USA TODAY International Edition
Spieth falls just short of playoff, ending Grand Slam bid,
Double bogey on eighth hole helps deny Grand plan
Not surprisingly, Texas- tough Jordan Spieth went down fighting in his march toward history on an ancient links hard by the North Sea.
Surprisingly, however, it was his putter that did in his bid for history.
The world’s No. 2- ranked player and winner of the first two majors of 2015 needed four whacks with the shortest and best club in his bag on the eighth hole of the hallowed Old Course in Monday’s final round of the British Open to make a double- bogey 5. The blemish on the scorecard proved too much to overcome, and Spieth fell one shot short of a playoff and one major shy of joining Ben Hogan as the only players to win the Masters, U. S. Open and British Open in the same year.
“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, yeah, I’m very pleased with the way we battled,” said Spieth, who won the John Deere Classic for his fourth PGA Tour title of the year before taking the red- eye to Scotland. “Today was a really tough day. Just made a mental mistake on No. 8, and it seemed to have cost me as well on 18, just not giving myself a chance. … I just wish I had given myself a little better opportunity.”
With history hovering above him, Spieth, despite needing 37 putts in the second round, came to the eighth tee two shots shy of the lead. But in strong winds and with rain falling sideways, he pushed his tee shot 100 feet to the right, then putted the ball 15 feet off the green. He compounded the error by taking three more to go in for a 5.
He came right back with birdies on Nos. 9 and 10. He nearly chipped in for a birdie on the 13th, the ball falling a bit before bouncing off the flagstick and out of the hole. Then he holed a mon- ster putt from 50 feet on No. 16 to get into a share of the lead.
But on the toughest hole on the course — the par- 4 17th, known as the Road Hole — Spieth missed a par putt from 7 feet to fall back. Needing a birdie on the last hole, he hit a poor drive and spun his approach off the green into the Valley of Sin. His bid for the playoff fell inches shy.
The putter giveth, and the putter taketh away.
“We stepped on that tee box, and you’d like to maybe have a downwind hole where it doesn’t really make that much of a difference. But when you look up from the ball and you’re getting pelted in the face, it’s a hard shot, and I just tried to sling one in there and I left it 40 yards from the pin on the green there, and it’s just a nobrainer. If you make bogey, you’re still in it. If you make double- bogey, it’s a very difficult climb, and there’s absolutely no reason to hit that putt off the green,” Spieth said. “My speed control was really what cost me this week, the five three- putts the second round and then just my speed control in general wasn’t great.”
Spieth said he wouldn’t let coming so close haunt him as he headed into a two- week break. Instead, he’ll relax, practice and get ready to make history in a different way in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
Instead of going for the Grand Slam, he’ll try to join Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only players in the modern era to win three majors in a season.
Hogan won three in 1953, and Woods did it in 2000.
“That would be the next goal as far as the history goes,” Spieth said. “I really played a solid round of golf. I didn’t miss many chances, other than No. 8. Obviously 17 and 18 could have been a little different, but I struck the ball phenomenally well. I drove the ball as well as I’ve driven it this entire year, including the other majors and every other tournament.
“I won’t beat myself up too much. It was a great week.”
“I really played a solid round of golf ( Monday). ... I won’t beat myself up too much. It was a great week.”
Jordan Spieth