The 146th version of the Open Golf Championship is now in the record books. Jordan Spieth is “the champion golfer of the year” and finds himself the owner of three major grand slam titles. Once again the Royal Birkdale Golf Club has identified a champion of note to go along with Hall of Famers Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson and Mark O’Meara as well as future HOFer Padraig Harrington. Finally, the run of seven newbie major champions has come to an end. Since Zach Johnson won the British Open in 2015, we’ve seen a run of seven new winners take home their first major title. Jordan Spieth put an end to all that.
The 2017 British Open was nothing short of an instant classic for a variety of reasons. For the second time this season, we can look at a major championship winner who can easily attribute his victory to a bogey during Sunday’s final nine. While that might sound confusing at first, Sergio Garcia found a way to turn an eight or a nine into a bogey-six on the 13th hole at Augusta National to jump start his rush to the top of the Masters leader board. In much the same way, Jordan Spieth found a way to card a nothing short of incredible bogey-five on the 13th hole at Birkdale. He intelligently had the presence of mind to take a penalty drop on the driving range adjacent to the Titleist trailer, hit his approach shot just short of the bunker, and get up and down for a bogey. He could have easily found a way to make seven.
That was the beginning of one of golf’s iconic moments in a major championship. Spieth almost dunked his tee shot on the par-3 14th and settled for birdie-two, made a dynamic eagle-three on the par-5 15th, birdied the 16th and the 17th holes, and rose from the ashes to go 5-under-par over a four-hole stretch.
Think of all that was going on from the perspective of runner-up Matt Kuchar. With just five holes to go, he held a one-stroke lead and appeared to be dialed in to win his first major championship. From that point he picked up birdies on two of the next four holes. Yet when he stood on the 18th tee, he suddenly found himself two strokes behind Jordan Spieth. Nothing like this has ever happened to anyone before in the history of major championship golf.
The other amazing thing about this year’s British Open was the way Spieth was able to turn on an imaginary switch deep inside and begin to play some of the finest golf in Open history. During the course of the first 13 holes on Sunday at Royal Birkdale, Jordan was leaking some serious oil. He was 4-over-par through 13 holes with drives to the left and drives to the right combined with a very twitchy putting stroke. It was bizarrely reminiscent of the 2016 Masters when Spieth lost his 54-hole lead and then imploded on the watery par-3 12th hole. It appeared as if the two-time major champion, who made a valiant run at the grand slam in 2015, was developing a new legacy as a final-round choker. Of course, now we know that just wasn’t the case.
So who exactly is Jordan Spieth, the golfer? Yes, he is a the former NCAA champ at the University of Texas who first burst onto the golf scene as a high school kid making the cut at the Byron Nelson Classic. He is the rookie who holed out from a bunker on the final hole at the Quad Cities to set up his first tour win. At the time he was a non-exempt player. He has 11 tour victories to his credit, has won a pair of Australian Opens, and owns a Masters green jacket and a U.S. Open trophy to go along with a Claret Jug. He joins Jack Nicklaus in the record books for winning three major titles before reaching the age of 24, and he rewrote Open Championship history by becoming the youngest American to win that title since Bobby Jones. In the entire history of championship golf, he finds himself alongside golfers named Sarazen, Hogan, Nicklaus, Woods, Palmer and Watson as the holder of three different major victories.
Yet his very impressive golf credentials don’t tell the full story. After all, he is not a bomber in the same vein as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer or Dustin Johnson. He is not a consistently great striker of the ball the way Ben Hogan and Lee Trevino were. He is a streaky-good putter, but he does have his moments when 5-foot putts can be a real challenge. He doesn’t remind me of the second coming of Ben Crenshaw, Bobby Locke or Henry Cotton when it comes to consistently brilliant putting. The closest I can come to comparing Jordan Spieth with a great golfer from the past would be Billy Casper who combined timely putting greatness with a great knowledge of course strategy. Yet it took Casper 11 years to win his two U.S. Open titles and Masters green jacket while, as earlier mentioned, Spieth has done all this prior to the age of 24.
For the second year in a row, the British Open offered the best major golf of the season. Last year Phil Mickelson carded a final-round 65 at Royal Troon only to be eclipsed by the stunningly dynamic overall play of Henrik Stenson, who shot a final-round 63. This time around the caliber of golf was nowhere near as brilliant, yet it was riveting, it was dramatic and it had all the highs and lows of great major championship golf. Two-time major champion and television talking head Johnny Miller called it “the greatest finish I’ve ever seen in major championship golf.” I do believe Miller is spot-on with that assessment.
Of course, while this year’s British Open is all about the golfer who found a way to win the Claret Jug, there are other valid storylines. It was perhaps the one and only chance Matt Kuchar will have to win a grand slam title. The U.S. Amateur winner at Cog Hill in 1997, Kuchar is a solid player who has never truly been on center stage at one of golf’s four majors. Pushing 40 years of age, this past weekend may just have been the closing on his window of opportunity. For Irishman Rory McIlroy, the owner of four major titles, it was a case of too little, too late. He was 5-over-par through his first six holes on Thursday and ended up finishing tied for fourth place at 5-under-par. Like Spieth, he will win more majors. Lastly, Haotong Li on China showed some major championship skills with his final-round 63 and third-place finish. Currently a regular on the European Tour, we will hear much more from the 21-year-old.
The 146th annual Open Golf Championship is now an iconic part of golf’s long history. During the next decade we will read a whole lot more about the dynamics that made it one of the game’s instant classics. We’re just two weeks away from the final major of the year, the PGA Championship. It will be interesting to see how Spieth and the career grand slam play out.
