Spieth wins an extraordinary Deere

    Writing from Silvis (a.k.a. Birdieville), Illinois
    Sunday, July 14, 2013

    Jordan Spieth had been on the verge of victory all season, which is amazing for a 19-year-old kid on the PGA Tour. He’d tied for second in Puerto Rico, sixth at Congressional, tied for seventh at Innisbrook and Colonial.
    With each top 10, he gained more notice from his peers as a player to watch, and watch closely.
    Sunday at the John Deere Classic, Spieth was a sight to see. Starting the day six off the lead, he climbed into playoff position with an improbable birdie on the 72nd hole, which is even more amazing.
    Spieth then pounced and claimed victory with a par when two of his elders faltered on the fifth hole of a sudden-death playoff after each had nearly won earlier, which is absolutely mind-boggling.
    Spieth, a native of Dallas and a professional since December, a 19-year-old going on 35, made history with his triumph over defending champion Zach Johnson and Canadian David Hearn after they all scored 19-under-par 265. A teen hadn’t won on the PGA Tour or the part-time circuit that preceded it since 1931, when Ralph Guldahl, like Spieth a Texan, won the Santa Monica Open at 19.
    All of this was almost too much for the gallery of about 20,000 to comprehend. And Spieth, expected to take the week, was instead the 28th and final player to board the special charter to Muirfield, having scored a berth in the Open Championship, and a new life when his 26-inch winning putt dropped.
    He, too, struggled to take it all in.
    “It’s not setting in yet,” Spieth, sitting with the trophy in front of him. “Maybe not until I wake up on the plane.”
    Here’s what Spieth wins, aside from that place in history:
    1. The berth in the British Open at Muirfield, available at the Deere only to a winner not yet exempt;
    2. A spot in next year’s Masters Tournament;
    3. A PGA Tour card through 2015 – he’d been playing as a “special temporary member” by virtue of those earlier good finishes;
    4. A passel of playoff points. Along with the 500 earned by winning, he also collected those that he’d scored earlier, now that he’s a full Tour member. And that puts him into the top 20, Tour officials said. Just like that.
    5. The first place money of $828,000, running his season total to a shade over $2 million.
    At age 19. Nineteen.
    “I didn’t think it would happen this early,” Spieth said of all of the above. “The check’s the check.”
    Then he patted the trophy, saying, “I was just playing for this.”
    “I mean, I had a plan,” he said. “I guess the plan got exceeded. I wanted to just earn my Tour card for next year this year somehow. It hasn’t hit me yet, and it will, but I’m just happy to go compete with those guys and somehow – my legs are tired – to get over there (to Muirfield) and regroup.”
    Spieth, who scored 6-under-par 65, opened with a bogey at the first hole, then caught fire with five birdies in the next 13 holes. And a funny thing was happening. The field was coming back to him, unusual at the Deere even on Sunday. There were birdies tweeting everywhere, except with the leaders.
    “We were on the back nine, still four or five back, but the leaders weren’t going to 21-, 22-under, which we thought they were going to,” Spieth said. “I told Michael (Greller, his caddie), ‘Hey, let’s try to get a few birdies and have a good top 10.’ Go home, take some time off.”
    He birdied 13 and 14, bogeyed 15, and was still three back of Johnson, who was at 19-under and holding for the longest time. Third-round leader Daniel Summerhays – one of only seven players to score over par thanks to a 1-over 72 – had swooned early, with four straight bogeys, then rallied and tied Johnson for a short time.
    Then came Spieth’s time. He sank a 11-footer for birdie on the 16th, two-putted for birdie from 63 feet on the par-5 17th, then found the greenside left bunker from the 18th fairway. And the rest became history.
    “David and Zach played unbelievable golf,” Spieth said. “It’s amazing to have all three guys last five holes like that.”
    Johnson made the playoff happen with a bogey on the 18th after he’d birdied the 17th. Hearn was Mr. Steady on the last 16 holes with 14 pars and birdies on the 13th and 16th.
    Spieth met them on the 18th tee for the playoff. Then it got really crazy.
    Johnson nearly chipped in for birdie and victory on the first playoff hole, lipping out from the back of the 18th green. He collapsed to the ground and ended up on his back. The flagstick was in. Might the ball have gone in otherwise?
    “I didn’t (think of pulling it),” Johnson said, then smiled and said, “I did after. It might have lipped out harder.”
    Everyone parred and went back to the 18th tee. Spieth got up and down from the right rough for par the second time around, the other pars were routine, and it was off to the 16th for the third playoff hole.
