Spieth shows he can rough it
BIRKDALE delivered another Open duel for the ages but, unlike Henrik Stenson versus Phil Mickelson, not so much a showdown between two adversaries as an internal fight that raged inside one man.
For the first 12 and a half holes yesterday, a weak, ponderous Jordan Spieth fought a losing battle with himself as a championship he had dominated threatened to slip from his nervy grasp.
For the last five and a half he was a man transformed as, from the fires of golfing hell, he emerged armour-clad to raze Birkdale to the ground and win his first Claret Jug.
To play the last five holes of any Major five under par represents quite a show; to do so from the ruins of what had gone before proved Spieth a man apart.
Afterwards Spieth paid tribute to the role his caddie Michael Greller had played with a mid-round pep talk and a reminder that he had been rubbing shoulders on a pre-Open break with Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps the previous week. “He said, ‘You’re that calibre of an athlete but I need you to believe that right now’,” said Spieth. “Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps are the greatest to ever do what they did, and I’m not. But if you believe that you are, then you’re almost as good as being that.
“I thought that was so well said. It was just such the right time.”
The shot of confidence was badly needed. Spieth’s three-shot overnight lead had evaporated inside four holes after three bogeys and a fluffed putt of barely two feet at the ninth that cost another bogey sent him into the back nine neck and neck with Matt Kuchar.
Spieth, feeling the pressure of trying to close out a Major from the front after squandering a five-shot lead at Augusta last year, was backing off putts to check and re-check lines and pulling away from tee shots to dry his sweaty palms.
Then came the chaos at the 13th. Spieth’s drive was wayward enough but a ricochet off a spectator’s head took it fully 125 yards wide of the fairway into a land that time forgot. With the ball lodged at the bottom of a towering mound, Spieth – after much deliberation – chose to take an unplayable lie.
The line of sight placed him effectively in a truck stop where the equipment lorries were housed so, after consultation with senior rules referee John Paramor, he took relief in the practice ground where a surprised Haotong Li was keeping loose in preparation for a possible play-off.
The 21-year-old from China had set a clubhouse target of six under after a sizzling 63, which tied the lowest final round in a Major. The Open was on the line, another chapter of calamity unfolding but 23-year-old Spieth pulled himself together and launched a three-iron approach over the terrors in between to come up just short of the green. After apologising to Kuchar for the hold-up, he proceeded to get up and down for a bogey five.
In the circumstances, it was the equivalent of an albatross.
Spieth was one down but, rebooted in attack mode rather than defence, he almost holed in one at the short 14th. A tapin for birdie drew him level with Kuchar again then came an astonishing 40ft eagle putt at the next hole to regain the lead.
“Pick that ball out of the hole,” shouted a zoned-in Spieth at his caddie, backing
He’s a fighter. He’s an absolute star and it’s great to see him win
away as the crowd erupted before punching the air. He was not finished.
He went two clear when another birdie from 30 feet dropped at the next hole.
Kuchar scrapped until the last, holing a birdie putt at 17 but Spieth was unstoppable and replied in kind. It gave him a two-shot cushion heading down the last that he extended to three when Kuchar bogeyed from the bunker.
The tap-in par was a moment of sanity at the end of a crazy couple of hours.
It was rock-star golf that was mesmerising theatre for the biggest crowd, including Wayne Rooney, for any Open held in England. It was a show enjoyed even by his rivals. “Whenever you’ve got a threeshot lead and you lose it within the space of a few holes, everything just becomes a bit faster and you have to slow yourself down,” said Rory McIlroy. “But he’s a fighter – he’s shown that through his short career.
“He can dig himself out of these holes. He’s an absolute star and it’s great to see him win another one.”
Spieth has proved he is Birkdale’s man for all seasons.