Jordan Spieth at the 2013 John Deere Classic

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Ahead of the Curve

Jordan Spieth returns to the site of his first PGA TOUR victory this week at the John Deere Classic. Spieth outlasted Zach Johnson and David Hearn in a playoff last year to become the first teenager to win on the PGA TOUR since 1931.

He has accomplished a lot in the 12 months since his maiden TOUR win. He qualified for the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola (becoming the only player other than Tiger Woods to qualify for the event after starting the season without TOUR status). Spieth played on the victorious Presidents Cup team. He cracked the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He played in Sunday’s final group at the Masters and THE PLAYERS Championship, finishing second and fourth, respectively, and he’s fifth in the current FedExCup standings.

Spieth turns 21 on July 27. How do his accomplishments before turning 21 compare to some of the game’s greats?

Tiger Woods -- Turned 21 on December 30th, 1996

Tiger Woods had been on golf's radar screen since he was 2 years old and putted against Bob Hope on the "Mike Douglas Show." He shot 48 for nine holes at the age of 3 and was featured in Golf Digest two years later.

Woods went on to win three consecutive U.S. Juniors (1991-93) and three consecutive U.S. Amateurs (1994-96) -- with those six amateur titles second only to Bobby Jones' eight straight. Woods made the cut in six majors while an amateur, earning low am honors at the 1995 Masters and '96 Open Championship.

Woods was 20 when he won the 1996 NCAA title at Stanford and was named the NCAA Player of the Year. He then turned pro at the Greater Milwaukee Open and tied for 60th. But he won two of his next six starts, posted three top-10s in just eight starts and played his way into the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola -- not unlike Spieth did.

Woods earned PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year honors in 1996 and was also named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. Two months before his 21st birthday, Woods and his father Earl also founded the Tiger Woods Foundation, which has touched the lives of more than 10 million young people.

Phil Mickelson -- Turned 21 on June 16th, 1991

Phil Mickelson started hitting golf balls when he was 18 months old, a natural right-hander learning to play left-handed while standing across from his father and mirroring the shots. He had a standout amateur career, joining Jack Nicklaus as the only men to win the NCAA title and U.S. Amateur in the same year (Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore later replicated the feat). Mickelson won the NCAA title and U.S. Amateur in 1990 at the age of 20 while at Arizona State.

Mickelson won three NCAA titles, as well as a trio of Fred Haskins Awards as college golf’s player of the year. He is one of a quartet of four-time, first-team All-Americans with Gary Hallberg, David Duval and Bryce Molder, and Mickelson played in two Walker Cups, as well as the 1990 World Amateur Team Championship.

Five months before he turned 21 -- and while he was still an amateur, Mickelson won the PGA TOUR's Northern Telecom Open, beating Bob Tway and Tom Purtzer by one stroke. He remains one of just six amateurs -- and the last one -- to win a PGA TOUR event. The year after his 21st birthday Mickelson graduated from Arizona State with a degree in psychology.

Tom Watson -- Turned 21 on September 4th, 1970

Tom Watson was still an amateur when he turned 21. Watson, who was born in Kansas City, Missouri, didn’t turn pro until 1971 after three years as a second-team All-American at Stanford. He graduated from the prestigious California school with a psychology degree.

Watson’s father Ray, a longtime scratch player, introduced Tom to golf at age 6. A young Tom first won the Missouri State Amateur at age 17, claiming the title four times in a five-year span (1967-68, 70-71). Watson traveled west to play college golf at Stanford, finishing T5 in the 1969 U.S. Amateur and 1970 NCAA Championship. He missed the cut in the 1970 Masters, the only major he competed in as an amateur.

He joined the PGA Tour in 1971 and won his first tournament, the Western Open, in 1974.

Jack Nicklaus -- Turned 21 on January 21st, 1961

Jack Nicklaus had a front-row seat to one of golf's most famous tournaments, the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, where he finished second to Arnold Palmer as a 20-year-old amateur. But that was hardly Nicklaus' only accomplishment before the age of 21.

Nicklaus' legend started in his home state of Ohio, where he won five consecutive Ohio State Juniors, as well as the Ohio Open, which he won in 1956 as a 16-year-old. The Golden Bear made his PGA TOUR debut in 1958, when, as an 18-year-old, he made the cut at both the U.S. Open (T41) and the Rubber City Open at Firestone Country Club, where he was T2 after 36 holes and went on to finish T15.

In 1959, Nicklaus won his first U.S. Amateur title at the Broadmoor and the same year he played in his first Masters, where he missed the cut. He'd go on to make seven TOUR starts in 1959, making the cut in four of them.

