With several titles up for grabs, a Spieth win solves them all
— -- ATLANTA -- Saturday was no day for golf. Heavy rain enveloped East Lake Golf Club, rendering Bobby Jones' home course a muddled, muddy mess. The countless spots of casual water were anything but casual. It was the kind of day better left for indoor activities, preferably near a window to remind you of what you weren't missing outside.
Even Jordan Spieth, when asked what he would have answered if friends had requested to play a noncompetitive round in these conditions, responded: "I would have said, 'Let's sit on the couch and watch football and have a beer.' I mean, isn't that what you guys wanted to do today?"
The assembled media's collective head nods notwithstanding, golf was played anyway. The third round of the Tour Championship went off without even a minute of delay, and Spieth showed the battle scars afterward. His white cap was nearly see-through after four-plus hours in the rain. His shoes and pantlegs were caked in mud. And he had a big smile across his face.
That's right: The player who would have chosen watching football over playing golf under casual circumstances -- and would have had plenty of support amongst his 27 fellow competitors -- was smiling, the byproduct of a 2-under 68 that was lower than he could have imagined.
"I would have taken even-par when the day started," he admitted, "so to finish a couple under was fantastic."
It was the score that elicited the smile, but his reaction could have represented an impending domino effect which could take place Sunday.
Spieth's third-round total gave him the lead by a stroke over Henrik Stenson entering the final round of the PGA Tour season.
A win would give him five victories on the season, tying Jason Day for the lead.
It would also clinch the FedEx Cup title and the $10 million bonus which goes with it.
It would likely move him back into the No. 1 position atop the world ranking.
And it would end any debate over whether he should win the player of the year award.
"No matter what, it's a dream come true season," Spieth assessed after the round. "Two majors, a couple other wins and what we have been able to do consistently this year, that's a huge step up from anything I've ever done. So I don't need [Sunday] to justify it, but it would be something that I'm not going to sit here and say $10 million doesn't mean anything to me, because it does. It's a fantastic bonus that I don't even know where it came from, six, seven years back, but all of a sudden they just want to give us more money. So it's fine with me."
After 188 of 189 rounds of this PGA Tour season and enough FedEx Cup scenarios to make your whiteboard bleed, the entire campaign could be wrapped up into one neat, tidy bow if Spieth finishes off this tournament the way he played on Saturday.
It wasn't always going to be this easy.
Spieth started the playoffs with a pair of missed cuts at the Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship, leaving plenty in doubt right up until the end. Even that player of the year award, once believed to be a one-man race, had become the subject of debate, with Jason Day's recent torrid run edging his name into the conversation.
Even Spieth admitted he had trouble staying motivated prior to this week.
"I didn't think of it as meaning anything in the FedEx Cup race," he explained. "I knew that if I played consistent golf, I would be one of the top two spots, three spots and that's really all that matters coming in. I know the chances are greatest if you're in first, but yeah, in my mind they were just another event throughout the year. I didn't think of them much in the FedEx Cup race, given where we were going into it."
He's motivated now.
While the rest of us can argue over whether the FedEx Cup should be elevated in status to something near the majors -- and for the record, it shouldn't -- that won't stop Spieth from experiencing some similar feelings going into the final round.
"I'm very motivated," he insisted. "It's something I want badly and it's going to feel a lot like a major championship when I step on the first tee."
There is so much at stake. The tournament win, the FedEx Cup title, the No. 1 ranking, the POY award.
With so many different potential scenarios for the season's end, a Spieth victory on Sunday could take care of all of them.
