Spieth back
‘Spieth had drought because he was too nice’ – Harrington
DIFFERENT It’s all so different for Jordan Spieth. He is a product of the post-Tiger era, where youth is no barrier to the highest levels of achievement as the Texan proved when he won the Masters and the US Open in 2015.
Spieth celebrates his 24th birthday on Thursday as a three-time Major champion, and has his eyes on beating Rory McIlroy to the career Grand Slam.
The Northern Irishman needs a Masters to have all four Majors on his golfing CV, but Spieth has a golden opportunity to bring the good vibes to Quail Hollow.
McIlroy, as Harrington did before him, showed it is possible to follow up an Open with a PGA – doing it in 2014 at Hoylake and Valhalla respectively.
Harrington, speaking about Spieth’s dramatic Sunday at Birkdale, knows it is a tall order – not impossible, but made more difficult by the weight of expectation.
“Yeah, the game is getting younger, to be honest.
“He’s something special, there’s something about him, and a really nice guy as well. It hasn’t gone to his head at all.
“If anything, maybe he’s struggled to win a third Major, because he’s too nice.
“I know that doesn’t sit well with too many people but maybe he gave too much of himself to the media, to the world. “He’s such a nice guy, genuinely is one of the nicest guys out there. “I do think he can go and win a fourth but the main thing he has to believe is that it doesn’t have to happen in two weeks’ time, he can take his time, it will happen over time.
“The less he pressurises himself to win that one, it will happen,” said Harrington.
Spieth (below) won the Open the hard way and that mental aspect is a fascinating X-factor in determining the outcome of any tournament, but especially a Major.
Last year’s Masters collapse was not totally erased from the memory banks, and when he struck his tee-shot at the 13th high and wide into the sandhills, 100 yards away from the fairway, Spieth had to wonder: “is it going to happen again?” “You just don’t really know what your mind is going to do to you sometimes. “You can control it to an extent, but certain situations are going to bring more tension, and you have to kind of channel that the right way, play the right shots. “And that was a difficult thing to do, because it was just so up and down. Today took as much out of me as any day that I’ve ever played golf,” said Spieth after his victory. The role of the caddie is often under-rated by outsiders, but Michael Greller, Spieth’s bag-man, made a crucial intervention as they walked off the seventh tee box after the golfer had made a stuttering start. Greller reminded Spieth that he was one of the best players in the world and said: “I need you to believe that right now, because you’re in a great position in this tournament. This is a new tournament. We’re starting over here.”
Spieth also said of his round: “I don’t know why I can’t make it a little more boring sometimes,” and his situation at the 13th, which led to a 20-minute delay until he worked out that he could hit his ball from the car park, was certainly not boring.
Harrington, who had missed the cut by a shot on Friday, was as fascinated as anyone else by what he witnessed on the television coverage.
“There was a lot of excitement in it. When I won my first Open I messed up at the 72nd hole and still got an opportunity to win. “Jordan kind of did that yesterday. It looked like a disaster on 13. “What I will say, and I’m not sure if the commentators did at the time, is that it was raining at the time.
“Modern equipment is right on the limit of dynamics, and when you get a bit of water between the ball and the club face, you can hit a big wide like that, so it wasn’t quite all him, it was a little bit to do with the weather conditions.
“But he did recover unbelievably and in some ways it motivated him,” said Harrington.