GOOD FOR YOU, KID
Spieth is the champ golf needs
AUGUSTA, Ga. — When it was over, after Jordan Spieth had dropped the final anticlimactic putt in his walkover of a worldclass field to win the Masters on Sunday at Augusta National, he hugged his parents, brother, grandfather and girlfriend— all of whom were standing to the side of the 18th green with tears filling their eyes.
Then Spieth walked back to the clubhouse to sign his scorecard and make his first major championship victory official, and when he got there, a cluster of caddies and fellow players — guys he’d just vanquished en route to victory— were waiting to congratulate him.
Past Masters champion Zach Johnson hugged Spieth and told him, “I’m so proud of you.’’
Bubba Watson, the defending champion who overtook Spieth the year before in the final round, paid homage.
Phil Mickelson, who so desperately is seeking another major championship at age 44, was there to praise the youngster who refused to let him get close enough to win his fourth career Green Jacket.
“It’s hard not to like him, hard not to root for him,’’ said Mickelson, who finished second to Spieth by four shots, the 10th runnerup finish in a major championship of his career.
To say the Spieth victory was a popular result at this Masters is to grossly understate it— like saying the Knicks are not a very good team or that the Yankees might be offensively challenged this season.
Each year produces a different result at Augusta National and each elicits a different response from the masses.
Watson’s win last year was embraced by many fans who adore his act, but met more coolly by those who believe his act is just that— a disingenuous act.
There have been less charismatic winners of the Green Jacket such as Charl Schwartzel and Trevor Immelman and Mike Weir who have left golf fans yawning at the lack of needle moving starpower drama the tournament so often produces.
When Tiger Woods wins, most of the time it’s a celebrated event because he’s been the biggest name in golf, but there are many who simply don’t like him. The reader mail that I get about Woods, which is more passionate and plarizing than a raging political debate, is evidence of that.
You’ll have an easier time holing a downhill putt on Augusta’s ninth green than you will finding anyone to utter a negative word about Spieth.
Even at age 21, when so many kids his age are finding ways to get into trouble or simply slacking off, Spieth is almost too good to be true. He’s 21 going on 41 and figures to be as good an ambassador to the game as it has seen in years.
These were his words after victory on Sunday night:
“This is as great as it gets in our sport. This isn’t an honor that’s carried lightly. The members of Augusta National and everyone who partakes in the Masters and is a part of the Masters, demand the most, the highest quality on and off the course from their champions. I feel ready to carry that baton.”
Twentyone years old and already an old soul dripping with perspective and class.
Spieth’s perspective comes, in large part, from his 14yearold sister, Ellie, who is a specialneeds child born with a neurological disorder. Spieth said she keeps him humble and grounded. So maybe we should thank Ellie for what we see in her older brother now.
“There is no way he’d be here without growing up with Ellie, just no way,’’ Spieth’s mother, Chris, said on Sunday.
In honor of Ellie, who stayed home in Texas with family friends during Masters week, Spieth volunteers at her special needs school in his spare time and has involved himself in the Special Olympics. He’s communicated all week via FaceTime.
“When I speak to her,’’ Spieth said with a smile, “she’s going to probably tell me to just bring something home, bring a present home to her.”
Spieth will have a couple presents to bring Ellie. A Green Jacket she can try on. And the hug from him that she missed having not been greenside with the rest of the family late Sunday afternoon.