Young Texan Jordon Spieth tore up the record books en route to a runaway victory in the 79th Masters Tournament.
While all the pre-Masters talk surrounded Rory McIlroy’s bid to win a career grand slam, and whether Tiger Woods would be knifing wedges into the galleries, the only story at the end of four days at Augusta was just how many more green jackets 21-year-old Jordan Spieth might claim, following one of the most dominant displays in the history of the game.
Leading for all four rounds of the season’s first major, not one of the world’s best players were able to land a serious blow, and Spieth’s ultimate four-shot margin of victory was small by comparison to the gulf in the quality of golf that the young Texan displayed over one of golf’s most testing venues.
Spieth compiled rounds of 64, 66, 70 and 70 around Augusta’s twists and turns to finish on a record-equalling 18 under par, with three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson and former US Open champion Justin Rose sharing the runners-up spot on 14 under.
Displaying a maturity way beyond his 21 years, and the smooth putting touch that would have delighted fellow Texan and mentor Ben Crenshaw, who played his final competitive round at Augusta on Friday, Spieth re-wrote whole chapters of the Masters’ history books.
And while McIlroy showed guts and class to climb up into fourth place with a final round 66, it was the new world no.2, and the Northern Irishman’s likely rival for the top spot over the coming years, that was wearing the famed green jacket when darkness fell on Sunday night.
Holding such a commanding lead, and playing with the confidence of a man twice his age, Spieth ensured Augusta’s back nine was a strangely quiet place to be on Sunday afternoon. Bar the cheer that went up when Mickelson holed his bunker shot on the 15th hole for an eagle, there was an eerie hush around the tees and greens as the patrons held their collective breath and waited to anoint their new champion-elect.
Playing alongside Justin Rose in the final round, in what was effectively a two-ball match for the green jacket, Spieth extinguished any hopes the chasing pack harboured of him crumbling under all the weight of expectation with birdies at the first and third holes.
Rose, to his credit, never backed down from the challenge, bagging birdies of his own at the opening two holes, in what was an electrifying start for the final group. The Englishman saved an excellent par on the fourth, but it was clear that he could not afford any mistakes, and bogeys on the par-three sixth and par-four ninth cost the former US Open champion the chance to truly challenge his younger rival.
Instead, the American effectively put the tournament beyond reach around the turn, sinking birdie putts on the eighth and 10th to open up a six-shot lead.
Rose had rallied late on in the third round, making birdies in five of his final six holes, and he again found form from the 13th, picking up three successive shots to close the gap to four, while Mickelson was also on the hunt, holing out from a bunker on the 15th for an eagle that saw him close to within four.
Spieth, though, responded with a birdie on the 15th that made him the first player in Masters history to reach 19 under par.
Had he held that until the finish, it would have set a new Masters record for the lowest winning score and equalled Woods’s record for any major, set at the 2000 Open, but a bogey on the last sadly denied him both honours.
Tiger Woods, for all his huffing and puffing, managed a more than creditable tied 17th place on five under par, but his wayward driving and lack of match practice with the putter eventually took its toll. Playing with his Nike stablemate in the final round, 10 shots behind the leader, the generation gap was very much in evidence, with McIlroy pulling seven shots clear of his rival to reinforce the different trajectories of their respective careers. Shooting rounds of 68 and 66 over the weekend, McIlroy can take some comfort from bagging his best ever result in the Masters, but even he knows that he fell a long way shot of the brilliance shown by Jordan Spieth, who looks every inch a serious rival for many years to come.
JORDAN SPIETH’S MASTERS BY NUMBERS
64 Lowest first round score
130 Lowest 36-hole score
200 Lowest 54-hole score
270 Joint lowest 72-hole score
28 Most birdies at the Masters
21 Second youngest Masters champion
5 Fifth winner to lead for all four rounds
MASTERS LEADERBOARD
- SPEITH -18
- MICKELSON, ROSE -14
- MCILROY -12
- MATSUYAMA -11
- CASEY, POULTER, D JOHNSON -9
- Z JOHNSON, MAHAN, HOFFMAN -8