This year’s Open Championship was the most exciting to date, and it saw Jordan Spieth take home the oldest and most prestigious trophy in golf—the Claret Jug. While celebrations for the golfer are now fully underway, the last hours of the tournament were nail biting to say the least.
Saying that Spieth has had a good run so far this year is an understatement. In fact, he is now one of two players to win the third leg of a career grand slam before his 24th birthday. Now Jordan Spieth has won this year’s British Open, he need only win the PGA Championship next month at Quail Hollow (or at any time in the next 30-40 years) to attain the career grand slam only ever achieved by the likes of Gene Sarazen, Hogan, Gary Player, Nicklaus and Woods.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing in this championship; Spieth had a rocky start. After making four bogeys in the first three rounds, things weren’t looking good for him.
Spieth commented on his thought process during this point of the game: “I was questioning why I couldn’t just perform the shots that I was before. And sometimes you just can’t really figure it out or put your finger on it. ‘Am I pulling it? Pushing it? Am I doing both? What’s going on with the stroke?’.”
He was shooting uncertainly with the putter and over-confidently off the tee, but things went really haywire at the 13th hole. Spieth overshot to such an extent that he was forced to play as far back as the driving range, past some enormous dunes.
It may even go down in history as one of the worst tee shots in a major to lead to an eventual winner. Fans were reportedly confused as Spieth set off on a tour through the equipment trucks—it was apparently a tricky ruling as to whether the ball would still be in play.
A difficult beginning
Spieth’s caddie, former math teacher Michael Greller, has spoken out about the ‘chaotic scene’ of hunting for the ball, comparing it to searching for a needle in a haystack of fans: “There were 500 people, we can’t find the ball and I’m thinking someone could grab it. It was just absolute chaos and then out of right field you hear someone yell there’s a ball on the other side of the dune. And Jordan goes bouncing up there like a billy goat and I went back to the fairway because I didn’t think it was a ball, I thought there was no chance he was over there,” he said.
It took around 20 minutes and various trips up and down the sand hills for Spieth to decide how to get himself out of this tricky spot. After taking his penalty and his drop, Spieth took three shots to get back in play and got up and down for a bogey.
Gaining back his rhythm, he played the next five holes in 5-under, claiming his victory and surprising every single spectator who had witnessed his beginning to the tournament. It is undeniable that Spieth has won the hearts and adoration of the crowd with his determination and cool head.
Now Jordan Spieth has won this year’s Open we can only wait with anticipation for the upcoming tournaments and hope that they involve as much suspense and drama as this one has.
Spieth’s Open win puts him at No.2 in the World Rankings, with Dustin Johnson in the No.1 position for 23 weeks.
See also: Royal Birkdale Key Holes