The First Few Good Post-Masters Reads On Jordan Spieth

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Just in my first glance through the stories filed from Sunday at Augusta National, there are some nice reads on Jordan Spieth's 2015 Masters week.

Scott Michaux in the Augusta Chronicle:

The numbers – as crazy as they are – almost don’t do Spieth’s performance justice. His 64 was the lowest first round by a Masters champion. His 14-under was the lowest 36-hole total. His 16-under was the lowest 54-hole score. His 18-under tied Woods’ all-time mark. He was the first player in Masters history to post a red “19” on the scoreboards. His 28 birdies were three more than Phil Mickelson’s record in 2001.

Yet Spieth three-putted officially three times, plus twice more from the fringes. But every time he wobbled, he bounced back. Nobody got closer than three strokes to him since the first round. His peers filed out one after another repeating the same refrain – “He doesn’t have a weakness.”

Jaime Diaz in Golf World:

Spieth is above all precocious, which usually goes hand in hand with fast learning. The son of two former college athletes, he’s been the sports obsessed kid who is expert at figuring out the effective ways to play games, and then doing whatever it takes. Never the fastest or strongest, but nearly always the most dogged and smartest.

Michael Rosenberg at golf.com:

He’d already won the Masters and stopped by Butler Cabin for an interview on national TV. He had listened to directions on where to go and what to do -- and admitted to last year’s champion, Bubba Watson, that he wasn’t processing a word anybody said. They were on Earth, but he was not. Then he went to speak on the green, with a big crowd around him, and what did he do?

He thanked Augusta National members, the volunteers (“it’s really underrated what you guys do,”), the staff, his family and the “patrons”. He thanked his caddie, Michael Greller, a former math teacher whom Spieth kept when most people in golf would have advised him to hire a more experienced man. Every word was just about perfect.


Brian Wacker at PGATOUR.com reminds us this one was not over until perhaps the 16th hole when Spieth recalled Tiger’s famous 16th hole chip-in.

The scenario: After a birdie on the par-5 15th to keep his lead at four and become the first player in tournament history ever to touch 19 under, Spieth tugged his tee shot on 16 long and left -- a.k.a. dead. Par seemed impossible, bogey likely and even double bogey not out of the question.

 

Fortunately for Spieth, though, it was near the same spot Tiger Woods was a decade ago when he pitched his ball 25 feet to the left of the hole and into a ridge that splits the green, using the slope to funnel his ball to the right, down the slope and into the hole. Spieth was 11 years old at the time.

Wacker earlier in the week on the two-house setup and Spieth’s off the course strategy.

 I'll post more later, but this is a good start on a player that is great fun to read about.