Spieth’s star rising with Australian Open win

BY STEVE KEIPERT & BRENDAN JAMES AT THE AUSTRALIAN GOLF CLUB

Jordan Spieth can be forgiven for feeling like the overlooked member of the marquee players for the Emirates Australian Open, as the gifted 21-year-old had the last laugh by leaving town cradling the Stonehaven Trophy after a resounding triumph.

Moments after getting his hands on the coveted silverware for the first time, Spieth scoured the etched names on the trophy, feeling prouder by the second as he spotted the names of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Peter Thomson and Greg Norman.

Jordan Spieth punches the air after making birdie at the final hole for a course record 63 and the win.
PHOTO: Getty Images

"I have gotten to look at this," Spieth said as he glanced over the Stonehaven Cup again. I didn't realise Gary Player won it seven times and Jack won it six, with more recent names of Adam and Rory,” Spieth said.

“Hall of Famers, that's what I think of when I look at this, you see Hall of Famers on this trophy and you don't see that on every trophy and it's really cool that my name will go on here and I'll get to keep this trophy … Maybe not this one; I'm not sure if I keep this one or not, but a replica,” he laughed.

But he did what no Hall of Famer has ever done in the Australian Open … not Nicklaus, not Player, not Palmer. He fired a course record 63 to blow the field away in the final round, to cap off a week where he flew under the publicity radar dominated by World No.1 and defending champion Rory McIlroy and the man he beat 12 months earlier, World No.3 Adam Scott.

While both men factored at various times in the championship, it was Spieth who showed more tenacity and patience in what were trying conditions for four days at The Australian Golf Club.

The young American burst clear from a congested leaderboard in the final round to build a four-stroke lead after the front nine and kept the foot down coming home. Spieth's cushion allowed him to play without fear over the last nine holes, carding four more birdies to card a course-record 63 and win the championship by six strokes.

Spieth was cool under pressure during the final round, even when he went slightly astray. PHOTO: Getty Images

Few championships are claimed with such authority. Spieth carded the lowest final round by four shots. He bettered his playing partners – Brett Rumford and Greg Chalmers – by seven and eight shots, respectively. And he closed with a 63 during a week in which that number resonated across Australian sport as the not-out score of cricketer Phillip Hughes when that cruel bouncer struck last Tuesday afternoon.

The records are numerous. Spieth carded the lowest ever final round to become an Australian Open champion and eclipsed Craig Parry's low aggregate at The Australian of 277 set seven years ago. He becomes the tenth American winner and the first since Brad Faxon in 1993, the year Spieth was born.

Spieth is the 10th American to win the Australian Open. PHOTO: Getty Images

The race for second place fell to Rod Pampling, who carded a 68 in a performance that tops his tie for third at the Australian Open at the same venue a decade ago. It was still a win of sorts for the veteran Queenslander and two of his colleagues. Three spots in the field at next year's Open Championship at St Andrews were on offer via the R&A's new tournament-based Open qualification system and Pampling, Rumford and Chalmers can book their flights to Scotland and their accommodation for St Andrews.

“I didn't even think of the British Open qualifying but when you play well there's always something there that seems to lurk in the background of some exemption or some status or getting into some event,” Rumford said.

“It's just great to obviously have this. If you can't win your national open then obviously teeing up in the British Open is a nice consolation prize.”

Chalmers was equally as excited about the prospect of teeing up at St Andrews.

“I've only been there twice for the Dunhill Links; never played a British Open there but I'm really pumped because I get a chance,” he said.

“My parents might come over, my wife and my kids and we'll make a big trip out of it; make a big deal out of it … because I'm getting old, I never know when I'm going to go back,” he laughed.

Spieth, of course, stamped his ticket to St Andrews long before today. He may be barely in adulthood but the new champion displayed a maturity that belies his relative lack of experience. Then again, this is the man who won on the US PGA Tour while still a teenager, capturing the John Deere Classic two years ago in a tight three-man play-off. There would be no nail-biting this time.