    Then Hearn, a native of Brantford, Ontario, Wayne Gretzky’s town, stepped up. Almost. His tee shot on the 147-yard par 3 was the best, to 10 feet 3 inches, but he missed the birdie putt and everyone settled for par. Off to the 17th, playoff hole No. 4.
    Hearn again was at the center of it. All three players made the green on the par-5 in three strokes, but Spieth was 44 feet away and Johnson over 16 feet distant from the cup. Hearn, after a splendid third, was 4 feet 10 inches out. Spieth and Johnson had their hats off as they watched. It was handshake time.
    And Hearn lipped it out to the left.
    “I can’t really tell you if I got it started exactly online or not, but I figured it was going in, and it lipped out,” Hearn said.
    Hearn looked hollow-eyed later, but spoke with condidence.
    “You can always find another shot along the way,” Hearn said. “Had I made another birdie in regulation, we wouldn’t have had a playoff. I gave myself great chances. Next time I give myself chances like that, I’ll make them.”
    So it was back to the 18th for the third time in the playoff and the fourth time all day.
    Johnson, with the honor the entire playoff, drilled his drive into the left round, dead behind a tree. Hearn was also in the right rough, bouncing off a tree into a reasonably clear shot. Spieth was also in the right rough, but with the clearest alley to the green and with only 173 yards left.
    Hearn left his punch shot short of the green in the left rough. Johnson, needing to go for the green, tried drawing a 9-iron out of the deep rough by hooding the club and sweeping through it, a shot he would only try in a playoff.
    It hooked into the water.
    It was up to Spieth now, up to him to get it close. He pulled an 8-iron, then switched to a 7-iron.
    “I guarantee you, a couple of weeks ago I don’t do that,” Spieth said. “I’m just happy I went back to the bag and changed clubs.”
    His approach rolled to the back edge of the green, 20 feet from the cup. His first putt stopped 26 inches from the hole. His next one, after Johnson and Hearn missed their par putts and settled for bogey, went in.
    Par. Victory!    
    “I dodged a lot of bullets,” Spieth said. “Whatever it was, the Golf Gods up there, I just caught the breaks. They were hitting great shots, and I was just making the six-footer to go to the next one. Just somehow found an opening.”
    Spieth, the youngest Deere winner – David Gossett was 22 when he won in 2001 – is the oldest of the 19-year-olds to win on the Tour since 1900. Spieth, who turns 20 two weeks from his victory day, is 19 years, 11 months, 17 days old.
    Harry Cooper was 19 years 4 days young when he won the 1923 Galveston Open.
    Guldahl was 19 years, 2 months and 3 days young when he scored a 1-up victory over Tony Manero in the Santa Monica Open at Riviera Country Club.
    John McDermott was 19-10-14 when he captured the 1911 U.S. Open, so Spieth can’t become the youngest major winner since 1900. (Young Tom Morris was 16 when he won the 1868 British Open, but we digress.)
    Then comes Spieth.
    With a flourish.
    A birdie from the bunker to make the playoff hunt?
    Surviving the lipouts of both playoff foes?
    Having the only open shot from the rough on the fifth playoff hole?
    “I don’t know what I did to deserve those breaks,” Spieth said. “To tell you the truth, the first couple playoff holes were the worst as far as emotions and pressure. Once the 20-footer (mentally) turns into a 50-footer, you don’t know how hard to hit the ball. Your hands want to smack the ball, and you have to somehow control them.
    “Once I got to 16 and back to 17, even on the (6-foot-7) footer I had on the par-5, I didn’t feel any nerves. It was weird.
    “They came back up when I had the putt to win. The two-footer, I didn’t know if I’d get my putter to the ball. So I looked at the hole, looked at the front of the cup, decided to let my hands to it and watched it go in.
    “Yeah, you want to approach it where you’ve had success in the past. At some point, you have to work on your breathing.”
    He can take a breath now. And pat the trophy one more time.

    Around the Deere

    Johnson (3-under 68 in the final round) and Hearn (2-under 69) each settled for $404,800 as co-runner up. ... Troy Matteson, who fell to Zach Johnson in a playoff last year, finished tied for 27th this year, then wrote a $2,000 check to the tournament’s Birdies for Charity program, which tournament officials matched. ... Crystal Lake’s Joe Affrunti scored four rounds in the 60s and finished tied for 33rd at 11-under 273, earning $21,829. ... Kevin Streelman’s final round 71 for 10-under 274 dropped him into a tie for 44th. He collected $14,296. ... Amateur Patrick Rodgers finished tied for 15th at 14-under 270. ...  The Birdies for Charity total was 2,142, including 332 on Sunday, when the course again played more than two strokes under the par of 71, at 68.931. The four-round average was 69.397.

    – Tim Cronin