Spieth playing for country, should be fun to watch
How about this Jordan Spieth kid.
If you haven’t heard of him, you’ve not been paying attention. But that’s OK, because you’re going to be hearing about him for a long time to come.
To get you up to speed a bit, the kid was a high school hotshot who dominated to the point of becoming the youngest player to make a cut in a PGA Tour event at age 16. He finished 16th that year and 32nd the next year.
Spieth won the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2009 and 2011, snuggling next to Tiger Woods as the only guys to win that title multiple times.
Since he grew up in a Dallas suburb, he made the expected commitment to the University of Texas and halfway through his sophomore year, turned pro last December.
He did so with no status on any tour — PGA or Web.com —and took a chance on getting into tournaments through sponsor exemptions. Spieth knew that by doing so, he’d have to play well to have any chance to play even more.
And he did just that, missing the cut his first time out, but then posting finishes of T22, T2, T7. He earned nearly a half-million dollars four events into his rookie season.
Spieth gained PGA Tour temporary membership in his third start when he finished tied for seventh in the Tampa Bay Championship. That allowed him unlimited sponsor exemptions in the chase to secure his PGA Tour card.
That chase took a dozen tournaments and came to an end when Spieth holed a bunker shot in a playoff to win for the first time at the John Deere Classic and earn a hurried trip to the Open Championship.
As he continued to play well as summer wound down, he was something of a surprise pick for U.S. Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples to fill one of his captain’s picks.
He qualified for the Tour Championship and played extremely well there, finishing in a tie for second.
And next weekend, he’ll be a member of that U.S. team at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, playing for his country.
Spieth has gone from being a supremely talented, supremely confident great young man with no place to call his golfing home to a guy who has earned $3.8 million this year and a guy who I have no doubt will stare down the pressure of the Presidents Cup next week and not break a sweat.
“I’m a competitor,” Spieth said this week in a Golfweek feature. “It doesn’t matter what the stage is. I don’t think of myself being younger than anyone else. Everybody talks about my age. These guys I’m playing against every week, they’re my peers. I’ve got to outwork and beat them.”
There have been a lot of youngsters to pass through the PGA Tour carrying the tag of “the next Tiger.” Many of those have been just meteors streaking through the sky and burning out quickly.
I’m not ready to crown Jordan Spieth anything except a 20-year-old fearless player who’s going to be fun to watch for quite a while. If he ascends into that best-of-the best category, that’s great. If he doesn’t, I’m guessing it’s going to be a lot of fun watching him try.
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