Australian Open win confirms Jordan Spieth as a major contender

AS Jordan Spieth teed up on the eighth hole yesterday he had collected four birdies and given nothing back.

Jordan Spieth celebrates winning the Australian Open.

AS Jordan Spieth teed up on the eighth hole yesterday he had collected four birdies and given nothing back. It was superior golf in a wind that was not quite howling but nor was it purring.

Whooshing in when it pleased from the north-east the hot air was slicking up the putting surfaces, while the pins had been placed with such wicked intent it was as though they were voodoo dolls.

The American had not dropped a shot to par. His work was of the quality of a golfer ranked No 14 in the world. No more, no less. But it was composed and precise execution for a 21-year-old boy. Like it was when he finished tied for second behind Bubba Watson in this year’s US Masters. Yet his work was just half done.

Having begun the last round at five-under and in the joint lead with Australians Greg Chalmers and Brett Rumford, he now sat atop the leaderboard alone at nine-under-par. It was good enough to lead by two but not that special that he could shake Rumford, who stood with him on the tee at seven-under-par. For the moment anyway.

By the time Spieth was on the 10th tee his lead had spread to three after Rumford pushed his ball right into the spectators on the ninth. Rumford’s punched wedge left him a three-metre putt that he could not hole.

Only two things could happen now. Spieth could lose it; throw it away with poor swings, jittery putts and bad decisions. Or he could keep his head and the championship was his. No one was playing well enough to chase Spieth and rip it off him for the rest of the field could muster no momentum.

Rumford had bogeyed the eighth. Adam Scott had mangled the par-five fifth, criss-crossing the fairway then racing a straight-faced chip past the green. Chalmers bogeyed the 10th. And Rory McIlroy? He was bogeying his way to his plane and a holiday. As for the others, they were out of the tournament before you had finished lunch.

It was at this moment that Spieth confirmed in his mind what he had to do. At the Masters he had the lead and he indulged himself. Let his mind creep forward to what glories might lie ahead. He determined he would not allow that at The Australian in the Australian Open.

When Rumford bogeyed the 11th Spieth’s lead was out to four and the main interest in the day centred on the majesty of Spieth’s round and an electrical storm which was descending on the course. A lightning strike would be the only thing that might stop the American.

By mid-afternoon the wind had risen in strength officially warning of the storm. It was blowing furiously, seemingly changing direction on a whim. Scott bogeyed the 13th when he lost control of his second shot. It flared high and right and was a sitting Titleist for the gale. The ball was grabbed by thick rough and Scott bungled his chip.

When Spieth matched Rumford’s birdie on the downwind par-five 14th he kept his four-shot buffer and moved to 10-under-par, five-under for the round. The lead was out to six shots after Spieth found his sixth birdie on the next, a par-three. Spieth birdied with a four-metre putt from the back of the green which just had enough energy to plop into the hole on its last roll. It was indisputable now that Spieth would become the first American to win the Australian Open since Brad Faxon in 1993.

By the 17th hole and seventh birdie his round had grown into one of the very finest in championship golf in Australia. The 18th — a par-five with an average score of 4.6, was playing the second easiest hole on the course. It has water and sand as sentries.

Spieth knew the significance of the round in that it would give him the Open.

He finished it with a flourish. He had played short with his second shot and deadly with his third. It spun dead to less than two metres.

An eighth birdie beckoned. Up until now he had totted up just 20 putts. He finished on 21.

Mike Clayton, a winner in Europe and multiple title-holder on the Australian tour, described it as the greatest round of golf to win the Australian Open. And a lot of great golfers have won it — Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, David Graham, Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Scott, McIlroy, Greg Norman and Tom Watson among them. Mostly, it is a great golfer’s tournament.

Spieth’s team — everybody’s got one — will look at his statistics from this Open and be more than pleased. He had 21 putts for the round, hit 12 of 14 fairways in regulation which — until Spieth did it — would have been considered impossible in the wind that blew across the course. Overall he hit greens in regulation 58 per cent of the time which points to an impeccable short game.

It was on display yesterday.

He wants to be world No 1. But he says frankly that until he can close out a major he is not entitled to fulfil his dream.

So narrow was his concentration yesterday he did not realise he had shot an eight-under 63 until he was done.

This was a tournament made memorable not by McIlroy, the world’s No 1 and not by Scott, the world’s No 3 but a 21-year-old boy. Sound familiar?