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British Open: Jordan Spieth Tips His Cap and Will Rue His Three-Putts

By KAREN CROUSE

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland

The walk from the 18th green, past the first tee, across a public walkway, into the recorders’ office and up to an interview stand took roughly 10 minutes, time enough for Jordan Spieth to swallow his disappointment and digest the lessons from his heartbreaking defeat at the British Open.

Spieth, who was trying to become the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win the Masters, the United States Open and the British Open in the same year, finished one stroke out of a three-man playoff, won by Zach Johnson. After playing his way into contention with a 66 in Sunday’s third round, Spieth had said, “I don’t want to place third.”

He didn’t. He closed with a three-under 69 to tie for fourth, at 14 under, with his playing partner, Jason Day. The finish had to gall the competitor in Spieth. But when it came time to dissect his round with reporters, the side of Spieth that is a sportsman prevailed.

“Although we came in wanting to be two shots better than what we finished, with everything that went on this week and the momentum we came in with, I’m very pleased with the way we battled,” said Spieth, who collected his ninth top-four finish in his last 13 starts.

He was beaten, he said, “by some special golf” from Johnson, who closed with a 66; Marc Leishman, who played the last 36 holes of regulation in 14 under; and Louis Oosthuizen, who was two strokes better than Spieth during a chaotic second round that took their wave more than a day and a half to complete.

“That was some unbelievable golf that was played by those guys to get to 15 under in these conditions,” he said.

Spieth goes into every round with a target number, and the number he thought he needed Monday to have a chance to win was 68. So his accuracy did not fail him there.

When he returns to Dallas and reflects on the week’s events, Spieth will rue the five three-putts he made during the second round, his double bogey on the short par-3 eighth on Monday and his cumulative effort on the par-4 17th Road Hole, which became his personal Sink Hole, as it has for so many others before him. He played it in three over for the week.

Spieth’s strength is his putting, so he did not even bother trying to sanitize the mess he made on the 174-yard eighth hole. Playing his tee shot into a stiff wind and stinging rain, Spieth hit it roughly 120 feet right of the pin. His first putt rolled past the cup and off the other side of the green. He putted up to 4 feet, then missed his bogey attempt to drop three shots behind the leaders.

Of the 80 players who teed it up Monday, 78 walked off the eighth green with no worse than bogey.

“If you make bogey, you’re still in,” Spieth said. “If you make double bogey, it’s a very difficult climb, and there’s absolutely no reason to hit that putt off the green.”

Spieth posted nine scores of bogey or worse during the tournament, and six times he rebounded with a birdie on the next hole, including back-to-back birdies on Nos. 9 and 10 Monday. He moved into a tie for the lead at 15 under when he drained a 30-foot curling birdie putt on the par-4 16th.

But then the Road Hole swallowed him whole. The rain and wind, which had abated, kicked up as if Spieth had agitated the ghost of Bobby Jones with his pursuit of a calendar-year Grand Slam. The hole was playing 495 yards into a howling wind and heavy rain. After his drive, Spieth said he had 240 yards to the hole. He took his 3-iron, backed off in midswing once because of the wind, and then hit a low shot that landed 15 yards short of the green. He chipped to 6 feet and missed the putt.

“That was as hard a par 4 as I think we’ve played all year,” Spieth said, “and just unfortunately didn’t hit a very solid putt.”

With Johnson and Leishman in the clubhouse at 15 under, Spieth knew he needed a birdie on the par-4 18th. He drove the ball almost to the right edge of the first fairway and hit a shot with his lob wedge that reached the green but rolled off into the Valley of Sin. Using his putter, Spieth missed what would have been his biggest rebound birdie yet by inches.

In the crucible of competition, Spieth closes the aperture in his mind so that everything goes black but the dot that is his target.

“The smaller of a target that you can pick, your misses are going to be smaller,” said Spieth, who aims for branches instead of trees and a colorful sweater instead of the whole crowd.

“When I get in those positions, that’s what comes to mind, is how can I zero in even more and more and more,” he added.

He was talking about inside the ropes. As soon as he leaves the course, Spieth is able to widen his scope. All week he had been aiming for the smallest number — 1. Ten minutes after coming up short, he was focused on the big picture.

“I struck the ball phenomenally well, I drove the ball as good as I’ve driven it this entire year, including the other majors,” he said.

The P.G.A. Championship begins Aug. 13 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. Hogan in 1953 and Tiger Woods in 2000 are the only men to have won three majors in a season.

“So that would be the next goal as far as the history goes,” Spieth said.

The week before the British Open, Spieth and Johnson played in the John Deere Classic, won by Spieth in a playoff, so they were among the last to arrive here. Before the tournament began, Johnson said he found it “impossible to comprehend” what it must be like to stand, as Spieth did, on history’s doorstep.

“He’s such a normal kid,” Johnson said. “That’s the beauty of it.”

He added: “I say normal — he’s got some intangibles and some qualities that I can’t quite pinpoint, that you can’t quite see. Tiger had them, specifically. We saw those back in the day. It’s just a rare thing. But it’s awesome as a fan.”

After his interview session was over, Spieth stuck around and waited for Johnson to finish the four-hole playoff. When Johnson came off the course, Spieth was one of the first to congratulate him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/sports/golf/british-open-jordan-spieth-tips-his-cap-and-will-rue-his-three-putts.html?ref=sports