Despite all of that, it was after Nicklaus' 21st birthday in 1961 that he put together one of the best amateur summers in history, winning the U.S. Amateur, the NCAA Championship, the Big Ten Championship and the Western Amateur. That year he made three incredible starts on TOUR as an amateur, finishing T7 at the Masters, T4 at the U.S. Open and T6 at the Milwaukee Open. Nicklaus turned pro later that year and famously went on to win 18 major championships and 73 PGA TOUR titles.

Arnold Palmer -- Turned 21 on September 10th, 1950

Arnold Palmer didn't turn professional until 1955, when he was 25 years old. Much of the time prior to that was spent as a student at Wake Forest University, which he attended until 1950, when he left to join the Coast Guard until 1953. Afterward, he returned to Wake Forest and went on to win the 1954 U.S. Amateur at the Country Club of Detroit.

Prior to his 21st birthday, Palmer made his PGA TOUR debut at the 1948 Greater Greensboro Open, where he missed the cut. He made his first PGA TOUR cut the following year when he finished 54th at the Dapper Dan Open. The same year he was the winner of the Southern Conference Championship at Wake Forest and a semi-finalist at the prestigious North and South Amateur.

After turning pro, Palmer famously won his first professional start, the 1955 Canadian Open, and he would go on to win 62 times on the PGA TOUR.

Ben Hogan -- Turned 21 on August 13th, 1933

After dropping out of high school during his senior year, Ben Hogan turned pro in January of 1930 at the age of 17. He struggled during the early part of his career and didn't win on the PGA TOUR until 1938. One of the most notable parts of his golfing life before the age of 21 is his time spent as a caddie at Glen Garden Country Club in Texas, where he started working at age 11 and famously suffered a one-shot loss in the 1927 caddie tournament to fellow caddie Byron Nelson.

Early on in his career, Hogan went broke twice and was on the verge of doing so a third time before he finished second at the 1938 Oakland Open, which gave him $380 of cushion to keep going. During that stretch, Hogan battled a hook that kept him from consistently playing well. Later in his career, he claimed to find "the secret" in his golf swing, which allowed him to rely on a power fade and led to 55 PGA TOUR victories and nine major championships.

He played his first U.S. Open at the age of 21, but didn't make a cut in a major until 1938, when he finished T25 at the Masters.

Sam Snead -- Turned 21 on May 27, 1933

Sam Snead not only is the PGA TOUR's most prolific winner with 82 victories, he was regarded as the prototype athlete of his day. Legend has it that he could kick the top of a doorjamb from a standing position.

When Snead was growing up in Ashwood, Virginia, he played center on his high school basketball team, halfback on the football team and pitcher and outfielder on the baseball team. He started caddying at The Homestead in nearby Hot Springs at the age of 7 and taught himself to play golf with clubs made out of tree limbs.

At 21, Snead had been working at The Homestead as an assistant for two years. He was one year away from turning pro and three away from joining the PGA TOUR and winning his first of 82 events, the 1936 West Virginia Closed Pro.

Bobby Jones -- Turned 21 on March 17th, 1923

Bobby Jones won a major when he was 21, claiming the 1923 U.S. Open in a playoff over Bobby Cruickshank at Inwood (N.Y.) Country Club. It was the first major title for the game’s most decorated amateur. Beginning with that victory and ending with his U.S. Amateur victory at Merion in 1930, Jones won 13 championships in 20 tries, the most imposing run of major titles the game has ever seen.

Jones was quite the phenom, making the quarterfinals in his U.S. Amateur debut in 1916 at Merion Golf Club. The 14-year-old “proved one of the sensations of the tournament,” according to an article in The American Golfer said. Grantland Rice wrote, “Even at 14, young Jones seemed to have everything a champion needed. He had form and style, ease and fine power, stamina, brains and courage.”

The “chubby youth,” lost to Robert Gardner, winner of the 1909 and 1915 U.S. Amateurs, in the quarterfinals at Merion.

“Master Jones cannot feel that he was at all disgraced for he showed to the gallery a game that was sound as that of the best professionals, an ability to come back when under stress and adversity fire, a fearless putt, a beautiful cut mashie and a tremendous drive for one of his years,” John G. Anderson wrote in Golf Illustrated about Jones’ first Amateur appearance. “He is bound to become a national figure in the years to come.”

Walter Hagen -- Turned 21 on December 21st, 1913

Hagen is third on the all-time majors list, trailing only Nicklaus and Woods. Hagen won the first of his 11 majors at the 1914 U.S. Open at the age of 21. He would go on to win one more U.S. Open, four Open Championships and five PGA Championships.

Hagen was considered the world’s first full-time touring professional. His flamboyant style – his biography at the World Golf Hall of Fame calls him “golf’s greatest showman, a flamboyant, princely romantic who captivated the public and his peers with sheer panache” – allowed him to make a living playing exhibitions in addition to his earnings from his success in tournaments.

He once said, “You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way."