokyo, Spieth stepped in a golf simulator to offer a bit of advice to a college student who hit his first shot into the virtual trees. After a brief consultation from one of the world’s top players, the student promptly ended up back in the woods.

“That’s why I play and don’t teach,” Spieth joked.

The world’s fifth-ranked golfer is in Japan to kick off a four-city tour centered around the release of his first signature golf shoe, the Spieth One, made by Under Armour.

“It’s very personal,” Spieth said. “It was a great collaboration with myself and our team at Under Armour to develop personal characteristics of my game and my swing to create something that’s innovative, that’s comfortable and that’s a little different. I think we came up with a fantastic model.”

The start of Spieth’s tour meant a quick turnaround for the Dallas, Texas, native, who was in Honolulu on Sunday wrapping up a third-place finish at the Sony Open. It was Spieth’s second third-place finish in his three events this season. He also had a Top-10 finish in his first outing of the new golf season, finishing in sixth place at the Hero World Challenge, which was won by Hideki Matsuyama.

“It was a good finish,” Spieth said of the Sony Open. “Great start to the year, excited about 2017, it’s going to be a great year.”

On Tuesday, with a throng of fans braving the cold temperatures in Tokyo, Spieth broke open a sake barrel to unveil his shoe, answered questions from a group of collegiate golfers, showed off a swing in the simulator and gave away prizes by softly hitting colored balls into the crowd. The grand prize for the lucky fan who caught the red ball was a pair of Spieth One shoes — the pair Spieth was wearing. The golfer took them off and signed them for the fan, who then delivered the prize to his son.

Spieth said his goal for the 2017 season is to win a major. He said he wants to “focus on the majors” but expects a lot of competition from the current generation of stars, including Matsuyama.

“End of last year, beginning of this year, he seems to really be in form and very, very confident,” Spieth said of the Japanese star. “He’s been a fantastic player for a number of years on the global stage. He’s won many times here in Japan and around the world. Very, very tough to beat this year.

“Lot of really good players who are young players in the game of golf right now,” Spieth said, also mentioning Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and a few others. “It’s very, very tough competition.”

Thomas, who won the SBS Tournament of Champions during the first week of this month and also took home the Sony Open title last week in record-setting fashion, is one of Spieth’s closest friends.

“We’ve known each other for 10 years, very close,” Spieth said. “It’s very cool. We’ve had a lot of fun with it.”

Spieth hopes to continue his solid start to the season when he begins wearing his new kicks, which could be at his next tournament. He said the shoe fits his game very well, and that he was very pleased with the results after years of testing.

“My footwork, I roll over to my left side, and it’s very comfortable now when I roll over to my left side,” he said, citing one example. “I’ve not had a shoe that’s been that comfortable.”

Spieth will leave Japan Thursday and take his shoe tour to Seoul, before stops in Los Angeles and Mexico City.

A limited Japanese edition of the Spieth One went on sale in Under Armour stores and on the company’s website Tuesday night. The worldwide release of the shoe is scheduled for March 1