The Open: Escape puts Spieth on cusp of history

Jordan Spieth says he was very excited about returning to Sydney to defend his Australian Open title.

How they finished.

Even before he’d had a chance to swig red wine from the Claret Jug after ripping apart The Open in the most monstrous and astonishing manner, Jordan Spieth said he was very excited about ­returning to Sydney to defend his Australian Open title in ­November.

“I do kick back there,’’ he said, intimating that while the sun and links courses are an important part of his season’s preparation it was the manner of closing out last year’s Australian Open that helped him toughen his mind during the latter stages of his fourth round at Royal Birkdale.

“I’m very excited to go back (to Australia),” Spieth said after his thrilling three-stroke comeback win at Royal Birkdale.

“We really enjoyed our time there. Anytime you can close a tournament, it helps going forward.”

Spieth, who turns 24 on Thursday is just three weeks away from possibly becoming the youngest player in history to win all four of golf’s major championships, when will tee up for the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, North Carolina. The Texan added to his 2015 Masters and US Open victories by beating fellow American Matt Kuchar at Royal Birkdale, where he answered his critics and his own doubts about his mental strength.

Spieth’s giddy drama started on the 13th where he found himself in a serious spot of bother. He had driven his tee shot so far right it hit a spectator and plunged way down a large set of sand dunes, presenting a disastrous collapse of his fragile Open lead.

At the time he was eight under, having dropped three shots from his overnight lead and his Open suddenly appeared as lost as his ball, which was buried deep in the wet sand on the wrong side of a six metre high grassy topped dune.

Commentators started to refer to Spieth’s meltdown at the 2016 Masters, where he collapsed with bogeys and a quadruple-bogey to lose the title by three strokes such was his desperate position. Spieth would later admit that his front nine play had put such thoughts in his head, too.

Yet instead of trying to hack his way out at 13, and smash the ball straight into the towering sand before him, Spieth took an unplayable lie, dropping the ball more than 30m back, which just so happened to be between a set of satellite and sponsor trucks ­adjacent to the practice green.

That awkward spot then ­allowed Spieth to take relief to the side of the trucks, fortuitously ­allowing him the smoothest of lies on the practice driving range. Match officials were scurrying around checking the lie, and the direct line from Spieth’s ball to the hole, as well as the nuances of the rule book, while his playing partner Matt Kuchar was left waiting.

When asked if he had studied the rule book beforehand, Spieth laughed and said: “No, it’s just I hit it in a lot of places beforehand.’’

Later Spieth was to tell Kucher it was so hard to figure out the ­direct line to the hole, where to drop his shot and the distance to the hole and thanked him for ­taking the lengthy delay in his stride and with a smile.

But Spieth would also thank his caddie, maths teacher ­Michael Greller for insisting he hit the crucial shot with a three iron, not a three wood. Spieth thought he was about 270 yards from the pin. Greller was adamant it was 230-ish.

Spieth’s smarts, and his booming drive over the sponsor trucks, railings, and the mountain of sand, meant that instead of a ­double, triple or even quadruple bogey, he lost just one shot on the hole, shifting to seven under.

“Michael was very adamant about what club to hit, and it gave me the confidence to hit it,’’ said Spieth, who also credited his ­Australian coach Cameron McCormick for his preparation and match planning.

McCormick was in a nearby hospitality tent as the chaos was unfolding and recognised the switch in gear of his star pupil.

“The blessing was that what happened on 13 was such a shock, that it was a good system restart, reboot,” McCormick told Golf Digest.

“The 13th was such a kick in the pants that 14 was bound to be a good shot.”

Spieth nearly holed his tee shot on the par three 14th and picked up a birdie, followed by a rip-roaring 12m eagle on the 15th, an 8m birdie on the 16th and 2m putt for birdie on the 17th. In about an hour and a half he had gone from armaggedon to holding the Claret Jug with a three-stroke lead.

Earlier in the day, Marc Leishman turned what was an average week, and what could have been a bad week, into a proud promenade down the 18th fairway, enjoying his top 10 finish at The Open.

Leishman’s final round of 65 propelled him into sixth place at four under, having only just made the cut on Friday.

“I am happy with the day. I hit a lot of good shots, holed some good putts. And considering I made the cut on the number it was — it turned into a good week,’’ he said, readying to return to his family in Virginia Beach, US, where wife Audrey gave birth to their third child, Eve, a fortnight ago.

In the latter stages of his round Leishman, 33, looked up and saw that he was in striking range of the leaders after Kuchar and Spieth had pulled back from their overnight domination, and at the time the score to beat might be the unknown Chinese rookie Haotong Li, at six under. Li, 237th in the world last year, was in the clubhouse having enjoyed still conditions in mid morning and he had romped home without any pressure with four birdies on the last four to be six under par.

So Leishman, with three holes to play, went on the attack.

But the Victorian’s drive from the 16th went into the long grass to the left and landed on some television cables, thwarting his attempts to birdie the hole and put himself in contention.

“It would have been nice to drop it and get it on a nicer lie, and give myself a chance of birdie instead of fighting for par there. But it was a bad drive, so I deserved to be in a bit of trouble really,’’ Leishman said.

Leishman had partnered Tommy Fleetwood, the course local, and raucous Liverpudlian crowds followed their progress around the dunes.

“It’s great,’’ Leishman said.

“You grow up watching all this stuff on TV. And you hope you’re going to get there one day. And to be there on a Sunday afternoon when the stands are full, getting that ovation coming up the 18th hole, it feels really nice.

“Occasionally you have to pinch yourself. But I’ve done it a few times now, so it’s fun to do it. And it would be nice to walk up there one day with a four-shot lead and enjoy it more.’’