By Staff Writer, theopen.com
There are plenty of words with which one could describe Jordan Spieth.
But at the peak of his considerable powers, magnetic is probably the most fitting.
Few players have bewitched and bedazzled quite like the blonde kid from Texas when he burst onto the scene amid a flurry of birdies and a dozen trophies in a four-year period between 2013 and 2017.
Spieth’s drives were long, irons crisp and he had a short-game that could make a statue giggle.
When he put his A-game on the table, very few could match him and it was always done with a pizzazz that made children head straight to the range pretending to be him.
Spieth’s chipping, especially under pressure, was always something to behold.
Give him a sand-wedge, an awkward lie and the prospect of a probable bogey and sit back to watch the magic happen.
Nobody turned problems into pars quite like Spieth.
A week before his 24th birthday, he won The 146th Open here at Royal Birkdale. It was his third major triumph to go alongside the Masters and US Open in 2015.
He had the sport at his feet but the years since have not been quite so kind.
A long-term wrist injury took a considerable toll, while a slight downturn in form and the emergence of players like Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele have pushed Spieth out of the limelight.
In the nine years since, he has won just two titles. In the preceding two-and-a-half years, he won 12.
Now injury free, he is working back towards the form of old. The form that will be hard to ever forget.
“Jordan Spieth, in my opinion, is the best golfer in the world,” Gary Player said, just last year.
Spieth insists his game is in good order. He just needs a spark.
And where better to find it than Royal Birkdale, the scene of perhaps his greatest triumph.
Spieth held a three-shot lead from Matt Kuchar ahead of the final round in 2017 but after a bogey on 13 – following a notorious wayward drive to the right rough – he was behind.
What happened next was the stuff of legend.
Spieth proceeded to birdie the par-three 14th, where he almost had a hole in one, holed a 40-foot at the 15th for eagle, birdied the 16th from 20 feet, and rolled in another putt for a birdie at the 17th. It was golf that belied what had gone beforehand.
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