Spieth aims to match Hogan with Open win

ByBOB HARIG
July 15, 2015, 6:12 PM

— -- ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- If the burden of golf history is weighing him down, if attempting to do what just one player has ever accomplished is causing him any angst, Jordan Spieth is doing an excellent job of disguising his distress.

It's not really his nature to hide those feelings, as the No. 2-ranked golfer in the world has been one to show his emotions, in both good times and bad.

This is a good time to be Jordan Spieth.

With both of 2015's major championship trophies in his possession, a rare feat is within his grasp -- a victory at a third straight major and here at the home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews.

Not that Spieth needed reminding.

"Sure I'm aware,'' he said on the eve of The Open. "I like to study the history of golf and to have a chance to do what only one other person in the history of golf has doesn't come around very often. I'm sure embracing that opportunity, but by the time I start on Thursday, it won't be in my head. But I'm certainly aware of it.''

Only four players in the modern era since the Masters began in 1934 have won the first two major championships with a chance to capture a third straight. Ben Hogan in 1953 is the lone player to prevail, but he did so at a time when the accomplishment was not viewed as it is today. There was no talk of a Grand Slam. In fact, scheduling made it impossible to compete in both The Open and the PGA Championship.

The idea of a modern Grand Slam was in many ways conceived by Arnold Palmer in 1960, and he came to St. Andrews for his first Open with every intent of adding a third major that year and then going to the PGA Championship to cap it off.

Palmer finished second by a shot to Australian Kel Nagle. Only Jack Nicklaus (1972) and Tiger Woods (2002) had won the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year, until Spieth went wire-to-wire at Augusta National and then prevailed at Chambers Bay when Dustin Johnson 3-putted the final green.

Making the task more difficult is Spieth's unfamiliarity with the Old Course. He has never played it in competition, and aside from three days of practice this week, he played it just once previously, four years ago as an amateur.

"He's obviously got a very high golf IQ, and he takes a lot on board,'' said three-time Open champion Nick Faldo. "Obviously that's how he works well with his caddie [Michael Greller]. When you're playing really well, if your caddie tells you where to land it, he's going to probably land it there. That is what they are enjoying at the moment.

"I think he'll be in there. I really do. He's playing too darned good when you're holing putts. When you keep seeing the golf ball go in the hole, [it's a] nice feeling.''

Spieth, 21, comes into The Open with four victories this year, including a win on Sunday at the John Deere Classic.

After arriving Monday with other players on a charter from Illinois, he immediately got to work with his coach, Cameron McCormick, and then played 18 holes. He ran into Tiger Woods on the 16th green, where they chatted for a few minutes, before he played through.

Spieth played a 10-hole loop on Tuesday and then another 18-hole practice round Wednesday in advance of his 9:33 a.m. local time (4:33 a.m. ET) first-round tee time.

"I've played a lot more golf with Jordan recently than anybody else and I've seen just how solid he is,'' said 2013 U.S. Open winner Justin Rose. "I think he's doing to do very well because a good shot at St. Andrews, it's often 20, 30 feet away, especially if they tuck the pins.

"The greens are going to be softer than usual, so I think they will make adjustments with the pin placements. The pin placements might be 2 or 3 yards higher from edges and slopes than we've seen them and that limits how close you can get the ball. Obviously you can never use backspin to get the ball close at St. Andrews or any links course. My opinion, 20, 30 feet, that is where you are going to have putts and that's where he's at his best. He knocks in more 20-, 30-footers than anybody on tour.

"It is a golf course where you can get around it without too much trouble. You can play it safe most of the time. I think a lot of it is going to come down to who makes the most putts, and that's his wheelhouse really. He's going to have to acclimatize and get over the jet lag and that stuff, so that'll be a challenge for him. If he does all that stuff well, he'll have a chance.''

The only other player in the field who can relate to Spieth's situation is Woods, who in 2002 went to Muirfield with a chance at the Grand Slam, was 2 shots out of the lead through 36 holes, then was knocked back by a third-round storm that caused him to shoot 81 -- until this year his highest score as a pro.

Woods bounced back to shoot 65 the next day and then tied for second at the PGA Championship.

"Obviously he's been in great form,'' Woods said of Spieth. "It's just a matter of going out there and executing his game plan. That's what he talks about a lot is formulating a game plan and executing it, and this is a golf course in which you have to do that. You have to execute it and trust it and be a very good lag putter because you're going to be 40, 50, 60, 70 feet away, and you just can't get it close. The wind is blowing too hard. To be able to lag putt those putts stone dead is very key.''

Palmer was stalled by a rare weather washout and by Nagle at The Open; Nicklaus rallied from a final-day 6-shot deficit only to have Lee Trevino break his heart with an unlikely chip-in on the 72nd hole at Muirfield; 30 years later, Woods' run ended in a gale.

Now it's Spieth's turn, and given all he has accomplished this year and the manner in which he has done it, who would doubt him now?

"It's exciting, exciting for the tournament,'' said Graeme McDowell. "Obviously losing Rory [McIlroy to injury] really takes the edge off the tournament, but you've got Jordan going for three in a row. The Spieth Slam. I'm not into the [term] Spieth Slam. It's the Grand Slam. The modern day Grand Slam. All four in one year.

"This is it, the opportunity.''