The crowd on the 18th green of the Augusta National Golf Club applaud Jordan Spieth after his 2015 Masters triumph in the 79th edition of the iconic event on Sunday. (AFP)

DPA/Augusta, Georgia

Jordan Spieth’s wardrobe will have a new item of clothing in it from Monday but the green jacket awarded to the winner of the Masters is unlikely to change the personality of the grounded 21-year-old from Texas.
Spieth generally refers to his elders, especially in golf, as “Mister”; is devoted to his younger sister who has special needs; and already has his own charity foundation.
“I think the world of him,” Ben Crenshaw said this week. “I’m telling you, I know this, he’s way more mature than what I was when I was 21.  He has things together.”
Crenshaw, like Spieth, is a Texan and was the previous Masters champion produced by the state. After 44 appearances at Augusta, including two best amateur titles and two green jackets, Crenshaw hung up the golf shoes this weekend as the baton was passed on.
Having made his PGA Tour debut aged 16, making the cut as an amateur at the HP Byron Nelson Championship in 2010, he has subsequently recorded two wins on the Tour. But it was the 2014 Masters that really catapulted Spieth into the public eye.
Leading by two at one stage on the final round, he slipped back to level-par for the day and finished tied for second on his Augusta debut.
Spieth, ranked fourth in the world before the Masters, is now a major champion. Winning a major title does not make a career but it certainly completes it and doing so at such a young age should set the scene for more.
Not for him the agonizing ahead of each major currently endured by Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar and plenty of others before them.
Some golfers deliberately project a certain image; Tiger Woods insists on appearing focussed on winning at all times, Ian Poulter shouts his outgoing personality through his dress-sense on the course and Bubba Watson plays the good old boy schtick every chance he gets.
But softly spoken with a southern accent which does not slip into a drawl, Spieth comes across naturally as exactly what he is—a normal, pleasant, young man who happens to be exceptionally good at golf.
His 14-year-old sister Ellie, born with a neurological disorder that makes her autistic, sometimes attends events where Spieth is playing though she did not go to the Masters. The pair talk regularly on the phone when not together.
“I really love when she’s able to be out there, love spending time with her,” he said on Friday. “It’s humbling to see her and her friends and the struggles they go through each day that we take for granted.
“Their kind of lack of patience or understanding, where it seems easy for us and it’s not for them.
“But at the same time, they are the happiest people in the world; and when I say they, I speak to special needs kids. And my experience with her and in her class and with her friends, it’s fantastic. I love being a part of it and helping support it.”
Through his charitable trust, Spieth can do exactly that in addition to supporting military families and promoting junior golf.
“Me speaking about humility is very difficult because that wouldn’t be humility,” Spieth said earlier in the year. “My parents, they’ve never been in this kind of position, but they’ve always at each level told me to set goals for myself.
“I set extremely high goals. It’s very humbling because I still haven’t accomplished most of the goals I set for myself as a pro.”
Whether he meets his goals as a professional remains to be seen. But as a person, the golfing community seems united in agreement he has already succeeded.
“Just watching this kid, knowing him for the last five or six years, knowing who he is, the kind of person that he is, the sort of ambassador he’s going to be for our game, who doesn’t want him to win?” analyst David Feherty was quoted by Golf Digest as asking on the Golf Channel on Sunday. “He’s won the hearts and minds of everyone on the grounds here, pretty much, and I imagine everyone who’s been watching over the last four days.”