What with fog delays in the desert and yesterday’s finish in Singapore where he played a grand total of one shot from all of five feet, Jordan Spieth might be forgiven for wondering whether his recent travels were worth the effort.
So it can only be hoped that the world No1 has taken notice of events at Torrey Pines, where the howling wind and rain which has disrupted the Farmers Insurance Open proved that the grass is not always greener on the PGA Tour.
For those who want to see Spieth ply his trade outside of the United States as many times as possible, the 22-year-old’s comments after he finished joint fifth in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship a fortnight ago were decidedly worrying.
‘’It won’t be something I’ll do in the future, to bounce back and forth from Asia or Australia as much as we did,’’ said Spieth, who since the Presidents Cup in South Korea in October had competed in Shanghai, Australia, the Bahamas and Abu Dhabi – and now Singapore.
‘’I’m very tired. As a team we’re beat up mentally and physically.”
The most obvious place it showed in Singapore was in an injury to caddie Michael Greller, which meant that Spieth’s agent Jay Danzi had to step in to carry the 22-year-old’s bag at Sentosa Golf Club.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, that proved to be only a minor distraction and as the final round came to a close on Sunday, Spieth was left with a birdie putt from five feet on the 18th hole to get within a shot of leader Young-han Song of Korea.
However, before Spieth could attempt the putt, play was suspended due to the threat of lightning and eventually abandoned, with Song stood over a par putt from 12 feet on the 16th as the siren sounded.
When play resumed yesterday morning it was no surprise to see Spieth calmly roll in his birdie putt, but remarkably Song did the same and also parred the 17th and 18th to record his first professional victory.
“That one night felt like a week!” Song admitted. “I couldn’t sleep and I was constantly thinking about putting throughout the night.”
Spieth was left to rue shooting 70 in the second and third rounds, but said all the right things and graciously posed for a selfie with Song.
Spieth said. “I made some poor decisions in the middle two rounds as I was trying to do a little too much. But overall, it has been a great experience and I had a really good time here.”
