Michael Greller was pulling out of the parking lot at a PGA Tour event last month when he realized something unsettling: He had no idea which side of the street he was supposed to be driving on.
Two days earlier, Greller was caddying for world No. 1 golfer Jordan Spieth in Australia, where cars stay left. One day earlier, they were in Spieth’s hometown of Dallas, driving on the right. Now, they were in the Bahamas, where, unbeknownst to Greller, cars stay left.
“I almost hit three or four cars,” he said.
Now more than ever, traveling with the world’s top-ranked golfer can be a disorienting experience. Spieth is currently in the midst of an 11-month stretch that will take him to tournaments in nine countries spanning every continent except Africa and Antarctica, assuming he qualifies for the Olympics in Brazil this summer.
He ascended to stardom on U.S. soil, winning the Masters and the U.S. Open last year and securing his first No. 1 ranking at the PGA Championship. But his bid to maintain that perch requires navigating nearly as many time zones as golf courses.
After a fall schedule that also included tournaments in South Korea and China, Spieth will return from a month-long break this week at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Maui.
From there, it’s on to tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Singapore. On Feb. 11, when he tees off at Pebble Beach in the AT&T National Pro-Am, it will be his first competitive round in the continental U.S. in more than four months.
Between October 2015 and August 2016, Spieth projects to log well over 125,000 miles in the air. That’s more than three times the number flown by his favorite baseball team, the Texas Rangers, last season.
“I think I’m trying to still learn how to adjust,” he said.