Jordan Spieth was down. After taking a three shot lead into Sunday’s final round of the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale, Spieth’s confidence started waning. His tee shot on the first hole failed to bounce downward off a hillside filled with heavy rough and back into the fairway. He bogeyed the first hole. His short putts on the front nine looked tentative for a guy widely reputed to be best putter in men’s golf. Gasp – Jordan Spieth even three-putted the ninth hole Sunday and finished the front nine at three over par! Suddenly, with nine holes to go, Spieth and his playing partner, fellow American Matt Kuchar, were deadlocked at 8-under par. What else could go wrong?
Plenty.
On what Jordan Spieth should forever call his Lucky 13th hole, he sprayed his tee shot nearly 100 yards off line to the right. Since there was no out-of-bounds along the right side of this par-4 hole, his golf ball was found in some very knarly rough atop a 50-foot tall sand dune. After 20 minutes of asking questions to the rules official and his caddie, Spieth opted to take an “unplayable lie” penalty stroke and, utilizing a fortunate series of golf rules due to the location of some nearby television equipment trailers, ultimately decided to drop of his ball back into play again. From the practice grounds area. Yes, Jordan Spieth was that far off line. In an honest moment, the rules official said that the British Open tournament officials had not thought it possible for a professional golfer to ever hit a ball that far off line on the 13th hole, so they applied local (course) rules to the situation to help him get line-of-sight relief.
Meanwhile, Matt Kuchar had already hit his second shot onto the green and was looking at a 20-foot birdie opportunity. By the time the time the 13th hole was over, Kuchar might be in possession of a two or three shot lead. If Matt could drain his birdie putt, it might just sap the remaining life out of Spieth, who was looking at a bogey or double bogey from his predicament. Kuchar had played nearly error-free golf all day and was possibly thinking that Spieth was on the verge of yet another final round collapse in a golf major (remember his two tee shots into the water on Augusta National’s par-3 12th hole during the 2016 Masters?). A betting man would have installed Kuchar as the man to beat at that moment.
Then…it happened. Spieth didn’t hit a spectacular third shot onto the green. Nope – it was fat. Though Spieth couldn’t see where his 3rd shot finished, it turned out that he was quite fortunate. His ball had come to rest about 20 yards short of the green in the rough instead of inside one of those evil ball-sucking bunkers at Royal Birkdale. Spieth then hit a very good pitch shot for his 4th shot over the bunker, onto the green, and about eight feet from the flag.
Kuchar made a good roll on his birdie attempt but narrowly missed. A tap-in par for Kuchar kept him at 8-under par as he now took his first lead of the final round.
Spieth then lined-up an 8-foot bogey putt that may serve to define him – one way or another. If he missed another relatively short putt on Sunday, he would go two shots down with only five holes to go. A miss would also drop him five shots over par for the day – yet another final round collapse in a major and, worse, a possible defeat.
At this key moment (both in this tournament and for Jordan Spieth’s golf psyche), Spieth summoned his inner Popeye and drained the putt to earn one of the most career-defining bogeys ever. You could see it in Spieth’s eyes. His golf confidence had returned back to him – and not a moment too soon.
Spieth showed a laser-like focus as he aggressively played the final five holes. He went 5-under par over those five holes including a near ace on the 14th to tie Kuchar again, and then Spieth drained two lengthy putts – one for an eagle at the 15th hole and the other monster for birdie at the 16th – to seize the lead for good.
Matt Kuchar didn’t lose the British Open. Kooch played terrific golf with a closing round of 69, but he was run over by a proverbial freight train down the stretch.
If Sunday’s pairing was a classic Popeye cartoon, Bluto (Matt Kuchar) made the mistake of grabbing Popeye’s girl (in this case, the Claret Jug) just about an hour too early. Spieth responded by opening his can of golf’s version of Spinach (inner confidence) and was “strong to the finish” to grab the victory.
Toot Toot!