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Jordan Spieth Edges Matt Kuchar to Win 2017 British Open
July 23, 2017
Jordan Spieth overcame a rocky start on Sunday, shooting a 69 to finish 12-under and claim his first title at the tournament.
Spieth opened with bogeys on Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 9 before a wild tee shot on No. 13 put him nearly 100 yards off course and forced him to take a shot next to a truck.
That allowed Matt Kuchar—who came into Sunday's final round three strokes behind Spieth—to temporarily take the lead. But Spieth recovered in remarkable fashion, posting three birdies and an eagle on his next four holes to steal the championship back from Kuchar.
After his victory, Spieth held up the Claret Jug and joked about how he feared he had jinxed himself earlier in his career.
"Drank some wine out of this when Zach Johnson won it," he said, per Jason Sobel of ESPN.com. "People told me that was bad luck. I started to believe them."
Kuchar finished second at 9-under, and Haotong Li was a distant third at 6-under. Rory McIlroy and Rafa Cabrera Bello tied for fourth at seven strokes back, while Matthew Southgate, Marc Leishman, Alex Noren, Branden Grace and Brooks Koepka tied for sixth, eight strokes off the lead.
The story without question was Spieth's remarkable turnaround after his dismal start, however. Sobel believes it will long remain an integral part of Spieth lore:
Mike Greenberg of ESPN.com agreed:
Even golfing legend Jack Nicklaus was impressed:
And Spieth now resides alongside Nicklaus:
To recover from a 3-over front nine and one of the poorest tee shots you'll ever see took a resilience not many golfers possess.
The PGA Tour shared the mishit:
Spieth took nearly 30 minutes with tour officials to figure out from where he would take his next shot. He settled on this location:
There will be questions about how much the delay affected the rhythm of Kuchar, who had to wait quite a while before taking his next shot.
Will Brinson of CBS Sports wasn't sure that was fair to Kuchar:
Spieth apologized to Kuchar after the hole, however, per Oliver Holt of the Daily Mail.
From there, Spieth was nearly perfect.
He birdied No. 14:
He made a ridiculous eagle on No. 15:
And with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17, Spieth took a two-shot lead into the final hole. He finished his round with a par, and Kuchar—who birdied Nos. 15 and 17 himself to keep pace with the torrid Spieth—finally ran out of gas, closing with a bogey.
And just like that, Spieth took back the title he nearly gave away.
Shane Bacon of the Fox Sports was impressed with the mental toughness Spieth displayed after his nearly disastrous evening:
Kevin Negandhi of ESPN, meanwhile, appreciated Spieth for a more humorous reason:
Spieth will head into next month's PGA Championship looking to win that tournament for the first time and become just the sixth golfer in history to achieve a career Grand Slam. He would also be the youngest player to achieve that distinction, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Given his remarkable turnaround on Sunday and his three major titles at the age of 23, Spieth potentially adding another achievement to his already storied career would surprise exactly no one.