PGA Tour: What Can Jordan Spieth Do as an Encore to 2015?

Hear no evil. See no evil. Spieth no evil.

Imagine, for a moment, being 21 years old. For most that turns your once-suffocating drivers license into a golden ticket. Now imagine Jordan Spieth, starting the season at said age, and having for himself one of the best—certainly the richest—years in the history of golf.

With slightly more than $12 million in tournament earnings plus a $10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Spieth, now 22 years old, earned a million dollars for each precocious year.

Spieth said in Steve DiMeglio’s USA Today :

"

I have an opportunity now, with a year like this and a bonus like that, to celebrate and to share it with the people that have made it possible. Our team did an unbelievable job this year. Everything was exactly how we needed it to be to peak at the right times. If we can continue to do that, then we'll have more seasons like this.

"

Is that even possible? What can we expect as encore from the young man who won five times, including two majors, and tallied 10 top-threes in the 25 tournaments?

Just about anything Spieth does in 2016 will be a letdown compared to what he did this past season. Top two in three of the four majors? Winning the FedEx Cup Playoffs? $22 million?

Realistically, expect a dip in performance. Players who win two majors in a year fail to win one the following year. Since 1980 seven golfers (excluding Spieth) have won two or more majors in a single year (Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Nick Price, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy). Only Woods parlayed that multiple-major year by winning at least one the following season.

In 2014 Rory McIlroy won two majors and, while somewhat competitive, never truly threatened with his best finish being a solo fourth in the Masters.

Padraig Harrington, after winning two majors in 2008, could do no better than a tie for 10th in the 2009 PGA Championship. Hitting the way-back button to 1995, Nick Price only registered a top 15 in the U.S. Open after winning two majors in 1994.

Again, Woods is the only one in 35 years to win multiple majors one season and then win at least one the following year…and he did it three times.

Right now, the biggest storyline entering 2016 deals with how Spieth reacts to a season that, on its surface, is un-topable.

“We live in such a world that everything's so reactionary, and everything happens so quickly," McIlroy said in John Borneman’s Pioneer Press story (h/t Chicago Tribune). "A year ago, after I won [the PGA Championship], it was the Rory Era. And then Jordan wins the Masters, and it's the Jordan Era. And eras last about 6 months these days instead of 20 years."

Perhaps he has a point, but Spieth appears to be a different species of Homo sapien. There’s nothing concussive or violent about about his game. He’s more bottle rocket than sonic boom.

In 2015, ranked 78th in driving distance (291.8), 80th in driving accuracy percentage (62.91 percent) and 49th in greens in regulation. These aren’t what you’d call player-of-the-year numbers.

That is until you see the way he putts. His stats with the putter are far too numerous and far too good to mention here, but whatever deficiencies he may be off the tee, he more than makes up for it when it’s time to roll.

Lee Jin-man/Associated Press

Something else about putting: It reveals the most about who a player is. When the pressure is on and thousands of eyes laser in, there’s no place lonelier than a green with a seven-foot putt to take the lead, keep pace or send it to extra holes.

McIlroy said in Mark Cannizzaro’s , “But he’s the prime example of someone whose game is very efficient, when he gives himself chances. Especially [Friday at the 2015 PGA Championship] he took them and then when he got out of position he was able to get it up and down.’’

Spieth’s approach won’t change, but to expect similar results in 2016 is patently foolish. Taken for what it was, 2015 was special and he took the sport of golf and the discourse within to new heights.

He energized it and elevated the play around him to the point where we saw Zach Johnson earn another major and Jason Day his first. Spieth, in his own way, is an inciting incident. Also, thanks to Spieth, this may have been the first year it felt just fine that Woods wasn’t competitive. That’s saying something.

Spieth’s encore in 2016 may or may not yield wins in tournaments, but he elicits greater play from his peers: McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Day and maybe some old-timers not ready to cede their grip from the summit of the PGA Tour.

Winning multiple majors, as we’ve seen, takes its toll on the players, but Spieth appears to have the makeup to make us think he hasn’t peaked and, in time, he will be an all-time great.

To borrow a tired line from commencement speeches heard every May and June, 2016 will be the first year of the rest of his career and, you might say, the most telling.

All stats come courtesy of PGATour.com.