Daily Star

JORDAN’S A

Spieth survives real rough ride

- By IAIN MacFARLANE

®

JORDAN SPIETH endured the rollercoas­ter journey of his life yesterday before stepping off the ultimate golfing thrill ride as the Open champ.

From the 13th tee at Royal Birkdale you can look across the Ribble Estuary to Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Yet Blackpool’s famed Big Dipper has nothing on the ups and downs which record crowds lapped up yesterday as the Open first of all descended into farce before Spieth somehow restored order and proved himself to be a true champion.

The story of how this Open was won unfolded from the 13th hole onwards and it was definitely a case of ‘scream if you wanna go faster’ as the crowds roared at the drama of it all over an amazing final six holes.

From leading at the start of the day by three shots from fellow American Matt Kuchar, Spieth, 23, was on the verge of choking again just as he had done to let Danny Willett nab the 2016 Masters.

This time there was no water hazard to grab his ball as there was at Augusta’s 12th hole – just a bramble patch on the right of the 13th after a wild drive struck a spectator.

There then followed an astonishin­g chain of events which saw a staggering 29 minutes elapse between Spieth hitting his drive and playing his next shot.

First he took a penalty shot for an unplayable lie and discovered the nearest point of relief was on a metal walkway between two tour

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