Spieth of light
Teenager quickly ascends to stardom
GULLANE, Scotland — You may excuse Jordan Spieth for wearing the same slacks yesterday he wore on Sunday. He’s only 19.
Age and maturity, though, are not the reason Spieth had not changed in three days. A surreal series of fateful, lifealtering moments are.
Spieth, whose remarkable victory at the John Deere Classic not only made him the youngest PGA Tour winner since 1931 and fourth youngest in history, it earned him the 156th and final spot in this week’s British Open field at Muirfield.
While Spieth, who began 2013 with no status on the PGA Tour and has already won more than $2 million and skyrocketed toward stardom, was staving off ninetime PGA Tour winner Zach Johnson and 34yearold David Hearn in a tense fivehole playoff, a chartered jet bringing the Deere contestants eligible for the British Open to Scotland sat waiting on a nearby airport runway with a seat suddenly reserved for him.
That meant leaving Moline, Ill., without a stitch of fresh clothes in Spieth’s suitcase. Laundry can wait. A free ride to his first British Open could not.
There, too, is more to the wardrobe rub. Spieth had, indeed, packed for one week. But that week was three weeks ago, for the AT&T National, for which he got a sponsor’s invite.
His sixthplace finish at the AT&T elevated his ranking enough to qualify him for the Greenbriar Classic, where his tie for 23rd got him into John Deere.
The ride for Spieth has been dizzying — and that does not refer to only his frenetic Sunday afternoon or his over seas flight, which arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland, at 10:30 a.m. Monday.
Sometimes in sports we witness an athlete morph into a star as quickly as it takes for water to boil, and this appears to be what is taking place with Spieth, who exudes the maturity of a 19year PGA Tour veteran, not a 19yearold who still lives with his parents. Spieth, who turned pro in December after his freshman season at the University of Texas, has now accomplished something Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy never did — winning a PGA Tour event as a teenager (Woods, Mickelson and McIlroy each got their first wins at age 20).
Yesterday morning, Mickelson sought Spieth out to congratulate him on the win and McIlroy approached him on the practice range in the afternoon to pay his respects.
“A pretty fantastic accomplishment,’’ Woods said.
Spieth, who got into the Deere playoff after holing out a 44yard sand shot for birdie on the 72nd hole, was still incredulous about his fortune yesterday after playing a ninehole practice round to get his first look at Muirfield.
“I thought I’d wake up and it would have been a dream,’’ he said. “It’s been a ton of emotions — scheduling changing, playing in [FedEx Cup] Playoffs, being in the Masters, being able to pick a schedule, my world ranking is now up there where I can be in a lot of top events. It’s hard to wrap my mind around it all.’’ The sweetest perk of all? “Augusta,’’ Spieth said without hesitation. “I’ve been there one time for a Monday practice round and it was like walking onto a video game. It’ll certainly be nice to be inside the ropes playing.’’
First things first, though. Who knows what might be in store for Spieth inside the Muirfield ropes this week?
“This is an unexpected week,’’ he said. “Now I’ve got to kind of regroup. It’s a major championship.’’
He’d better get used to them, because he’ll likely be playing in a lot of major championships for the foreseeable future.
“I thought that if I was playing well I’d be playing the Web.com Tour all year and get out on the PGA Tour next year,’’ Spieth said. “I went to Puerto Rico and that week just changed everything.’’
Spieth, who played two Web.com events, finished tied for second in the Puerto Rico Open (an “oppositefield’’ event during WGCDoral week in March) and won $308,000. The following week he tied for seventh at the Tampa Bay Classic and won another $148,892.
Since then, he has played as many Web.com events as Woods, Mickelson and McIlroy have. Spieth’s exit from the Web.com Tour seems to have the same neverlookback feel to it that Derek Jeter’s promotion from Columbus to the Yankees once did.
“I didn’t think it would happen this early,” Spieth said. “I had a plan. I guess the plan got exceeded.”