KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) – The stars are back at Kapalua, and perhaps this is where the brightest will shine again.
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Spieth is No. 1 in the world rankings by a nice margin following this win. He won five times, and his victory at the Tour Championship secured the FedEx Cup. Reed and Spieth sat first and second after round one and if Koepka hadn’t shot that sensational 63 on Saturday, the pair would have been first and second throughout.
“I felt like it was short three-week break and [then] continue what we were doing past year”, Spieth said, coming off a five-win season that included the US Masters and US Open.
With natural dialogue about an encore, he made good on his reply that an encore means the show is over.
Els set his record of 31 under at Kapalua in 2003 with an eight-shot victory. The American world number one struck alaser-like second shot from 250 yards at the 18th, his ball bouncing from short of the green to narrowly miss the flagstick and end up 10 feet past the hole from where he coolly drained the eagle putt. At least he’s still in the game, though he will be chasing a 22-year-old who is riding high. Brooks Koepka, playing with Spieth in the final group, had a wild start to his round but didn’t get closer than the five-shot deficit he faced at the start.
Having backed Spieth and Patrick Reed after the first round, I never really had anything to worry about in Hawaii, so it’s been a great start to the year but not backing Reed in the Without Spieth market yesterday at around 6/4 turned out to be a mistake. Well, sure, he played the best golf and he was the strongest mentally.
“We just tried to stay patient and knew we had more holes left”.
Spieth, who was at 24-under 195, wasn’t breathing easy just yet. I just find it hard to believe it can be matched.
And he still managed to leave Sunday night with one regret.
Spieth, though, refuted suggestions his ongoing achievements place him on an equivalent level to the 14-times major victor.
When he got to Kapalua, he was riding a big wave even by Maui’s standards.
Harmon explained the key difference between Spieth and Woods was the latter’s length advantage off the tee.
Jordan Spieth began his 2016 season with a bang as he cruised to an eight-shot victory at the Tournament of Champions.
During the last 18 holes Spieth went on to extend his lead as he produced a six-under-par 67 at the Kapalua Resort. Spieth and Woods share the distinction of winning seven times before the age of 23, though Woods had notched 18 in his first 77 starts. He completed the career Grand Slam.
Five players have shot 28 under par in a 72-hole PGA Tour event – most recently Patrick Reed at the 2014 Humana Challenge and Phil Mickelson at the 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open. He is 40/1 to win three Majors this year and 150/1 for a clean sweep.
It didn’t pan out that way. He has collected top-10 finishes in his last seven worldwide events and has two second-place finishes and a third-place finish in that span. And he was just getting started. He’ll then head to Singapore for the SMBC Singapore Open. Spieth finished at 30 under par for the tournam…
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Many question whether or not Spieth can possibly repeat what he did a year ago.
