With a victory Sunday at Whistling Straits, Spieth, 22, would become the third player, after Hogan and Tiger Woods,
to win three majors in the same calendar year. Spieth, the reigning
Masters and United States Open champion, is in second place, two strokes
behind Australia’s Jason Day, at 13-under 203.
“I
know he did some incredible things before and after an almost fatal car
crash and his mental strength and his work ethic are second to none,”
Spieth said, referring to Hogan. “It’s inspiring.”
Before
golf took over his life, Spieth also sat through hours of piano
lessons, and there are notes from those long-gone years in his riffs
about tuning his game or establishing a two-part harmony with his
caddie, Michael Greller.
He
is a quick study. After his second-round 67, Spieth spoke about
tightening his draw off the tee. No problem. On Saturday, Spieth found
11 of 14 fairways, allowing him to take aim at the pins. His accuracy
off the tee affirmed the golfers’ adage, Beware the player coming off an
awful range session. “I didn’t hit my driver solid on the range at
all,” Spieth said. “I was barely hitting it.”
After
his opening 71, Spieth talked about staying patient when the putts
aren’t falling. He had six birdie putts in his first nine holes of that
round, and when none dropped, his impatience got the better of him. He
became overaggressive on the par-5 11th and made a bogey — one of only
two he has carded in 54 holes.
On
Saturday, Spieth and his playing competitor, Scott Piercy, were in the
group directly ahead of Tony Finau, who was detonating cheers in his
gallery with four birdies on the front nine. Spieth could hear the
explosions of noise, and he responded, however subconsciously, by
pressing. He drained a 22-footer for birdie to open the round, but then
missed four birdie attempts inside 20 feet on the next six.
It
was as if he were a beat ahead of his normal rhythm. Spieth kept
casting baleful looks at Greller, who reminded him to “stay stubborn.”
On
No. 10, a 361-yard par 4, Spieth hit a wedge to 14 feet and watched
another birdie attempt stay out of the hole. He was one under with eight
holes left and losing ground on the lead group, which was double-digits
under par. He walked to the 11th tee box seething. Spieth said he told
himself: “All right. It’s now or never.”
No
problem. He stepped up and smashed a 343-yard drive on the 563-yard par
5 (far exceeding his cumulative average of 284.8 yards). “I swung
really hard,” said Spieth, who made a two-foot birdie on the hole that
he said turned a nowhere round into a notable one.
“I
was at a point today where I was not sure of where the ball was going
to start off my putter face, and that’s a really ugly feeling,” Spieth
said. “And you just need to see one go before it just clicks right back
in.”
He added, “And then we’re off to the races.”
With
six birdies on the eight closing holes, Spieth soared into second
place, positioning himself for another historic finish. He will be
paired Sunday with Day, with whom he was paired in the final round of
the British Open. Both finished one stroke out of the playoff won by
Zach Johnson.
Spieth’s
calendar Grand Slam hopes died along with his birdie attempt on the
final hole at the Old Course in St. Andrews. Before that ball had
stopped rolling, Spieth said, he started to mentally regroup and revise
his goals. If he could not become the first man in the modern era to win
all four majors in the same year, Spieth would aim to become the first
player to win the Masters, the United States Open and the P.G.A.
Championship in the same year.
“It
was very frustrating, not for the third leg, but just to have a chance
to win another major,” said Spieth, who does not look at himself the way
others do.
Whereas
most people see no further than his two major victories, Spieth sees
the ghosts of the two majors he let get away: the 2014 Masters (tied for
second) and last month’s British Open (tied for fourth).
“Really kind of 2 and 2 in those scenarios where I felt like I had a chance to control the outcome of a major,” Spieth said.
Don’t
get Spieth wrong. He would love to be mentioned in the same breath as
the most hallowed Texan of them all, Hogan. But on Sunday Spieth will
zero in on the prize, not the milestone.
“This
isn’t as much in my head off the course as it was to try and get the
Grand Slam, when I was getting ready to shoot for it the last couple of
days at St. Andrews,” Spieth said. “At this point it would be really
cool, but it isn’t the Grand Slam.”
He added, “I’ll go into tomorrow strictly for the history piece of trying to get my name on a different major.”
No comments:
Post a Comment