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The next Woods? No, Spieth is an original

By: Golf Shake | Mon 13 Apr 2015


Post by Sports Writer, Derek Clements


DO YOU remember what it felt like when Tiger Woods won The Masters in 1997? I felt a tingle in my spine because I just knew that we were watching something very special. I got the same feeling when I watched Jordan Spieth at The Open in 2013, fresh from his first victory on the PGA Tour at the age of 19.

I wanted to see how good he was, and I soon got my answer as I watched him shape shots this way and that on his way to an opening round of 69. This was The Open won by Phil Mickelson at Muirfield. Spieth was new to links golf but on that day he played it as if he had grown up on the links. He was special, I was absolutely convinced. Eventually he finished in a tie for 44th, but I had seen enough to know that Rory McIlroy wasn't going to have things his own way in the years that lay ahead.

He is 21 now and his victory at Augusta was achieved in a very different way to the manner in which Woods had thrilled us 18 years earlier. Spieth broke the 36-hole scoring record, he broke the 54-hole scoring record, he had more birdies (28) than anybody else has ever achieved in 72 holes, he became the second youngest winner after Woods and he equalled Tiger's 72-hole tournament record, completing four rounds in 270 after dropping a shot at the last.

Jordan Spieth Wins the Masters

But where Tiger overpowered the course, and continued to do so on his way to winning 14 majors, Spieth approaches the game in the manner of Jack Nicklaus or Ben Hogan. As the years spread out in front of him, he may not thrill galleries in the way that Woods and Rory McIlroy do, but he will have us shaking our heads in wonder as he accumulates ever more majors - provided that he continues to putt as he is doing at present.


He putts cross-handed and on short putts he looks at the hole rather than the ball when he makes his stroke. These are techniques employed by golfers who have struggled on the greens. Spieth does it because it works for him. He says that looking at the hole frees up his stroke and points out that basketball players look at the hoop, not the ball, when they shoot.

He is far, far more than a man who holes lots of putts though. The iron shot he struck to the heart of the 13th green is as good as anything I have ever witnessed. The ball was above his feet, he was 220 yards from the green on the par five and everybody expected him to lay up and depend on his wedge play for a birdie. Instead, he took dead aim and played a wondrous shot that set up a possible eagle chance.

There is a jaunt to his step that you don't see too often, he talks to the ball while it is in the air, he smiles, laughs out loud, cracks jokes with his caddie and is perfectly behaved on and off the course - a credit to his sport and to his parents. It is obvious, too, that he loves playing golf. Long may that continue.

He is also a genuinely humble individual. "If I am playing with any golfer who is older than me [in other words, just about everybody] I adress them as Mr because it is the right thing to do," he said. And so it was that he was the first to congratulate playing partner "Mr Rose" on an incredible recovery shot on the front nine. But he had no qualms about beating Mr Rose and Mr Mickelson into second place. He is a class act and golf is lucky to have him.

Don't run away with the idea that this Masters was all about Spieth though because it most certainly wasn't.

Before a shot had been struck in anger those of us who profess to know something about this game feared for the fate of Woods on his competitive return. He hadn't played since withdrawing from the Farmers Insurance Open and although he said his game was in shape for Augsta, there were genuine concerns that he would humiliate himself on a golf course where he has won four times. I hold my hands up and admit that I was wrong when I wrote that I believed he would never win another major - I now think that, if he stays fit and healthy, he will be right in the mix at St Andrews when The Open returns to the home of golf in July.

His game still needs work. In the final round he hit his first fairway of the day on the 13th. But the so-called chipping yips have been banished and he putted as well as I have seen him do in a long, long time. If you had offered him a 283 total before the start, he would probably have taken it.

Had you told Rory McIlroy he would shoot 12 under par in the quest for his career grand slam, he would almost certainly have settled for that too, confident it would be a winning score. McIlroy will win The Masters one day and he must take a great deal of comfort from the fact that he took 276 blows and was far from his best. We can only lick our lips at the prospect of a long rivalry between Spieth and McIlroy.

The new Masters champion relishes the prospect. "He's got four majors. That's something I can still only dream about," Spieth said. "I'll never hit it as far as he does, so I'll have to make up that somewhere else. I look forward to getting in the heat of the moment with him a few more times in the near future. We'll see if we can battle it out and test our games."

It was great to see Mickelson back where he belongs, thrilling the patrons with an eagle at 15th, where he holed a bunker shot. He has been through a miserable run of form and loved being back at the right end of the leaderboard, even though this was his 10th runner-up finish in a major.

There were encouraging signs for Europe. Rose admitted that he couldn't play much better than he did and said: "I would take 14 under par around here every single year. I am happy with the way I played but Jordan was just too good for the rest of us." Ian Poulter finished his weekend with a pair of 67s, but had given himself too much to do after opening rounds of 73 and 72. And the renaissance of Paul Casey continues. The Englishman finished alongside Poulter on nine under in a tie for sixth place on nine under par.

There was also another tantalising glimpse of the future in the shape of Hideki Matsuyama. The 23-year-old is surely destined to become the best player Japan has ever produced and will win a major before too long. He showed that he belongs in this company with a final round of 66 that gave him fifth place on his own at 11 under par. And you have to take your hat off to Mark O'Meara who, at the venerable age of 57, took just 68 shots in the final round and finished the tournament on two under par.

We didn't have a thrilling finish but there is something about this tournament and this course that always throws up a special story. This year it was Spieth and a sparkling supporting cast. Roll on the US Open.

Image credit - Twitter @JWhitakerGolf


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