Putting Ultimately Ends Spieth's Grand Slam Quest
The AP's Tim Dahlberg considers the Grand Slam quest and suggests the putt which will ultimately haunt Jordan Spieth came at the 17th green.
He writes:
The Road Hole was playing so long into the rain and wind that Spieth couldn’t reach the green in two. No matter, because he plopped his pitch just eight feet from the hole.
“If I stood on 17th tee box and you told me I had that putt for par on the hole,” Spieth said later, “I would have certainly taken it.”
Almost shockingly, he missed it right. The best putter in the game didn’t make the one that mattered the most.
Ryan Lavner at GolfChannel.com points out the statistical and ironic notion of Spieth, the world's best putter, costing himself a shot not with loose ball striking, but with his blade.
Because after blowing away the field at Augusta and then watching Dustin Johnson crumble on the 72nd green at Chambers Bay, this time it was Spieth who cracked on the biggest stage.
The greatest irony? His magical short game – his greatest strength – was the part that let him down the most in his quest for a third major in a row.
Ranked first on Tour in three-putt avoidance, Spieth’s speed control was off all week, leading to a career-worst 37 putts in Round 2, including five three-putts, and a four-putt on the eighth green Monday.
Spieth's post round comments about his trouble with speed all week led to the miss that was so uncharacteristically poor: his first putt on the par-3 8th.
Q. Take us through 8. You said you made a mental mistake there.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I believe we played 8 and 17 as hard as anybody -- as hard as any group today, were those two holes. It was the hardest rain and the hardest wind at the same time of the day. We stepped on that tee box, and you'd like to maybe have a downwind hole where it doesn't really make that much of a difference, but when you look up from the ball and you're getting pelted in the face, it's a hard shot, and I just tried to sling one in there and I left it 40 yards from the pin on the green there, and it's just a no-brainer. If you make bogey, you're still in it. If you make double bogey, it's a very difficult climb, and there's absolutely no reason to hit that putt off the green. I can leave it short, I can leave if eight feet short and have a dead straight eight-footer up the hill where I'll make that the majority of the time. My speed control was really what cost me this week, the five three-putts the second round, and then just my speed control in general wasn't great. On that hole I had left so many of them short throughout the week, I said, I'm not leaving this one short, I'm going to get this one up there, and instead hit it off the other side of the green where it was really dead there, so that was a mental mistake on my part. Instead of being patient and just accepting eight feet from 40 yards like I do on a 40-yard wedge shot, I instead was a little too aggressive with it when it wasn't necessary.
And this regarding taking putting from the practice green to the course and his first putt proximity talents.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it wasn't 100 per cent. It wasn't the way it felt at Augusta. I just didn't feel like I was getting aligned perfectly. My stroke was good. I had really good practice. On these practice greens you're not able to get a good feel for the touch. It's tough to get pace practice because they're so small, so I didn't have much of it this week, and I kind of had to go off my feels, when typically you've got enough room -- I did plenty of work on the golf course, it's no excuse, but as far as right before the round getting a pace for that day and the conditions and how the greens are cut, it's tough. You have to kind of go with it after you have one long putt. That was the struggle for me in this tournament was what my -- I think my biggest advantage over anybody in the world is, and that's my first putt proximity, and that was -- I think on the lower half of the field this week, and it certainly cost me at least a couple shots.
Geoff
**Ian O'Connor at ESPN.com with some good behind the scenes observations on Spieth's run ending at The Old Course.
The standard bearer for the Spieth-Day group was a 19-year-old from Long Island named Luke Smith, who said he was struck by how much time Spieth had spent analyzing putts over the first 16 holes. But Smith and another official with the group thought Spieth spent less time on this one. "It seemed a little rushed," Smith said. Near the 18th green, as the fans quietly waited for the two-time major winner to play his way into Old Course lore, an official with a walkie-talkie whispered, "Spieth just missed a 6-footer for par on 17." The grandstand crowd groaned when his name was removed from the top of the board and restored a few notches below, next to the red number 14.
Brandel Chamblee thinks the Open was lost not on the greens, but in the pot bunkers which have, historically, been key to victory here. John Strege reports.
Reader Comments (48)
It would seem to me that if he's going to look at the hole versus the ball on the short ones - he would be consistent with that approach. I noticed he switched it up today on a few occasions and while I certainly don't intend to second guess his approach - it just seems a little odd that he would mix it up like that.
Then again, he's won two majors this season so obviously it's working well enough most of the time. But the miss on 17 probably cost him his 3rd major. But a great week nonetheless, he's a special player for sure.
I remember so well Tom Watson developing a problem with the short ones fairly early on in his thirties.
I remember so well Tom Watson developing a problem with the short ones fairly early on in his thirties."
I guess it means Jordan will contend at the Open Championship for the next 39 years...
Reality check, to your point the one on 17 didn't "matter the most" as the knothead writer suggests...it mattered exactly the same as the 4 he it on 8, and the long one he made on 16, and the one he missed from the Valley of Sin, and, well you get my drift...
btw, how did you like your anchoring hero's three bogeys and double bogey in his last 5 holes today?
