By Jason Phillips
Jordan Spieth had one of the greatest masters in history tying Tiger Woods’ tournament record of a score of 270 or eighteen under par. When Woods set the record ten years ago it was thought to be unbeatable at a course as difficult as Augusta. Plus, if you actually watched all four rounds Spieth had the chances to break the Woods’ record, and enter the last hole of the tourney with a score of 19 under before he bogeyed the hole. The question everyone is now asking is: is Spieth the next Tiger Woods?
This question has been posed about many golfers in the past and most in recent memory have been letdowns except for maybe Rory Mcilory who’s been successful over the past several years although not dominating the sport like Tiger did when he was at the top of his game. Rory has had a very successful career when you compare him to anyone else he’s competed against, but still he’s not Tiger. Rory has brought upon comparison with Tiger by signing a deal with Nike and now appearing in a commercial that shows tiger “passing the torch” to him. Still, Rory does not have the consistently win pretty much every tournament like Tiger once had. Golf from a casual fans perspective is uninteresting because you don’t seem to know the person that’s winning the majors anymore. That’s why people get interested when someone young like Spieth wins because he might be able to have the dominance that Tiger did.
Still, you can only speculate because golf is more mental than most other sports. That’s why I honestly do think Spieth could reach that level of dominance Tiger did because he doesn’t put himself in too many tough spots. However, on the flip side, whenever Spieth hits a bad shot he struggles to find a way to scrap out a par the way guys like Tiger, Rory and even Phil Mickelson do. When Spieth is firing on all cylinders, like how he was in the first round of the masters, he just doesn’t make a bad shot but he just makes good solid shots on every hole. If Spieth can go out every tournament and drive the ball and putt as well as he did at the masters he could possibly be one of the greats and maybe the greatest of all time. Still, I don’t think Spieth will have great US Open this June. It’s not because of the pressure; it’s just do to the fact that course where its being played is a long links style course that in which you miss the green it’s going to be tough to get up down. Spieth not being one of the longer guys on the tour in my opinion will have trouble positioning himself to make birdies in the tournament. Still I hope Spieth proves me wrong because I can for sure say golf is way more interesting when there is a Tiger in the sport.
