SPIETH BRILLIANT AT BRITISH OPEN:
Spieth wins British with birdie binge after miracle bogey on 13
Jordan Spieth had just waffled what Johnny Miller called “the worst drive I’ve seen a pro hit,” and suddenly it looked like the 13th hole at Royal Birkdale would be remembered as the site of another major collapse, much like the 12th at Augusta National last year. Instead it became the stuff of folklore, nothing less. By making a bogey from the driving range a mile to the right of the fairway, after taking a stroke for an unplayable lie, Spieth avoided disaster, which was quite a feat in itself.
But it was what he did next, ripping off three birdies and an eagle over the next four holes, that not only won the British Open but again put Spieth on a path to become a storied champion, perhaps on the level of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
By adding the British Open to his wins in 2015 at the Masters and U.S. Open, in fact, Spieth is in that rarefied air — the only player other than Nicklaus to have won three legs of the Grand Slam before turning 25.
Actually, Spieth doesn’t turn 24 until later this week, and in addition to being the youngest American player to win the British Open, he is the youngest player ever to have three majors and as many as his 11 PGA Tour wins.
So now he has officially overcome that collapse at the Masters last year, and once again stamped himself as the charismatic superstar that golf needs to fill the void left by Tiger’s disappearance from the sport.
It was only about 15 minutes ago, it seemed, that Spieth was grouped in golf’s new Big Three with Rory McIlroy and Jason Day, and then Big Four to include Dustin Johnson.
For that matter, it wasn’t so long ago that McIlroy was the clear successor to Tiger, with four majors by the age of 25, and he is still only 28 after finishing tied for fourth behind Spieth on Sunday, so he might be ready to go on another run.
Golf is funny like that, for practically everybody other than Tiger when he was on top, challenging in every major for years: players lose the winning touch for months or even years at a time and then find it again.
Spieth went through a lull, perhaps due at least partly to that nightmarish 12th hole on Sunday at Masters in 2016, when he was leading by one shot but then hit two balls in the water and took a quadruple-bogey 7, eventually losing to Danny Willett.
If you’re lining Spieth up with the others, he doesn’t have the power of Johnson or McIlroy or Day off the tee, or the stylish swing of McIlroy, in particular.
But I’d bet on Spieth winning the most majors of all those young stars, as well as the most likely to have a Tiger-like run of dominance.
Whatever the sport, some guys just have a knack for making the big play when it's needed most, for finding a way to win.
Spieth seems to have that, whether it was holing a shot out of the sand on the
72nd hole to win at Hartford a few weeks ago, or shaking off less-than-stellar play for most of Sunday to deliver brilliance over the final five holes at Royal Birkdale.
You sure couldn’t have seen it coming on this day.
For 13 holes Spieth played like a jittery leader, missing short putts that are automatic when he’s on his game, and spraying the ball of the tee. So when his adventure at the 13th hole finally cost him the threestroke lead with which he’d begun the day, as he fell behind Matt Kuchar, he looked to be in big trouble.
Instead, Spieth put on a show: he hit a six-iron to three feet on the 14th, a par3; made a 48-foot eagle putt on the 15th; made a 25-foot birdie putt on the 16th, and wedged to within five feet for another birdie on the 17th.
Kuchar, playing alongside Spieth and trying to win his first major, looked as if he didn’t what know what had hit him.
Afterward Spieth admitted that if someone had told him he’d make a run like that in the aftermath of the 13th, “I’ve have told them they were crazy.” The thing is, he’s done it before, displaying a wondrous short game and an ability to make 20-footers look like gimmes on the green.
“Spieth has just got that magic championship ability that not many guys do,” was the way Miller put it on the NBC telecast. “Nicklaus had it. Palmer and Trevino. Guys like that. Watson. Not many guys. Woods. “It’s just a very rare thing.” On Sunday it made for compelling TV. Spieth, after all, has some Phil Mickelson in his game as well as that of the other greats.
That is, his ball doesn’t always go straight off the tee, but he has a way of making recovery shots, even when he hits the ball practically off the golf course, as he did on the 13th hole at Royal Birkdale.
In fact, on this major Sunday, Spieth escaped like Phil and then closed like Tiger. For a kid who's not even 24 yet, that combination is going to win a lot more majors.