BY STEVE KEIPERT AT AUGUSTA NATIONAL GC
New Masters champion Jordan Spieth has his eyes on Rory McIlroy’s World No.1 ranking as an era dawns in which cocky twentysomethings clearly aren’t scared of winning golf’s majors.
At 21, Spieth is the second-youngest champion in Masters history behind Tiger Woods and he equalled Woods’ 72-hole scoring record in the process. Built on the foundation of a white-hot pair of rounds to start, Spieth became just the fifth Masters winner to lead after each round and the first to do so since Ray Floyd in 1976.
2014 Masters Champion Bubba Watson helps Jordan Spieth put on the Green Jacket. PHOTO: Getty Images
Spieth blitzed the field to win by four strokes from three-time winner Phil Mickelson and former US Open champion Justin Rose but in reality he was never challenged over the weekend. He led by five strokes at the tournament’s midpoint, remained four clear with a round to go and never saw his lead dip below three on a Sunday when Spieth holed putt after putt to keep the opposition at bay.
After a victory and two runner-up finishes in the month leading up to his maiden major title, Spieth will rise to World No.2, thus marking the first time since the world ranking was conceived that the top pair are 25 or younger. Spieth also becomes the first player since Ben Crenshaw in 1984 to win the Masters the year after being runner-up.
Job done! Spieth cracks a smile with the final putt in the hole. PHOTO: Getty Images.
Golf’s first major champion born in the 1990s noticed several “symbolic” moments during his round that indicated to him this Masters was going to play out differently to last year, particularly at the 9th green where last year his ball rolled off the green and down the steep slope in front that led to a telling Sunday bogey. This time, his ball threatened to back down the same hill but didn’t.
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“It stayed up by a rotation,” he said. “Last year, it seemed like it was one rotation from staying up. And at that moment when I went up and marked the ball, I said, ‘This could be a difference-maker.’ It was symbolic in a way.”
Spieth now shares Woods’ 72-hole Masters scoring record, although one could argue it’s Spieth’s on his own due to the radical lengthening the course has undergone since Woods’ assault 18 years ago. He also becomes the first player to ever touch 19-under-par and only a final-hole bogey prevented that number from being etched into the record books permanently.
Spieth fires up after making a par-saving putt on the 16th green during the final round. PHOTO: Getty Images.
It was clear making birdies wasn’t going to be a problem for the leader so if Rose or Mickelson were going to edge clearer, they were going to need an electrifying birdie run to do so. The American holed a bunker shot for eagle at 15 – one of a record 47 eagles made by the field this week – but merely to stay in the hunt for second place as neither man drew nearer than three shots.
Meanwhile, Spieth just kept on holing putts. A downhill slider for birdie at 15, another for par at 16. The only putt Spieth left hanging was on the 72nd green when the outright Masters scoring record beckoned.
The ultra-hyped and eagerly anticipated Tiger Woods-Rory McIlroy pairing on Sunday struggled for momentum early before the Northern Irishman ignited from the 7th hole. Woods didn’t hit a fairway until the 13th hole and popped a bone loose in his wrist at impact on a buried tree root at the 9th hole when attempting to escape the pinestraw. McIlroy eventually won the Battle of the Swoosh, 66 to 73.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland share a joke as they walk down the 9th fairway during the final round. PHOTO: Getty Images.
The four Australians to make the cut failed to generate any forward momentum on Sunday. Jason Day led the way at a meagre one-under-par for 72 holes. His round began brightly with an opening birdie before a bogey-riddled front nine ensued as he closed with a 75. Adam Scott shot a 74 that included a catastrophic quadruple-bogey seven at the par-3 12th. John Senden took a seven of his own at the 13th (a day after he made three there) in a closing 72 and Geoff Ogilvy’s 74 was emblematic of a week that never moved into top gear.
“Realistically I was too far back after two days,” Scott said, a sentiment most players could have repeated. “So my chances were shot. I played fairly well the last three days and didn’t score well.”
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TODAY AT AUGUSTA
- The security checks for media representatives arriving at Augusta National each day are fast, thorough but also a little officious. Finally, on Sunday, I hear a bit of cheer when the security person scanning my badge smiles at me and says, “Enjoy the greatest day of them all.”
![Geoff Ogilvy turned his fortunes around on Augusta's 2nd hole. PHOTO: Getty Images.]()
Geoff Ogilvy turned his fortunes around on Augusta’s 2nd hole. PHOTO: Getty Images.
- Geoff Ogilvy’s record at the par-5 2nd hole is awful. Last time I was at the Masters I watched in horror as he ran up a card-wrecking triple-bogey eight and he’s bogeyed it the past two days this year. So I was curious to see why he was struggling on one of the easier holes. Things didn’t start well when he dropped a shot at the 1st and could be heard muttering to his caddie in disgust while waiting on the 2nd tee, no doubt sparking a few more choice words after he dumped his drive into the fairway bunker. But from there things turned. He escaped the sand with ease and parked his pitch shot close to the flag to make an easy birdie. Geoff, I’m available to come and assess next year…
- Pinestraw is such a wonderfully simple and overrated surface in golf. It’s difficult to keep your footing, the ball can lie cleanly or awkwardly and it’s hard to tell just how a club will move through it and how a ball will react when struck from a nest of spindly needles. Angel Cabrera, the 2009 Masters champion and Australia’s favourite runner-up four years later, found the pinestraw right of the 9th fairway on Sunday and appeared to strike a fine second shot only to see the ball come up well short of the green.
- While dining at Tbonz steakhouse on Saturday night, several of the Australian media contingent noticed a group of golf fans wearing ugly lime green jackets, while a bucks night had the groom-to-be adorned in white caddie overalls that mirrored those worn by the bagmen at the course. Innocent fun all of it, but they’d never make it through the gates here wearing them. Any clothing intended to mimic or poke fun at established Augusta National uniforms isn’t allowed.
- A few aspects of Augusta National are hidden from general view. For instance, there’s a fairly extensive road network winding through the course that on television is really only evident in front of the 18th tee. Yet this road also wiggles it’s way between the 2nd and 8th fairways, down to the 18th tee and on behind the 15th tee towards Amen Corner. Other hidden ‘treasures’ include the secluded players-only lavatories hidden in the woods (including next to the 2nd tee and behind the 11th and 16th tees), and the back-of-house network of buildings that include a series of cabins (which are named to match the names of the 18 holes) and permanent infrastructure, all of which TV images give no clue of. They say “it takes a village” and behind the scenes that’s just what Augusta National is.
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