"He didn't consider he played full-time golf until he was nine."

I think you'll enjoy Gary Van Sickle's Q&A with Cameron McCormick, the Australian teacher living in Dallas who has worked with Jordan Spieth since the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year was twelve years old.

While I giggled at the quote posted above, you get the sense McCormick knows how to show restraint with a talented pupil with no plans to try anything silly with Spieth's game.

At what point did you realize teaching was what you wanted to do and you were good at it?

CM: That was in early 2002, soon after I started at Dallas C.C. and worked with some high school players from Highland Park. It was my first exposure coaching youth who were goal-oriented -- they wanted to go to college and potentially play beyond college. As my wife puts it, that's what makes my heart sing. That's when I knew what I wanted to do. I went to Brook Hollow and still had Highland Park players under my guidance, then began to expand. One day I got a call from a guy who said, "Hi, I'm Shawn Spieth." His son, Jordan, was 12 and hadn't had formal instruction outside of some advice from a local pro, and group lessons. We met in July of 2005 and Jordan told me he'd shot 62 in an event. I thought, wow, he's got the skills but the style is interesting. He was one-dimensional, with a mostly right-to-left shot. I took him to the back tees at Brook Hollow.

We played six or seven holes. In conjunction with that I put three balls down around three greens and said, "I'm going to put some pressure on your short game." It's a form of skill-testing. "Par on these holes is two," I said. "If you score 21 or better, that's three over, and I'll buy you a hat."

We get to the final hole and he's four over par on our short-game contest. So he's behind the eight ball -- he's got to hole one and get the other two up and down. I put the first ball in a medium difficult location and he chips the sucker in. Now he's three over. I put the next one in a little more difficult situation because he knows he's got the hat in hand. He chips that one to a foot. I'm under the screws-I need to make it tough. So I give him a flop shot downhill to a green that's running away from him. He holes the sucker again and finishes at two over.

That was the second are-you-kidding-me moment. The first was when I found out he shot 62 as a 12-year-old.

Comments

[big D]

I dont know Speith but have talked to him a few times during his rookie season, and I have to say he comes across as the nicest, most mature kid superstar you could ever meet. Kudos to his parents.

And I think he has staying power, as he certainly isn't doing it with cookie cutter swing - he just knows how to get the ball into the hole.

[DTF]

That's an excellent report big D. To think of the ground he's covered in 1 year it is staggering!