In between the Spieth family vacation at the Kapalua Resort last week, Jordan Spieth, the world’s No. 1 ranked golfer, picked up his seventh PGA Tour win and crushed the winner’s-only field at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. With rounds of 66-64-65-67, Spieth joined Ernie Els as the only players in Tour history to finish at 30 under par or lower in a 72-hole tournament. “It’s fantastic being out here with what we’re trying to do and doing it well”. “I’d say my average iron shot for those three months in 1975 was within five feet of my chosen line”. “It certainly didn’t”, Spieth said. “I felt comfortable the whole week”. So hopefully we can continue to do that. He had four birdies and three bogeys to start his round to get to -20, but he slowed down after that and lost pace with the lead.
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However, Spieth commanded the spotlight at Kapalua in champion fashion as he eased to his sixth victory on the PGA Tour in his past 21 starts.
The Nets said assistant Tony Brown will serve as the interim head coach, and the GM position will remain open until a replacement is hired.
With that in mind, the second-youngest player ever to reach the top rung (behind only Tiger Woods) may seek advice from the guy who spent a record 281 straight weeks and 683 weeks overall as king of the hill on how to hold off pretenders to the throne.
With Day, the USPGA champion, back in a tie for 10th at Kapalua, Spieth has opened up a near 1.4pt lead in the rankings over the Australian and a 1.83pt lead over McIlroy. They share the scoring record in the Masters. He is 40/1 to win three Majors this year and 150/1 for a clean sweep. Though his tally includes two majors to Woods’ one in that time, he needed 77 tournament starts compared to his older rival’s 38. That’s why Spieth won’t be party to such talk.
“Yeah, do the talking with my clubs”, Spieth said. I think it’s awfully early.
He added: “We (he and caddie Michael Greller) are very excited about where we’re at the start to our career as a team”. But it’s very nice to be in that company. “I got it to within three”.
As he did for last season’s majors, where he finished 1-1-4-2, Spieth came to Hawaii mentally ready. A lone birdie at the 16th was cancelled out by a bogey on the previous hole after he missed a seven-foot par putt. With four par fives and a couple of short par fours, getting up-and-down for birdies form just off the large greens is vital and few (if anyone) have better scrambling skills than Spieth and Reed. It’s impressive to watch, it really is.
Finishing one shot further back were Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka. “I just think it (the comparison) is premature”, noted Spieth with a sense of calm reason that is often missing in a rapid fire era of anointments and coronations.
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“When (Spieth’s) playing good he’s going to make a lot of putts like he always does”, Kisner said after that round, via GolfChannel.com.
