The Open Championship: Jordan Spieth returns to the site of his greatest triumph
When an artist discovers their perfect medium, it's a true joy to behold. Think, say, Eddie Van Halen with a guitar or Guy Fieri with chicken finger dipping sauce — you watch those masters at work, and you know you're going to see something no one's ever seen before. You know, like when Jordan Spieth sends a shot off the edge of the course map.
This week, Spieth returns to the site of his greatest triumph — more significant than his Masters victory, more important than his U.S. Open win, more dramatic (barely) than the moment he nearly plunged to his doom at Pebble Beach. This week, Spieth once again walks the links of Royal Birkdale, where he pulled off his most improbable shot in a career full of them.
Nine years ago, on the final day of the Open Championship, Spieth and Matt Kuchar were tied at -8 on the 13th tee. Spieth, then ranked No. 3 in the world, had already given away both a three-stroke overnight lead and a two-stroke lead after six holes. Just after 5 p.m. local time, Spieth launched a tee shot so far right that a rain-soaked camera couldn't locate it. The ball apparently bounced off a spectator's head and bounded over to the other side of a dune into four-foot-high grass.
Spieth opted for an unplayable, and then made the most unconventional and bold decision of his career — he dropped his ball all the way back on the practice range in line with the hole. It was a perfectly permissible use of the rules of golf, and combined with the free relief he got from being amid nearby equipment trucks, actually gave him a good lie to make an astounding bogey.
More than 20 minutes elapsed between Spieth's tee shot and his second one. Even the edited video of the entire scene is more than 19 minutes long:
Kuchar parred the hole to take a one-stroke lead, but it surely could (and probably should) have been much more. Spieth then went birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie to yank the Claret Jug out of Kuchar's hands.
"It's come up probably more than any other hole I've ever played," Spieth said Monday. "I remember being pretty decisive in what I wanted to do and being frustrated with the amount of time it all took, just because it wasn't my intent. I remember getting the most out of it and making a bogey there and feeling like I stole a shot back somehow."
It would be his third major and, at just 23, put him a PGA Championship victory away from completing the career Grand Slam.
But as it turned out, though, that moment was Spieth's last real career highlight to date. He's only won twice since then, and not at all since 2022. He's currently ranked 51st in the world, though he had fallen as far as 89th earlier this year.
"I'm quite frustrated with the results considering I know where my game is at," he said Monday. "It's better than it was four or five years ago when I got back to top 10 in the world. It's without a doubt better than it was then; it's just not quite showing up in results."
You've got to feel for Spieth, who had so much success so early that he couldn't possibly keep that pace going. (He won three majors before he turned 24 — or, age-wise, before Scottie Scheffler had won his first tournament.) Every year that he returns to the PGA Championship, he has to deal with the questions about the career grand slam, and now, he'll have to relive the memory of his most recent major, which recedes further into the distance with every passing year.
Credit Spieth for remaining optimistic — staying the course, as he puts it — even in the face of such continual and ongoing struggle. The game has caught him and passed him by; it's up to him now to see if he can catch up.
"Knowing me," Spieth said, "when the lid pops off the hole, I feel like I can go on a run about as hot as anybody can run. So I'm just waiting for that opportunity." So is everyone else in golf.
Spieth tees off at Royal Birkdale at 5:09 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, alongside Jon Rahm and local hero Tommy Fleetwood. Whatever happens after that will be must-watch. It always is.