I tend to believe the Spirit of St. Andrews sent Mr. Scott a message about violating the spirit of the game.
After 1984, to my recollection, Watson stopped being a huge, continual force at the British Open until that one week at Turnberry in 2009.
That is hardly being a contender for "39 years", is it?
Watson did develop a problem with short putts in his thirties. I saw it over and over.
The Spirit of St Andrews sent no such message to Adam Scott. The R&A/USGA dropped the ball in the first place when they allowed putters to be longer than drivers, which are supposed to be the longest club in the bag.
That is the same group that allowed driver heads to become obese at 460 cc's.
And the even sadder part: Adam Scott will probably use the same putter next year, with his left hand 1/2 inch off his chest. You're right, it really isn't a golf stroke. But the governing bodies dropped the ball.
You are undoubtedly right that the governing bodies mucked things up.
Still, I think Scott should be above using that thing.
He won before doing things right, he can do it again if he digs down deep.
Oh, BTW, add Zach Johnson entering the World Golf Hall of Fame to your list of future disappointments, right below the entry for broomstick putters continuing to be used on pro tours all around after 1/1/16 ;0)
So what? Did watching it "over and over" bring you a continuous stream of pleasure?
"After 1984" (age 35) and up through 1997 (age 48) the venerable Mr. Watson had 17 top-10 finishes in major championships...the same number as Lee Westwood has had in his whole career and 7 more than Colin Montgomerie has in his entire career. To top it off, after the age of 50 Mr. Watson made another 17 cuts in majors including 2 more top-10's and the near-miss at age 60! In case you were wondering, Mr. Watson had 44 top-10 finishes in majors during his career -- imagine what he could have done if he could putt!!!
Meanwhile, Nicklaus played and putted conservatively, and lasted far longer . . .
Instead people might want to analyse DJ's week - from unbeatable to unbelievably bad.
And better looking too.
Today was one of the 10 best final rounds in a major since 2000. The top four guys at the end of round 3 shot 69,69,70 and 78 today. Of the top five finishers, all of whom needed to birdie the last hole, only two made 3. The last 9 winners at the Old Course have a combined 80 majors between them, and include the two greatest American and two greatest European players of the last 60 years.
Pine Valley has never hosted a major. Muirfield Village has never hosted a major. Augusta hosts a major that it owns and runs (Tiger hit a lob wedge for his second shot on 18 there when he finished the Tiger Slam, doncha know?). Merion was only a "major-worthy" course, at least per your description, because Mike Davis tricked it up beyond recognition, to the point where one of the shots of the year -- Rose's five iron to 18 -- missed the green, and they did everything they could to make a par 3 unreachable and bring OB into play on 3 holes.
Worthy of a major?
Are you sure you are worthy of posting here?
I appreciate it wasn't the result many wanted, but for me, Spieth really is the World's number one player at this moment in time, and that it is for others now to raise their game. Wither Bradley, Thomas, Todd, Reed? What happened to Johnson D.? Just what did happen there? Was it a case that a player who destroys the ball so far was cut down by a tiny links course and a lot of wind? Is this an exemplar of his inability to flight a ball correctly? Where was Watson B? Are we to assume he doesn't 'get it'? Stenson? Is he the most over-rated player on the planet, another cut down by the environment? And McIlroy - I do not believe he would have competed in that.
Spieth seperated himself even fuirther from the rest this week, and it's hard to consider it a loss just because you didn't win.
"The golf cognoscenti and the fine readers of this site are lauding young Spieth's loyalty while I think it's the first really poor choice made in the handling of Spieth's career."
Kid missed playoff by one, handled the stage in an amizing manner.
Hard to say being there a few days earlier was worth more than the confidence of entering with a win IMO.
The poll on this site was in favor of Spieth's decision, and the kid played great.
Guess I would still side with a player who is doing it rather than a blogger
If this is his worst choice, kid's going to be pretty good
He's clearly developed a technique that works for him. But fatter grip, left hand below right and looking at the hole? There's some thought that's gone into his putting and perhaps some fixes that have been needed, and thinking about putting too much is probably not good for the long term.
I do hope, however, that a majority of us can agree that Adam Scott's putting silhouette is really ugly, and it's a shame that it won't change
Everything that you say about the Old Course is true. However, the greatest players develop a special affection for the place, and the different type of test that it provides. It sounds as though you have played it only once. After playing it 4 or 5 times, most gain a deeper appreciation of the course. Jones, Nicklaus, Seve, Watson....
Come on, really?
And I'm with you, def smooths things out. Then the challenge becomes keeping the levels where they should be ;0)
Agree that it's silly to point to one shot or another out of 274 strokes. Spieth leads in scoring average by a comfortable margin and has played many more rounds than his peers. The dude finds a way to win, and without the length off the tee that Rory has, and that Tiger and Phil once had. Golf fans are blessed to have him.