Spieth sticks to Tiger’s pace
But win percentage is ‘a bit different,’ 23-year-old admits
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. Jordan Spieth can’t seem to win a tournament without hearing six words that only raise expectations, if not hyperbole: The youngest player since Tiger Woods.
The latest example was Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which Spieth happily turned into a most boring finish. He led by six shots going into the final round, made 14 straight pars at one point, closed with a 70 and won by four. Spieth jokingly apologized for not producing any highlights except for a 30-foot birdie putt that didn’t matter. All he cared about was winning.
It was the ninth PGA Tour victory for the 23-year-old Texan. That made him — wait for it — the youngest player since Woods to win nine times on tour. Woods was 23 years and five months when he won his ninth PGA Tour event at the 1999 Memorial. Spieth is a little more than a month behind.
Numbers alone don’t paint the full picture. Pebble Beach was Spieth’s 100th start on the PGA Tour as a pro, so he is winning at a nine per cent clip. In Woods’ 100th start, he won for the 28th time.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to win at the same percentage that Tiger won,” Spieth said. “So that’s a bit different.”
Coming off a 2015 season in which he won the Masters and the U.S. Open and came as close as anyone to the grand slam, Spieth began 2016 with an eight-shot win at Kapalua. He said then he was able to keep grounded by looking at the careers of Woods (79 victories, 14 majors) and Phil Mickelson (42 victories, five majors).
Are the comparisons fair? Not necessarily.
“But at the same time, I’m not here to tell you guys how to do your job,” he said. “You don’t tell me how to do mine — you just ask me about mine. So you guys can do whatever you want. I think less of that than I have in the past, and it’s an honour — it really is an honour. Getting to where you’re the first guy, even including Tiger, to do something is maybe the next goal.
“But that,” he added with a smile, “might be pretty hard.”
Spieth has been hearing comparisons with Woods since 2013, when at age 20 he was the youngest American chosen for the Presidents Cup. Two years later, he was the youngest Masters champion since Woods and tied his 72-hole record at Augusta National. His runner-up finish in the 2015 PGA Championship elevated him to the top of the world ranking, making him the youngest player since Woods to reach No. 1.
But Spieth’s longest spell at No. 1 was a mere 20 weeks. Since losing the top spot to Jason Day last March, he has slipped to No. 6. Woods had no challengers and still played as though he had something to prove.
That’s what led Spieth to refer to Woods as “underrated.”
“You almost need that next level, that next person in front of you,” he said. “That’s what’s amazing about what Tiger’s done with the game and his ability to stay there for years and years and years ...
“As a player who has reached that and is trying to get back there, I think he’s underrated, which is incredible to say, because he’s rated the greatest of all time.”