Jordan Spieth cleared up one big myth. He was not undefeated in Austin. Apologies for the double negative, but for the first time in a while, something negative cropped up in Spieth’s formidable golf game.
In common folklore, the former Texas Longhorn was thought to have had a perfect record inside these city limits. He was 3-0 in high school state championships, counting a tie for first in 2010. And he was 1-0 in the Morris Williams Intercollegiate although technically he tied fellow Longhorns Dylan Frittelli and Julio Vegas, and Texas coach John Fields chose not to play it off for true medallist honours.
“I was following the ol’ Harvey Penick philosophy,” said Fields, invoking the name of the former Texas coach and Austin Country Club legendary teacher. “I’d rather have three champions than one. So I didn’t let ‘em play it off.”
Fields, who followed Spieth around in his fourth round Saturday, wasn’t positive about Spieth’s overall record in his second hometown.
“It’s safe to say he won 98 percent of them,” Fields said. “There may be a little junior tournament here he didn’t win.”
Spieth confirmed as much Saturday and, unfortunately for his loyal following that showed up in throngs and even shouted out encouragement from the 20-odd boats and barges populating Lake Austin, can now add another tournament he didn’t capture in Austin.
He failed to advance to Saturday’s final eight after a bad day with three bogeys and a double-bogey in the Round of 16 for an emphatic loss to South African Louis Oosthuizen, who reached the quarterfinals of this event for the third consecutive year. So Spieth won’t be adding a trophy from the World Golf Championship-Dell Match Play Championships to his growing collection although he does receive credit for a top nine finish here.
He also won’t retain his No. 1 world ranking that he’s held for 21 weeks, thanks to No. 2 Jason Day’s advance to Sunday’s semifinals against Rory McIlroy and his new ascension to the top spot. But he doesn’t consider that a bad thing.
“To be honest,” Spieth said, “it could be a good thing for me going into the Masters.”
And why’s that, he was asked as he walked off.
“More (attention) on other people,” he said. “Less on me.”
Ranking notwithstanding, the focus likely won’t shift far from the 22-year-old wunderkind who won two majors last year, including the Masters, and flirted with completing the Grand Slam in a single summer. But any time he flinches and shows even a hint of being a mortal, it sends alarms in this social media-crazy, what’s-wrong-with-Spieth environment. He didn’t play well Saturday, but golf can be cruel sport, and it’d be a stretch to suggest Spieth won’t be ready for the Masters in two weeks.
Local golf architect Roy Bechtol, who worked closely with Pete Dye to design the Austin Country Club course three decades ago, said this week, “I call Pete the most clever masochistic architect ever invented. He said golf is a game for masochists, and I intend to make ‘em all very happy.”
Spieth wasn’t happy with his day but took solace in the fact he had 17 birdies and an eagle among his 62 holes this week and, had this been stroke play, would have come in at 13-under par.
Until Saturday, he had never trailed in this tournament but was ragged all day, a trend that continued when he landed in a fairway bunker on No. 9 that flabbergasted him.
“Oh, my God, can they put any more sand in here?” he asked caddie Michael Greller before blading his shot into the lip of the bunker and coming up way short of the green to lose the hole. He got one back on No. 10 with a 26-foot birdie putt but gave it right back with an 8-iron that landed in the water on No. 11 and lost the next two holes to basically end his tournament.
Before the WGC-Dell tourney began, Day worried that Spieth might be burning himself out by playing in so many events around the world. McIlroy, who closed out 54th-ranked Chris Kirk 4 and 3 to reach the semifinals, pooh-poohed that idea.
“I’ve been in that position,” he said. “He’s going to learn very quickly what works for him and didn’t. But Jordan Spieth will be just fine, I can tell you that.”
He seemed fine after his match when he fell 4 and 2 to Oosthuizen. He was perplexed because he was slicing his irons all day, a pattern he fell into on the practice range and failed to solve on the course. But he didn’t seem disturbed and playfully signed two golf balls and bounced them across the parking lot to an eager pair of youngsters.
“I’d say he’s probably a little upset right now,” Spieth confidante Ben Crenshaw said. “But it will fuel his desire. He relishes (Augusta) and he knows how to play it. It suits him. I’ll say there’s no doubt he’ll be right in there at the Masters.”
Spieth’s institutional knowledge of Augusta National, along with his win at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii by eight strokes and three other Top 25 finishes, should keep his spirits high.
He’s played Augusta twice since last April, working in a round over the winter and another with his father, Shawn, before the Florida golf swing. He doesn’t appear worried.
“From Tuesday to now, I feel much more confident than I did about Augusta,” Spieth said. “I played very, very solid the last few days, and most importantly I made a lot of birdies. You feel the nerves on almost every swing out here. I have this entire week. So that’s certainly good for me.”
So maybe it’s fine if he doesn’t win every single tournament, juniors or otherwise.