"I salvaged every stroke possible today. There was nothing that I left out there and that's very rare to find," Spieth said. "At no point was I even remotely upset. It was very stress-free."

"We're heading to the Open" ... Greg Chalmers, Brett Rumford and Rod Pampling all have spots in the field for the Open Chamionship at St Andrews. PHOTO: Getty Images

The front nine on Sunday separated the contenders from the pretenders. While several of the leaders were tacking sideways with par figures, Spieth plundered four birdies from the outward half, including three in a row from the 5th. It was a start no one else came close to matching. Overnight co-leader Rumford chased gamely but couldn't bridge the gap. When Spieth birdied the par-3 15th with a deft putt from the fringe and Rumford bogeyed from the left greenside bunker, Spieth pushed six shots clear and the final three holes became a coronation march.

Since announcing himself to the world with a 72nd-hole bunker shot that found the cup for a tieing birdie at that John Deere Classic, Spieth has piled up high finish after high finish at the top echelon. He might have won the Masters at his first attempt this past April were it not for a rampaging Bubba Watson. Yet if there was a bad rap, it was the dearth of trophies on his mantlepiece. Spieth, who is coached by an Australian, Dallas-based Melburnian Cameron McCormack, came to Sydney at the urging of his swing coach and duly left town with the silverware.

Greg Chalmers plays from the gallery beside the 18th green. PHOTO: Getty Images.

"There have been a lot of close calls from the last time I won until now," Spieth said. "It'd be a lie if I didn't say that it was eating at me a little bit. It's tough when you get so close so many times in big events against world-class fields and you're not able to pull it off. I decided to try to take care of business by a healthy amount today so it was really nice that my putter held in there ... It was just one of those rounds where you're in the zone."

Finding that zone is a lesson he took out of the US Masters earlier this year, when he led through eight holes of the final round only to be run down by eventual champion Bubba Watson.

He agreed, losing that championship and going close a month later at The Players Championship, had added to his professional golf education.

“I learned a lot,” he said. “It wasn't just the Masters, it was the Masters and The Players and a few others throughout the year. You do learn more from losing than winning.

“In saying that, you lose a lot more than you win in this sport and we all know that and we accept it. There are a few tournaments a year, there are a few times when that's tough because you lose when you're expected to win.

“From Augusta, from The Players, each time the same thing came up. It was a little bit of a lack of patience. It was a lack of understanding how many shots go into a round of golf; understanding that you don't have to jump the gun, every round's a marathon.

“At Augusta I got off to a hot start, same with the Players and took the lead in the biggest tournament I've ever played in and both times I didn't really make a birdie the rest of the round, or maybe one birdie the rest of the round followed by a couple of bogeys.’

Adam Scott surveys the scene after missing the 5th fairway with his drive. He double bogied the hole and end his run at the title. PHOTO: Getty Images

“Those experiences were me jumping the gun, almost looking forward a little too quickly I think. Today I got out there and all of a sudden Greg (Chalmers) birdies one, you hear a roar from Adam on two and it didn't faze me at all. I was actually somewhat surprised how calm I was and how I really didn't feel the nerves to start the round.

“I was able to get into a rhythm, a routine. I hit a really good putt on three on putts that I normally struggle with, which are downhill left to righters, I normally kind of lift the putter up a little bit and I stayed down through it nicely and I knew at that point that it could be a good day because the first couple of holes were not affecting me.

“Even though guys were getting off to good starts … I did look back on Augusta, I looked back on the Players at that moment and said this is where you need to learn from that, don't get ahead of yourself.

“Everybody is going to make a move here and you've got to play incredible golf the rest of the way. You've got to pretend that you're two down and you've got to pretend that the round's just starting in order to keep this going.”

Keep it going he did, and now he’s got the silverware to prove it and a place in history alongside some of the best players who have ever played the game.

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