Jordan Spieth’s victory last week in the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship was just the boost that the Tour, and American golf, was looking for.
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The demise of 14-time major champion Tiger Woods as the major driving force of the game – at least that is the case until he gets over his back injury issue – has forced the American golf industry to look for a worthy successor.
Obviously, there is the world No1 Rory McIlroy, and he is a member of the PGA Tour, but he is a European.
Given Spieth’s meteoric rise in the last couple of years – he has climbed up to world No6 after starting in 2013 as 809th – and his squeaky-clean image, the 21-year-old has been ear-marked for that role for some time.
The biggest indicator of his popularity and marketability was about a month ago, when Under Armour, the sport equipment and apparel company that is emerging as the biggest threat to Nike’s supremacy in the US, decided to rip up Spieth’s contract for the next two years and sign a new 10-year head-to-toe mega-deal with him.
Even though he was in contention in many big tournaments last year, including the Masters, the one thing that was going against Spieth was that he couldn’t get his second win on the PGA Tour. He won the John Deere Classic in 2013, and in 2014, he was triumphant in the Australian Open and the Hero World Challenge, but both events are not part of the PGA Tour.
Now that he has won once again, and in such handsome style – coming back from three down in the last five holes and then winning a three-way play-off – everyone seems to be delighted. Not just for the future of American golf, but the sport in general, because McIlroy v Spieth could just be the most exciting thing to happen to golf after Woods v Mickelson.
HARRISON FORD REMAINS A HERO
Well…this is quite spooky as I mentioned in my column a month ago how a golf course in California became a life-saver when a third plane decided to crashland on the fairway instead of the adjacent residential community.
It now appears Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford also took the same decision when his single-engine, World War II-era plane lost power and was falling rapidly. For those who are not aware, Ford crashlanded his plane on a golf course in Santa Monica and received several injuries which kept him in the hospital for almost a week.
The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) has now released a report commending Ford’s decision to turn left towards the airport instead of right, because that would have put him right over a densely populated area.
By turning left, Ford was over a golf course he knew about, and felt he’d be able to find an isolated fairway, where he could land. Which is exactly what he did. Now you know why investing in golf course property makes so much more sense!
RANDOM NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S EVENTS
World No1 Rory McIlroy is finally making his debut in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this year. A couple of years ago, Palmer said he’d twist the then world No1’s arm to ensure he plays his tournament. Looks like the King gets what the King wishes.
The European Tour event this week – the E600,000 Madeira Islands Open – is its smallest event in terms of prize money, and is co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour. The winner will walk awaywith approximately $105,000, compared to the first-prize cheque of $1.11 million at the PGA Tour’s Bay Hill Invitational.
Jesper Parnevik, one of the most colourful characters in the game – and you might find it an anomaly as he hails from Sweden – turned 50 this year in March and is making his Champions Tour debut this week at the Tucson Conquistadores Classic. Jesper and his family are also making their debut as Reality TV stars with the first episode of ‘The Parneviks’ airing on Swedish channel TV3 on Monday.
STAT OF THE WEEK
Is this divot pattern acceptable by @CoachbrownLemm and @HailStateWG ? I’ve seen the instructional photos! pic.twitter.com/Ia1W2KydyV
— Adam Scott (@AScottPGA) March 18, 2015
45 – the longest reigning cuts made streak on the PGA Tour has come to an end with Adam Scott finishing two sides off the mark at the Valspar Championship. The record now belongs to Steve Stricker, who is playing a restricted schedule and has qualified for the weekend in his last 35 starts. And it is in times like these that your admiration for Tiger Woods goes up several notches – he holds the record with 142 successive cuts.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Long and straight. Viagra might be the only one that’s going to get you anywhere. I don’t know what else? I don’t know what else you take for performance enhancement in golf.”
Henrik Stenson can’t understand how performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) can help golfers.
