GREAT ESCAPE
Spieth survives drama at 13th to take the Claret Jug with a breathtaking finish
Two weeks before the start of the 146th open, Jordan Spieth had his photograph taken with the greatest olympian Michael Phelps and basketball legend Michael Jordan.
Now, following an afternoon of stupendous drama at Royal Birkdale, the 23-year- old Texan has his own extraordinary comeback tale to tell that might just rival anything achieved by the illustrious pair.
The leaderboard tells us Spieth won the Claret Jug by the same three-shot margin with which he began the final day but goodness, this was as far from the procession predicted as can possibly be imagined.
Down and out after hitting a drive 100 yards off line at the 13th it looked as if he was experiencing a choke to make his collapse at the Masters last year seem routine by comparison.
It was at his lowest point, however, that Spieth summoned reserves of sheer will and skill that almost defied comprehension. ‘Remember that photo and I want you to believe you’re the same calibre of athlete,’ his caddie Michael Greller told him. And that’s exactly what Spieth did.
Three over par after 13 holes, he played the last five in five under to snatch victory from the jaws of oblivion.
This is his third major championship victory and he becomes only the second player after Jack Nicklaus to achieve it before his 24th birthday, which falls on Thursday. He will go to the US PGA Championship next month with the chance to become only the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam, and at a far younger age than any of the other five.
Forty-six years after Mr Lu from Taiwan finished runner-up at this course, Mr Li from China — or Haotong Li, to give him his proper name — claimed a distant third following a brilliant 63, with Rory McIlroy fourth after a 67.
This day, however, was all about two players — and what happened at the 13th has already entered the realm of golf lore. So far off line was Spieth’s tee shot that a seven was a more likely score than the five he eventually recorded.
As soon as he hit it, he held his head in his hands and the fact that it was found at all was a result in itself. Spieth took an unplayable lie and that’s when the fun — or the farce, depending on your view — began. The option he chose under the rules for taking a penalty shot was to go back as far as he liked. As it turned out, Spieth went back so far to find solid ground that he ended up on the practice area.
Now the stewards had the problem of clearing the enormous crowd. The rules officials had to determine a straight line to the hole from where his ball had originally finished, a task made difficult by the gigantic dune that blocked their view.
Near the green, Kuchar, who had played a wonderful second shot, knelt and waited. And waited. After 15 minutes of waiting, he put on an extra sweater. Still no sign of Spieth. Eventually Spieth played a third shot near to the green and got up and down for his bogey five. The par that Kuchar made meant he was in front for the first time.
It is truly amazing how psychology works in golf. You’d think Spieth would have been devastated losing the lead but it clearly acted as a release.
It was the same 25 years ago when Nick Faldo lost a four-shot lead, gathered himself, and played four of the best holes of his life. Now it was Spieth’s turn to regroup and turn in golf of extraordinary quality.
At the par-three 14th he almost holed his tee shot to draw level with a tap-in birdie. At the 15th he poured in a 40ft eagle putt to take a one-stroke lead. At the 16th he holed from 30ft to go two in front. At the par five 17th he matched the birdie managed by Kuchar, and then extended his lead with a par down the last. what a game.
And so for the second year running two players separated themselves at the top of the leaderboard but there the comparison with the shootout at Royal Troon between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson ends. Sequels are never as good as the original, are they? For 13 holes this one, quite honestly, was a stinker but fair play, they did come up with a gripping ending no- one could have foreseen. The tone for the litany of mistakes early on was set by the world’s top two players who both began on the fringes of contention. Dustin Johnson was looking to build on his 64 on Saturday but his challenge never got beyond the first hole, as he opened with a double bogey six.
The reputation of this hole as the hardest on the open rota was confirmed by Hideki Matsuyama, playing in the next group. A battalion of Japanese media had gathered, all with excited looks on their faces. Moments later there was a collective slump of the shoulders as Matsuyama’s opening tee shot headed right and finished out of bounds. one television representative looked forlornly into the camera and spoke two words to reveal that one golf term has a universal language: ‘oB. oB.’
The large grandstands at the
18th were filled to capacity long before Spieth and Kuchar even made it to the first tee.
The spectators gathered there must have watched in disbelief as the iconic yellow scoreboard recorded Spieth’s alarming collapse, as he demonstrated all too graphically that in golf there is nothing harder than trying to protect a lead.
Perhaps it wasn’t all that surprising that his driver, by some distance the weakest club in his bag, stopped functioning. What was truly astonishing was his meltdown on the greens, as he missed a succession of short putts.
But he got there in the end, and underlined the greatness within. The two golf-mad Michaels, Phelps and Jordan, were surely smiling to themselves, somewhere.