Spieth caps remarkable season with Tour Championship win

Joy Chakravarty 08:11 28/09/2015
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  • Winning again: Spieth.

    Jordan Spieth produced the icing on his cake as he finished an unforgettable PGA Tour season by winning the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, as well as the FedEx cup and the $10 million bonus cheque that goes with it.

    The 22-year-old Spieth also reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking from Jason Day, who needed to finish inside the top-five to prevent him from doing so, but could only end up tied 10th.

    Spieth wielded a hot putter and made up for three bogeys with four birdies in a round of one-under par 69 to finish at nine-under par 271 – four shots ahead of Henrik Stenson (72).

    The Tour Championship win was worth $1.45m, which bumped Spieth’s season’s earnings to $12.03m – a new money record on the PGA Tour. Fiji’s Vijay Singh made $10.91m in 2004.

    Spieth started the day one shot ahead of Stenson and quickly increased his lead to two with a birdie on the par-3 second hole when he hit his tee shot on the 214-yard hole to nine feet and made the putt.

    But a messy bogey on the par-4 fifth, where he missed the green and failed to make his up-and-down for par, followed by an uncharacteristic three-putt bogey on the sixth hole, brought him level with the Swede at seven-under par.

    That three-putt hole seemed to jolt Spieth into action, and he coaxed his famed putter to start behaving properly. The American bounced back in the finest possible manner, making back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth to make the turn in one-under par and restore his two shot-lead.

    Stenson gave it his best shot on the par-4 ninth hole, hitting his second shot to a couple of feet, and then on the par-3 11th hole, where he nuzzled his tee shot to three feet from the pin. He got birdies on both the holes, but amazingly, Spieth, who was 18 feet away with his approach shot on the ninth and 46 feet away on the 11th, successfully converted both attempts to keep his lead intact.

    Stenson then shanked his second shot from the middle of the fairway on the 17th hole for a double bogey before making a long birdie on the 18th to finish on 72.

    Justin Rose got into the mix with four birdies in his front-nine 31, but was undone by a double bogey on the 10th where he hit his tee shot left and had to take an unplayable.

    He surged back to tie with three birdies over the next six holes. However, a bogey after another wayward tee shot on the 17th ended any chance of him putting any pressure on Spieth.

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