It was a simple question at the end of an historic season. The answer was revealing in its clarity and conviction.
If you can only win one tournament next year, which is it?
Jordan Spieth: “The Masters.”
Not a British Open after coming so painfully close only five months earlier? Not a PGA Championship for another piece of the career slam? Not a Byron Nelson win in his hometown?
If I could win one event in my whole life it’s the Masters.
Just another Masters Tournament ... again and again and again.
“Olympic gold medal would be nice,” Spieth added, “but if you had to pick one tournament, it’s just ... I wasn’t lying to you guys every time you ask me the one tournament I ever wanted to win. If I could win one event in my whole life it’s the Masters.”
Spieth’s love affair with the Masters and Augusta National Golf Club goes back long before his runner-up and victory in two career starts. It’s the only event he and his friends ever fantasized about growing up – even if their collective memories of the Masters only go back as far as Phil Mickelson’s leap after winning in 2004.
“Mainly we would just talk about the Masters,” said Eric Leyendecker, one of Spieth’s closest high school friends. “That was the biggest thing for us. Wow, we couldn’t wait to get to go and watch him play and he’d get to play it. Every time we see the commercials coming on in January, we start getting really excited about it.”