3-putt miscues ruin Spieth’s G’Slam bid
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The walk from the 18th green, past the first tee, across a public walkway, into the recorders’ office and up to an interview stand took roughly 10 minutes, time enough for Jordan Spieth to swallow his disappointment and digest the lessons from his heartbreaking defeat at the British Open.
Spieth, who was trying to become the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win the Masters, the United States Open and the British Open in the same year, finished one stroke out of a threeman playoff, won by Zach Johnson. After playing his way into contention with a 66 in Sunday’s third round, Spieth had said, “I don’t want to place third.”
He didn’t. He closed with a threeunder 69 to tie for fourth, at 14 under, with his playing partner, Jason Day. The finish had to gall the competitor in Spieth. But when it came time to dissect his round with reporters, the side of Spieth that is a sportsman prevailed.
“Although we came in wanting to be two shots better than what we finished, with everything that went on this week and the momentum we came in with, I’m very pleased with the way we battled,” said Spieth, who collected his ninth top-four finish in his last 13 starts.
He was beaten, he said, “by some special golf ” from Johnson, who closed with a 66; Marc Leishman, who played the last 36 holes of regulation in 14 under; and Louis Oosthuizen, who was two strokes better than Spieth during a chaotic second round that took their wave more than a day and a half to complete.
“That was some unbelievable golf that was played by those guys to get to 15 under in these conditions,” he said.
Spieth goes into every round with a target number, and the number he thought he needed Monday to have a chance to win was 68. So his accuracy did not fail him there.
When he returns to Dallas and reflects on the week’s events, Spieth will Four-hole playoff: 15 – Zach Johnson 16 – Louis Oosthuizen 18 – Marc Leishman 273 – Zach Johnson (6671-70-66), Louis Oosthuizen (67-70-67-69), Marc Leishman (70-7364-66) 274 – Jordan Spieth (6772-66-69), Jason Day (66-71-67-70) 277 – Danny Willett (6669-72-70), Justin Rose (71-68-68-70), Jordan Niebrugge (67-73-6770), Sergio Garcia (7069-68-70) 278 – Brooks Koepka (7170-69-68), Adam Scott (70-67-70-71) 279 – Brendan Todd (71-73-69-66), Oliver Schniederjans (70-7270-67), Luke Donald (68-70-73-68), Martin Kaymer (71-70-70-68), Ashley Chesters (71-7267-69), Anthony Wall (70-71-68-70) 280 – Hideki Matsuyama (72-66-71-71), Robert Streb (66-71-70-73) Notables: 281 – Phil Mickelson (70-72-70-69), Retief Goosen (66-72-69-74), Padraig Harrington (7269-65-75) 282 – Paul Dunne (69-6966-78) rue the five three-putts he made during the second round, his double bogey on the short par-3 eighth on Monday and his cumulative effort on the par-4 17th Road Hole, which became his personal Sink Hole, as it has for so many others before him. He played it in three over for the week.
Spieth’s strength is his putting, so he did not even bother trying to sanitize the mess he made on the 174-yard eighth hole. Playing his tee shot into a stiff wind and stinging rain, Spieth hit it roughly 120 feet right of the pin. His first putt rolled past the cup and off the other side of the green. He putted up to 4 feet, then missed his bogey attempt to drop three shots behind the leaders.