I don’t know about you, but when I was 21 years old, all I cared about was which bar had the best happy hour specials and how many ladies were going to be there. I certainly wasn’t flushing long-irons into Augusta National par-5’s and draining clutch par putts to hold onto a lead at The Masters.
What Jordan Spieth did over the last four days at The Masters was truly something special. At 21 years old, he becomes the second youngest player in Masters history to add a Green Jacket to his wardrobe, behind none other than Tiger Woods, who won The Masters in 1997 at 21 years old as well, just about 5-months younger than Spieth.
Jordan Spieth not only won the tournament, but he won it in dominating fashion. After a sweet little 64 in the first round on Thursday, he went on to shoot a 66 on Friday followed by two 70’s on Saturday and Sunday. He had opened such a big lead going into each day that nobody really made a strong run at him.
Along the way, he also broke several records which haven’t been sniffed for many years.
Records Broken at The Masters
- Low 36-hole total – 130
- Low 54-hole total – 200
- Most birdies – 28
You’re just not suppose to do this at The Masters, especially making 28 birdies over the course of four rounds. That blew away Phil Mickelson’s record of 25 birdies back in 2009 and probably won’t be touched anytime soon, since Augusta National is licking it’s wounds right now from taking such a beating. I would not be surprised if changes are made in the coming years to lengthen this course again.
Jordan also had a great shot of knocking off Tiger Woods scoring record for 72 holes at 18-under but settled for a bogey on the 72nd hole to drop him back to -18, ultimately tying the record set by Woods back in 1997.
With the win, Jordan became the first wire-to-wire winner to hold outright leads since Raymond Floyd did it in 1976, almost 40 years ago. I say “outright” leader because Trevor Immelmann lead wire-to-wire when he won’t The Masters back in 2008, but he was tied for the lead during some point of the tournament.
Other Players in the Field
While Jordan dominated the whole week, there were other players in the field who played as well:
Tiger Woods: Yes, Tiger Woods made the cut. (shocking right!) He also played fairly well, firing 73-69-68-73 over all four rounds. Is he back? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet. But it was great to see him back and playing golf again. There’s no telling when we’ll see him again, but I would imagine he’ll show at The PLAYERS in a few weeks at TPC Sawgrass and we’ll surely see him at the remaining three majors this year. That is, if his wrist is okay after hitting a root today on the 9th hole. And also, Tiger surgically repaired his wrist during the round, if anyone was wondering.
Phil Mickelson: Phil ended the tournament with a T-2 with aspirations of going low on Sunday to make a run at Jordan. That never panned out and Phil has officially racked up another runner-up finish in a major.
Rory McIlroy: Rory played with Tiger today. So the Nike pals were poised to do something special but that never panned out as well. Rory did shoot a cool little 66 today but that just wasn’t enough to get his career grand slam. Rors will have to wait 365 days until the 80th Masters takes place next year.
So onward bound for the 2015 golf season and I have to get back to reality next week and get some work done. No more watching golf on live streams and mobile apps. Well, at least not until Thursday, when the fellas tee it up in Hilton Head!
See you next time and hope you enjoyed The Masters! (sounded like Joe Ford there, didn’t I)
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