Jordan Spieth posted a second round 71 at Bay Hill to finish at one-under after 36 holes of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Spieth received a sponsors’ invite to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week and on the whole, he has actually played some solid golf at Bay Hill.

Interestingly, Spieth recently insisted he never wants to play on a sponsor’s exemption ever again.

However, he may well have to rely on them for a while, unless he starts playing consistently well again on the PGA Tour.

Spieth’s fall from grace since his glory days from 2015 to 2017 has been jarring to witness.

He simply isn’t the player he once was, but that’s not to say that he won’t be able to rediscover his best form.

There were some positive signs from the 32-year-old at Bay Hill on Friday, especially after he made such a poor start to this second round.

Jordan Spieth admits he could have gone ‘off the rails’ on day two at Bay Hill

Spieth bogeyed his first two holes of the day in his second round but fought back extremely well, making four birdies and a further bogey to shoot 71.

He spoke to reporters after he finished at Bay Hill on Friday and responded when asked to sum up his second round.

“I thought I had a chance to go off the rails after No. 2 today,“ Spieth admitted.

“I mean, just two horrendous breaks in a row to start. And it’s a course made up of horrendous breaks. You try not to front load them on the first two holes. You know it’s going to happen. But I’m 2-over and outside the number for the weekend, when I was looking, feeling pretty good about the way I’ve been playing and stuff.

“And you just can’t force anything, so it’s like you don’t want to fall too far behind because you can’t really make it up very easily if you have to. I thought I did a really good job of staying in there, setting a goal for where I wanted to be through — I wanted to get, you know, set like four or five-hole goals out there.

“So I stayed focused and said, forget about everything else except for the next hole and how to play the next three 1-under. Then I accomplished my goal. I wanted to get — at one point it was to try to get to three by 18 fairway. And I got three and I was in 18 fairway. And I hit a terrible putt or I could have stolen another one.“

Jordan Spieth is playing better than he is scoring at Bay Hill

Spieth continued to explain to reporters how close he believes he is to shooting a low score this week.

“All in all, I feel like I’m playing better than I’m scoring here,“ Spieth insisted.

“Some of that is a reflection on leaving putts short. Some of that is like I had a couple pretty bad plug lies that were a yard from being a good look for birdie, and I couldn’t even get the bunker shot where the ball would have gone had it flown another yard.

“That stuff happens out here probably more than anywhere else on a pretty stressful course. And I was happy to play the last 16 holes 3-under.

“If I play the next 36 holes in 6-under, same kind of rate there, I’m going to finish really strongly here.“

He is ranked 15th in strokes gained approach this week, while he ranked outside the top 37 in all of the other key statistical categories.

So while he feels like he’s playing well, the stats say otherwise. At one-under-par heading into the weekend, perhaps Jordan Spieth is exactly where he should be after two rounds at Bay Hill.