JORDAN RULES
Finishes 2nd, but on top of world
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Consolation prizes don’t get much better than the one Jordan Spieth got Sunday at the PGA Championship. No one was going to catch Jason Day, who finally caught up to his own destiny. But no one was going to deny Spieth, who quickly fulfilled his.
Spieth’s second-place finish allowed him to knock Rory McIlroy off as World No. 1. It’s a triumvirate at the top of the golf world, three young guns who figure to be shooting it out for years to come. And Spieth is now the one at the top.
“I accomplished one of my lifelong goals,” he said, which sounded rather funny, since his lifetime has been all of 22 years. “No. 1 ranked ... and I believe right now the best in the world.”
He wasn’t getting any arguments from McIlroy, who said he’d let everyone know at the end of the week who he felt was No. 1. His tweet confirmed it.: “2 inevitable things happened today. @JDaygolf winning a major and @JordanSpieth getting to 1 in the world! Congrats guys! Inspiring stuff!”
When you think of Spieth’s year, it’s hard not to be inspired. He won two majors and played in the final group in all four. His combined score of 54-under beat Tiger Woods’ previous record of 53-under set in 2000, perhaps his most dominant year. He was four shots shy of the Grand Slam.
“You only get four a year, to have an opportunity to win all of them is so cool,” he said. “I hope to have a season like this one at the biggest stages again. I hope that we can do this again. It’s not easy, it takes a lot out of you. I’m tired right now. I mean, I left it all out there. There’s a reason I have a receding hairline.”
But this week also says a lot about golf. As good as Spieth is, there are no sure things — at least there haven’t been since the ’09 PGA, when Y.E. Yang became the first guy to deny Woods a win with the 54-hole lead.
“It’s amazing to think about. You can look at it two different ways, I think,” Spieth said. “You can look at it as four shots shy of the Grand Slam or you could look at that from a negative view of what could I have done or you could look at it where maybe one putt and I would only have one major this year. If Dustin’s goes in at the U.S. Open ... I should be fortunate that we caught a break there. Then we had a chance to win another one.”
Remember, too, that Spieth doubled the 17th hole at Chambers Bay when he had control of the Open. Had Dustin Johnson won, what would the narrative have been after Spieth lost control of the British Open heading into the 17th at St. Andrews?
Instead, it was all about Spieth being able to play through the pressure of the Grand Slam quest and give himself a chance to win, just as he did Sunday.
It was why Day never felt comfortable with his lead on Spieth, even when it was four shots with four to play.
“To be honest, the kid just doesn’t go away,” Day said, talking about the 16th hole. “I’m thinking that I’ll get this birdie, I’ll stretch my lead, and he has no stance over in the bunker and he hits a shot to a foot. It baffles me the stuff he can prove out there. Obviously, with the level of play that he’s been playing at this year, it’s no wonder he’s No. 1 in the world right now.”
That’s what Spieth does. He just keeps coming at you. Day had to set the major championship record of 20-under to safely beat him.
“You want to be in it all the time, that’s why we play the sport,” Spieth said of his tenacity. “We don’t play to take a week and just sneak by the cut and just get up early and tie for 35th. Nobody really has that on their mind when they tee it up to begin a week. You want to feel the pressure that we felt today. It was fun waking up today, knowing I’ve got another chance to win a major. You get that blood running through your veins.”
He’s No. 1. And he might be for a while.