Maybe, just maybe this was the most dramatic golf moment of 2017.
Jordan Speith was on the ropes for 16 holes at The Travelers on Sunday afternoon at the TPC River Highlands.
His putter became his worst enemy and by his own admission he was about to “go mental” on the back nine as he struggled to find his 10th victory on the PGA Tour.
Spieth started this day of drama a shot in front of Boo Weekley and three shots clear of Daniel Berger, who was fresh off a repeat victory in Memphis.
After two straight birdies to start his day, Spieth was looking like the Jordan Spieth of 2015. But that would be short-lived.
The rest of the day Spieth missed shots, missed putts, including a couple of three-footers on the back nine. He looked like a nervous rookie rather than a two-time major champion. He was unsteady, uncertain, and most of all, not real confident. He looked jittery.
By the end of his round, he found himself making a difficult up-and-down for par from the right greenside bunker at the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Berger. Both were in at 12-under. Spieth shot even par 70, Berger 67.
This jittery Jordan kept up his afternoon of poor tee shots on the first playoff hole. After Berger hit a big hook into the left rough, Spieth didn’t clear the big tree in the left rough about 250 out. Fortune smiled on him and his hard pull ricocheted back into the fairway, albeit 227 yards from the hole. Up against the ropes again, Spieth dumped his second into that same greenside bunker he had visited 20 minutes earlier. Berger’s second finished on the fringe, 50 feet from the hole.
Advantage Berger?
Spieth rehearsed then hit the perfect blast. It rolled straight for the hole and disappeared into the cup for birdie.
Who needs Tiger Woods for thrills?
Crowd goes nuts, Spieth goes nuts, flings his sand wedge then gives caddie Mike Greller a flying chest-bump. Spieth then donned his sportsmanship hat and asked the crowd to simmer down and let Berger go for his birdie. It missed, narrowly and Spieth is now a 10-time winner before age 24, breathing the same victory air that Woods used to inhale.
“It was a battle,” Spieth said of his difficult afternoon. “The putter kinda let me down for most of the day. Michael (caddie Greller) kept me in it when I was going mental out there. I needed him more than ever before,” Spieth said of his looper and close friend.
Spieth was also one lucky golfer. His tee shot at the par five 13th nearly found the water, saved by the deep rough above the hazard. Ditto for the driveable par-four 15th where he asked Greller: “Is that in the water,” as his tee shot hit the ground and somehow stayed dry.
This was simply not the Jordan Spieth who won a Green Jacket and a U.S. Open back-to-back.
It was a very, very vulnerable Jordan Spieth.
Vulnerable up until the point when he addressed his third from the greenside bunker in the playoff.
“Just Jordan doing a Jordan thing,” was how Berger described what may be the most dramatic shot to date on the PGA Tour.
Vintage Spieth?
It would be but Spieth simply isn’t old enough to be vintage.
