‘Crushing’ loss wipes smile off Kuchar’s face
SOUTH PORT, England—Jordan Spieth was euphoric. He’d just won the British Open and was about to be handed the coveted Claret Jug for the first time in his already-brilliant career.
As he walked up the hill from the 18th green to the scorer’s trailer, he spotted Matt Kuchar, whom he’d just denied a first career major championship, being greeted by his wife and two sons. The two young boys were crying. Kuchar comforted them briefly before entering the scorer’s trailer to go over the scorecards.
Spieth noticed inside the trailer that Kuchar, who’s known for having a smile perpetually plastered to his face, was emotional. When Kuchar emerged outside from the trailer to ready himself for the awards ceremony on the 18th green, his eyes looked glassy.
“Yeah, I noticed it when I walked up and saw his family hugging him, and I think Cameron is his oldest, was in tears,’’ Spieth said. “At that moment I’m so happy and at the same time I see that and I thought to myself, ‘Man, put this in perspective, he’s a dad.’ I’m not a dad, I don’t think that way. And I was able to kind of get a little glimpse into what that’s like.
“Matt didn’t lose the tournament at al l today; he played well down the stretch. I mean, I just had my long putts go in, his didn’t. I believe Matt Kuchar will win a major championship. And I believe that he’ll do it sometime soon.’’
That might be difficult for Kuchar to envision at the moment. He had a oneshot lead with five holes to play and lost by three shots thanks to Spieth playing the last five in 5-under par.
“It’ s hard to explain ,’’ Kuchar said. “It’s crushing. It hurts. And it’s an excitement and a thrill to have played well, put up a battle, put up a fight. You work so hard to get to this position. And to have a chance to make history and win a championship … you don’t get that many opportunities. And to be this close, to taste it with f ive holes to go, it’s a hard one to sit back and take.
“With f ive holes to play … I played the next four in 2-under par [and] I lose two shots in those four holes to Jordan,’’ he said. “As tough as it is to be this close and finish second, I am sure that it will lead to me continuing to work hard and push me harder to try to f inish one place better.”
Kuchar, who’s 39 and now 0- for - 47 in major championships, said seeing his family on 18 was an unexpected and emotional surprise, because they hadn’t been at the tournament all week.
“Seeing the family, that was a surprise,’’ he said. “I talked to them [Saturday] night on the phone. I thought they were in Colorado. It was a great surprise, a teary surprise.’’
SOUTHPORT, England — Golf, by nature, is an individual sport. But when you witness events unfolding the way they did Sunday at Royal Birkdale for the unforgettable climax of the 146th British Open, it provides further proof that even the greatest players in the game cannot do it alone.
While Jordan Spieth’s bid to win the Claret Jug was unraveling — Greg Norman 1996 Masters style — before the world’s eyes, two of the most important people in Spieth’s golfing life were there for him in his time of greatest need.
One of them, Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, was inside the ropes.
The other, his coach, Cameron McCormick, was outside the ropes.
Greller was able to tangibly affect the proceedings positively.
McCormick — utterly helpless, unable to get anywhere close enough to his prized pupil to speak reassuring words to him or even make eye contact — was not.
When it was over, while Spieth was being feted as the “Champion Golfer of the Year’’ and handed the cherished Claret Jug on the 18th green, both men were overwhelmed with emotion after a ride so wild it would have made a fighter pilot queasy.
Spieth had just squandered a three-shot lead in dramatic fashion and then regained it by going 5-under on the final five holes to win his third career major championship and the third leg of the elusive career Grand Slam.
McCormick’s lips quivered when he said, “Words don’t describe it, really.’’
“I guess that’s the stuff legends are made of. When you’re pushed back to the wall and you’re in a corner and you keep punching … that just shows his tenacity and resilience and the heart that he has. And Michael as well. They work so well as a team. It fills me with pride.’’
It was Greller with his perfectly timed words of encouragement that saved this Open Championship for Spieth.
“Do you remember that group you were with in Cabo last week?’’ Greller asked Spieth when they were on the seventh tee, referring to some time he spent with Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps. “You belong in that group. You’re that caliber of an athlete. But I need you to believe that right now, because you’re in a great position in this tournament. This is a new tournament. We’re starting over here.’’
Spieth would later say Greller “had as much influence on this win as any’’ he has had in his career.
“I was getting down on myself, as I think anyone would,” Spieth said while clutching the Claret Jug like he never wanted to let it go. “This is as much mine as it is his. I’ll never forget how Michael told me that [about Jordan and Phelps], when he told me that and the significance that it had. All I needed was just a little bit of selfbelief to be able to produce what I had there.’’
That self-belief was in crisis early in the round when Spieth was uncharacteristically missing short putts and on the 13th hole, he blew his drive some 120 yards off line into a steep grassy dune to the right of the fairway before scrambling to produce one of the great bogeys in major championship history.
McCormick was helpless as he watched Spieth become unglued, his mind was racing with thoughts.
“What else could I have done?’’ McCormick said he wondered to himself. “Was it something I didn’t pick on with his manner in his pre-round warm-up? At the same time, after what happened on 13, I looked forward and said, ‘ There are some scoring holes coming up and he knows that.’
“Perhaps the blessing was what happened on 13. It was such a shock. But it was a good system restart, a reboot.’’
Spieth birdied his next hole, the 14th to tie Kuchar at 8-under, eagled No. 15 to grab a one-shot lead, birdied 16 and birdied 17 to take a two-shot lead to the 18th tee at 12-under.
“He’s always been a player that can shift into a different gear,’’ McCormick said. “And this was an amazing example of that.’’