Campbell played No. 9 at plus-5 for the tournament, double-bogeying on Thursday before bogeying the hole in the final three rounds. He needed just nine putts on the back-nine on Sunday.
Advertisement
Like our own Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth appears to be coming into form just in time the run of majors in the summer. “I would love to have made a couple more putts, but so would everybody else in the field”.
“I didn’t even know that was a real thing; that’s great”, Piller said of his automatic invite to next year’s event.
Spieth started Sunday at Hogan’s Alley with nine consecutive pars, including a 32-footer at the par-3 eighth after hitting his first shot into heavy rough. Masters champion Danny Willett, two strokes ahead after a birdie on the par-3 fifth, bogeyed five of his last 10 holes for a 76.
Spieth said afterwards: “It means a lot, the crowds were fantastic for me, for Palmer – and for Webb, but Ryan being a member here had all his buddies out so people were really rooting for both players”. But it makes me really enjoy a moment like this even more.
“We have information that he was intercepted by armed persons and since then his whereabouts are unknown”, said state Attorney General Ismael Quintanilla.
Spieth had six birdies and only nine total putts on the back nine. He made the turn trailing by two.
Mark Twain once famously said that “the report of his death had been greatly exaggerated” and it may just be that those who had been reporting the demise of Jordan Spieth following his 12th hole Masters blunder and indifferent return to tournament golf may have also been prone to exaggeration.
The back nine proved to be every bit of dramatic.
“That is a tough hump to get over”.
Spieth hit only four of 14 fairways Saturday and found 11 of 18 greens on his approach shots. He dropped back with a bogey at the 12th and wasn’t able to record another birdie on the run in. Then, when Spieth went long with a flier lie for his second shot, he pitched in from behind the green for an unlikely, tournament-clinching birdie.
When the final group was introduced before teeing off at No. 1, in the shadow of the Wall of Champions, the applause and cheers for Palmer were as loud as those for Spieth.
Advertisement
The 22-year-old will hope he can finish the job to record a first professional victory in his home state and end a hard couple of months. He won the Senior PGA Professional in October to top the club pro qualifiers.
