Give me a three-shot lead down the stretch of an important golf tournament and I likely would have done exactly as Jordan Spieth did Sunday at the U.S. Open. Which is to say I too would have cut my tee shot on the 17th hole way right into a gnarly lie and later three-putted for double bogey.
And that, folks, is where the similarities end. With a three-shot advantage disintegrated, my ball would have come out of the 17th cup and would have been hurled right into Puget Sound. My putter head would have been embedded deep in the green-side soil. And my brain would have been so fired that the inevitable 12 I would post at 18 — plus the tirade sequel — would have scarred anyone within three miles.
Spieth? He swallowed his double and the resulting indigestion and simply proceeded to the 72nd hole with a plan. Relax, focus, make birdie. Par 5, 601 yards? Spieth went driver, 3-wood, casual two-putt and captured his second consecutive major championship.
Yes, he needed the golf gods to suplex Dustin Johnson with a haunting three-putt from 12 feet, causing him to lose the U.S. Open, literally, by a couple centimeters. But Johnson’s failure — proof of the pressure that strangles the denouement of most majors — should only heighten Spieth’s accomplishment, not cheapen it.
To top it off, Spieth exhaled after his four-day roller-coaster ride with a telling admission: he didn’t have his best stuff.
With his game dialed in at Augusta National in April, Spieth shot 18-under par and led wire to wire at the Masters. Without his best stuff, he was still capable of conquering another major, this time on a craggy course with mini-golf ramps all over its bumpy greens.
Some of the field’s best players couldn’t help but spend their energy ripping Chambers Bay’s flaws. Spieth?
“We got over it,” he said Sunday. “Someone had to hold the trophy.”
At 21, such aplomb is not only abnormal, it may be downright alien.
Realistically, golf will fail miserably in its search for the next Tiger Woods, a wunderkind whose own popularity will launch the game’s. Woods’ talent, on-course fire, social impact and timing was transcendent in a way that can’t be replicated. But the sport certainly appears to have found its next major star, an engaging and humble Texan who offers plenty to rally around.
Spieth’s latest major triumph came with an approach he and his caddie called “free rolling.” It’s the golf equivalent of “hakuna matata,” a way to always remain present and worry-free. And it’s a catchphrase Under Armour may want to corral ASAP for its inevitable Spieth marketing blitz.
After all, the kid’s going to be around awhile.
