Jordan Spieth has achieved a lot at the tender age of 24 and he will add another accolade to his resume later this month when The Spieth Lower 40—his first involvement in course design—will open.
The new course is a six-hole par-3 short course situated at the University of Texas Golf Club in Austin, and Spieth has played a part in the design of the facility. It will be Austin’s only private par-3 course.
Spieth, of course, is a former student at the University of Texas having spent a year and a half at the campus prior to his smooth transition to the PGA TOUR and becoming a three-time major winner.
Close to home
Spieth, who remains a resident of his hometown of Dallas, Texas, has teamed up with renowned golf course architect Roy Bechtol—who designed the full par-71 18-hole course at the University of Texas Golf Club—to create a unique short course.
Bechtol heads the work behind the course but he has taken expert advice from Spieth during the design process, with the 24-year-old admitting he was “hands on”. The Spieth Lower 40 will also carry the major winner’s name.
When news of his involvement first emerged earlier in the year, Spieth told the Austin American-Statesman: “I’m excited about it. It’s going to be a cool little par-3 golf course that will be demanding visually but still fair for really solid wedge and short game work. I was definitely very hands on. I looked at the blueprints, the mapping, the scale.”
The six holes have been built on a four-and-a-half acre site and will total 552 yards. The type of work that has gone into creating the course can be seen in a one-minute sneak preview video released on YouTube by the University of Texas Golf Club.
There was no give away in the video, but the 6th and final hole of the course will have a pot bunker in the middle of it. That is a direct reference to the famous hole at Riviera, where Spieth and his ‘Longhorns’ University of Texas golf team won their last NCAA Championship in 2012.
Short-game facility
The course was designed due to the University of Texas’ demands to have an improved short-game facility. Men’s coach John Fields told the Austin American-Statesman: “We’re thrilled about it. Jordan has gotten actively involved as a donor and enhanced the project with Roy. It’s the next step in our growth to have a facility like that to attract the best players in the country.”
Spieth is the latest major golfing name to add course design to his list of accomplishments joining the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Sir Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros. It something he plans to become more involved in throughout his career.
“It was cool being part of the design process with Roy because I’m interested in doing that later in life,” added Spieth, who won his third major earlier in 2017 when he triumphed in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
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