Spieth grapples vitory from the jaws of defeat
On a personal level Royal Birkdale Golf Club is a special place. In 1976 it was the venue for the first Open Championship that I attended. Those of you long enough in the tooth will recall that 1976 was the year of the drought and on the first day of the championship the weather did not disappoint. We arrived in Southport mid morning and after a brief visit to the practice ground sought out a suitable vantage point to view the action at the sharp end. Unlike many an Open venue Birkdale’s famous dunes offer natural vantage points and eventually we worked out that a position behind the 8th green allowed you to watch players hit into the green – before putting out – and then you could dash to the nearby 9th tee from where you could see them tee off. To this day the sight of Hale Irwin hitting a 3 iron down the ninth is seared into my memory. The ninth is long par four with a slight dog leg right and Irwin hit this iron with tracer bullet penetration. It looked for all the world as if it was going to finish in the left rough and then, just as it reached the nadir of its flight, it gently faded right to finish in the middle of the fairway. It was moment worthy of the entrance fee and just demonstrated the gulf in class between the professional and amateur golfer. Some ten hours on from that memorable moment we were still there the rays of a slowly setting sun shining on Hubert Green as he teed off from the 17th and highlighting the famous yellow score boards which contained the name of an unknown Spaniard called Severiano Ballesteros. Who, back in 1976, even knew that the Spanish played golf. I was in Southport again this June, a stay which coincided with an annual pilgrimage to The Mason’s Arms, Tom Watson’s local when he won his singular Open on English soil in 1983. There’s a signed photo of him and caddy Alfie Fyles in the main bar.
All of which leads appropriately to this year’s Open Championship. Royal Birkdale is a tough but fair track and over the first two days the course had shown its teeth particularly on the wind affected Friday which ruined many a score. Then came benign Saturday when the combination of a shortened course and receptive greens allowed the world’s best to make hay. Amongst the low scoring rounds were a 65 by last year’s champion golfer Henrik Stenson, a 64 by world number one Dustin Johnson and the record breaking 62 by Branden Grace, oblivious to his achievement in shooting the lowest round in a men’s major championship until he had holed his final putt. Meanwhile the master tactician Jordon Spieth went serenely on his way, adding a 65 to opening rounds of 65 and 69. Though his driving had been sketchy he was hitting more greens in regulation than most of the rest of the field and once on the greens, as we all know, Spieth is in his element. As he left the course on Saturday night with a three shot lead over fellow American Matt Kucher, not one of those commentating could see an outcome other than a Spieth stroll to victory.
But, however well you have played and however in control you appear, winning a major golf championship is no easy matter. From the moment Spieth hit his opening drive in today’s final round it was clear that this was going to be no cakewalk. A dropped shot at the first was followed by a series of errant irons and more remarkably missed short putts, clearly indicating that under the calm exterior things were far from under control. Meanwhile Matt Kucher was playing steady, if unspectacular golf, such that as they departed the 12th green he and Spieth were level on – 8. Little did we know that the ensuing thirty five minutes would determine the destination of the claret jug.
For that is how long it took to play the 13th hole as Spieth carved his drive right in a manner akin to Severiano Ballesteros when he won from the car park at Lytham St Anne’s in 1979. But unlike Ballesteros, Spieth had to take a penalty drop, doing so on the practice ground amongst the paraphernalia of the Sky Golf Cart. Though clearly rattled – for not only was his game going south but he was also on the clock for slow play – Spieth maintained his calm to hit the most remarkable iron which came up just short of the green. From there he got up and down for an incredible bogey five. He was now one shot behind Kucher who had parred the hole. But he was also free. For up until that moment he had been playing tentative, protect a lead golf. Now that he no longer had a lead, tentative golf would suffice no longer. If he was going to win he would have to play aggressively.
Given all that must have been going through his mind as he walked from the 13th green the following four holes will probably go down in history as the greatest demonstration of heart the game of golf has ever witnessed. At the par three fourteenth he nearly holed his approach shot in one before canning a five foot putt for a birdie. At the par five 15th he hit the green in two before holing a monster sixty foot putt for an eagle. And at the fiendishly difficult 16th he holed another long putt for a birdie. In the time it had taken to play the 13th hole he had gone from 7 under to 11 under and the destiny of the championship was back in his hands. That he should finish birdie, par over the closing two holes to record a final round 69 was testament to his strength of character. Compatriot Matt Kucher had run him close, but he could only look on in awe as his opponent wrestled victory from the jaws of the defeat.
There’s a plaque on the 16th hole at Royal Birkdale commemorating a famous shot played by Arnold Palmer from a thicket on his way to winning his first Open Championship in 1961. They should get a new one installed for Jordan Spieth at the spot on the practice ground from where he struck his championship saving third shot. Unlucky 13 it was not.
©Mark Brennand