Spieth is just a hot putter from Grand Slam joy

FOLLOWING Rory McIlroy’s best attempt yet at becoming only the second player since 1966 to achieve the career Grand Slam, it will be the turn of Jordan Spieth to try to complete the set at the US PGA Championship next month. Judging by his extraordinary triumph in the RBC Heritage event in Hilton Head, South Carolina, on Sunday, it is likely to be eventful. So much for the old adage about driving for show and putting for dough. ‘I won without a putter,’ declared Spieth, and he was not far wrong. After missing a tiddler on the 18th in the third round, he missed two more inside 5ft on Sunday to finish a lowly 60th in the putting statistics, and yet still ended up the victor after beating Patrick Cantlay in a play-off. You have to go all the way back to 2009 to find a winner in a PGA Tour event with such poor putting. Like McIlroy, Spieth (right) has not won a major since the career Slam moved into view after he added The Open in 2017 to his triumphs at the Masters and US Open in 2015. A prolonged slump coincided with Brooks Koepka replacing him as America’s golden boy when he quickly won four majors. Spieth lost a thrilling duel for The Open last year to Collin Morikawa and is now not even the top man in Texas following the remarkable progress of new Masters champion Scottie Scheffler. There is one sure way, however, to become the leading stud once more and that is to complete the feat managed only by Tiger Woods in the last 56 years. Spieth’s confidence must have soared on Sunday, given that he won his three majors by putting better than anyone else. If he can beat a strong field during an off-week for his best club, what damage can he do with a customary putting display?