As Tiger once did, Spieth intimidates
Jordan Spieth took a half- step into the Tiger Woods comparison question, then wisely turned around and hotfooted in the other direction.
“I think that’s something people are looking for, but is not there. … It’s something I don’t think that can be compared until at least midway through a career,” golf’s Golden Child said Wednesday at the only British Open Championship media session that rivalled Tiger’s for standing- room- only attendance.
But he’s 21 and has already won two majors. In a row.
He is 21 and going for the third leg of a calendar year Grand Slam. The only other player of this generation to get even this far is Woods, who was 26 when his challenge died in 2002 at Muirfield.
Spieth’s quest resumes this week at the Old Course, the birthplace of golf. The stage doesn’t get much bigger. So he knows the comparison is out there. He also knows it’s way too soon to speak of it. And this is a kid who can speak.
It is there, behind a microphone, the Tiger comparison ends. With Woods, it has always been a surfeit of glibness and flippancy and: “What can I avoid telling you?” With Spieth, it’s real. Woods has never been comfortable revealing his inner thoughts, perhaps for reasons that became apparent about the same time he stopped winning majors. Spieth is an open book, interesting, attentive, comfortable with who he is — preternaturally diplomatic and articulate, without being secretive or falling into clichés.
Confident, like Rory McIlroy, without being cocky.
Wednesday, the world’s press got Spieth’s best effort and as the multitudes filed out of the interview tent, the common feeling was: “How old is he really, 35?”
Two years ago, at 19, Spieth was the last man to qualify for the Open and though he was in contention for a time as late as Saturday, he said, “I remember almost thinking like that was too big for me at the time. It was a position I’d never been in and it was an odd feeling being in contention in a major on a weekend. It was brief. I didn’t finish well that round.”
It’s not too big for him any more.
In fact, his presence might make it too big for his opponents, in the same way Tiger’s competition used to wilt when his name invariably rose to the top of the leaderboard.
Spieth’s weekly rise has almost that kind of inevitability.
“I don’t know. I don’t look like an intimidating person,” grinned this likable kid, who loves to dress in drab colours.
“I don’t hit the ball the furthest, which I think is one of the reasons Tiger intimidated people. But we find a way to get it in the hole.”