Jordan Spieth’s eight-stroke victory on Sunday at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions was his seventh on the PGA Tour and sixth triumph in less than a year, accolades that immediately sparked comparisons to Tiger Woods. His 262 was one-shot off of the tour record of 31-under by Els in 2003. He still hasn’t won a tournament since here at Kapalua previous year, but his stellar results continue.
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Had Spieth matched his second-round score of 64 he would have broken Els’ tournament record, but he saved his highest score of for the final round. Photo by Brian Spurlock of USA TODAY Sports. Spieth then made consecutive birdies to put the tournament out of reach. “It would be hard to believe I could compete with him through the entire course of a career, but I’m going to try”. “I know what he did. He’s not going to shoot over par, especially the way he’s playing now”.
“I felt like it was a short three-week break and continue what we were doing past year”, said Spieth, coming off a five-win season that included the Masters and U.S. Open. “That’s the way I’ll keep on thinking about it. It worked this week, all parts were firing”.
If he keeps making shots like that near-albatross at 18 on Saturday, Spieth may soon be giving Tiger-like advice to his own acolytes. Photo by Jordan Spieth @Jordan Spieth. “It certainly didn’t”, Spieth said.
He finished in second place, a whopping eight shots behind Jordan Spieth.
“My mentality didn’t change after I got started”, Reed said.
McIlroy will road-test for the first time in competition the lasered eyes that have given him back 20/20 vision and, he hopes, strengthened the one area of his game that might be described as modest: his putting. “If anything, I felt we have even improved in this offseason”.
Brooks Koepka and Brandt Snedeker finished tied third while Rickie Fowler finished solo fifth.
Jordan Spieth hits from the 18th tee during the final round of the Tournament of Champions golf event Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. Photo by Getty Images.
Spieth has now tied Tiger Woods in securing seven PGA Tour victories by the age of 23. But the humble star remained adamant he has a lot of work to do before he can be compared to Woods. “I think it’s awfully early (in his career)”. But at the same time I grew up watching Tiger. They each know how to close – Woods is 54-4 when taking at least a share of the lead into the final round, while Spieth has won the last five times he’s done so. Such was the prizemoney in this limited field event, the Irishman picked up over $200,000 for his efforts: A nice start to the year.
“We set goals as a team that we want to accomplish each year win-wise, for amount of wins”, said Spieth. The two long-ball hitters had three rounds in the 60s apiece, marred by even-par 73s.
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After a week at home in Dallas, he heads to Middle East for the HSBC Abu Dhabi Golf Championship and the Singapore Open before resuming his PGA Tour schedule at Pebble Beach and Riviera. He would later become the first victor of the Masters Tournament in 1934. The last player to win without a bogey was Lee Trevino at the 1974 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
