By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
AUGUSTA, Ga. — This was supposed to be Jordan Spieth’s Masters, wasn’t it? Two shots out of the lead going to the final round, a former champion, ready to take chances, ready to create excitement.
But he just couldn’t make it happen Sunday at Augusta National.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
AUGUSTA, Ga. — So Jordan Spieth took seven more shots at the 15th than Gene Sarazen. Let’s not pick on the poor guy. He’s got enough troubles with those water holes at the Masters.
Young Mr. Spieth unquestionably is one of golf’s premier players. In 2015 he won the Masters and U.S. Open, in the last 70 years a double accomplished only by a couple of guys named Arnie and Jack.
Spieth even had his own bobblehead doll, which is not to be confused with a bobble or, as the pros like to say, a hiccup. Less painful to say than “quadruple bogey.”
Which is what Spieth had Thursday on the 15th hole in the opening round of the 2017 Masters. And, as you remember and Spieth chooses to forget, what he had in the final round in 2016 at the 12th hole.
A year ago at 12, a hole that some say is the toughest par-3 in the game, give or take an island green or two, Spieth, seemingly headed for a second straight Masters win, hit consecutive shots into Rae’s Creek and — yikes — took a four-over-par seven.
All summer and winter, Spieth was asked what the heck happened and if the memory would haunt him this spring. No, he said over and over. That’s in the past. It may be in our heads but not in his.
On a dangerously windy afternoon, Spieth had no problem on his return to 12. But he had a huge problem with 15, described in a spectator guide as “a reachable par-5 when the winds are favorable.” The winds weren’t favorable Thursday, nor was the manner in which Spieth played the hole.
We pause. At the second Masters in 1935, Sarazen took a 4 wood, then called a spoon, for his second shot at 15 and from 235 yards away knocked the ball in the cup for a double-eagle or, as it is known in Britain, an albatross.
“The shot heard ‘round the world,” it was named, a line first used about patriots at Concord Bridge in the American revolution and subsequently repeated for Bobby Thomson’s pennant-winning home for the New York Giants in the 1951 playoff.
What Sarazen’s shot did was make the Masters a major story about a tournament not yet a major and help get him into a 36-hole playoff against Craig Wood, which Sarazen won.
So much for history. What Spieth’s shot, his third Thursday at 15 since he was forced to lay up, did was spin back into the evil pond that waits menacingly between a sloping fairway and the green. Splash. He dropped a new ball and hit that one long.
“I obviously wasn’t going to hit in the water again,” said Spieth. “So it went over, and from there it’s very difficult.” Four more shots difficult. When the ball plopped into the hole, Spieth — oops — had a four-over-par nine.
But ain’t golf bizarre? Spieth followed with a birdie on the difficult par-3 16th — sure, 9-2 on consecutive holes — and finished at 3-over 75. That didn’t seem too bad until Charley Hoffman, out of nowhere, shot a 7-under-par 65, leaving Spieth 10 behind.
The good news is he has 54 holes to play. The bad news is two of those holes are the 12th and 15th.
A very unusual first day of the 81st Masters, the first since 1954 without Arnold Palmer on the grounds as either a normal contestant or honorary entrant.
Palmer died at 87 in September. Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, who along with Arnie formed golf’s Big Three of the 1960s, wept as they prepared to strike the traditional first balls following a memorial tribute from Masters Chairman Billy Payne.
A very unusual first day. Until first William McGirt finished and then Hoffman emphatically followed, there was a strong possibility this would be the first Masters in 59 years in which no one broke 70 in the opening round.
A very unusual first day. After warming up, Dustin Johnson, No. 1 in the world rankings, went to the first tee and then walked away, unable to take an unhindered, painless swing after a fall down a flight of stairs Wednesday.
"It sucks," Johnson said using the vernacular of the times. "I'm playing the best golf of my career. This is one of my favorite tournaments of the year. Then a freak accident happened (Wednesday) when I got back from the course. It sucks. It sucks really bad."
Jordan Spieth could say the same about the way he played 15.
articles, golf - Masters Email Article By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
PEBBLE BEACH — It’s a party, a picnic, a weather forecast, a comedy routine, a study in history and — not incidentally — a golf tournament. One, that thanks to a man’s love of the game and a bit of property described as “the most felicitous meeting of land and water in creation,” is one of a kind.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the derivative of the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, has been raising umbrellas and money for about a zillion charities on the Monterey Peninsula ever since Bing Crosby hauled it up the coast in 1947, probably before many of you were born. Golf, of course, was born 600 years ago, give or take a century.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
Email Article By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The 12th hole at Augusta? The two balls in the creek last April? Ancient history now. For Jordan Spieth, for his fans, and not the least for golf.
He may have lost on one of the sport's biggest stages, but Sunday, in the sunshine, alongside the crashing surf, he won on another big stage.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
Email Article By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It's a cliche, but also an unavoidable fact of the game, that in golf one drives for show and, yes, putts for dough. A two-foot miss counts as much — if not more psychologically — as a 300-yard tee shot, one stroke.
So when Jordan Spieth, who even at the young age of 23 is one of golf's brilliant putters, said his game on the greens hadn't met expectations, others could only shake their heads.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
Email Article