Spieth wins Masters in record fashion

Phil Casey 04:30 13/04/2015
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  • Green Jacket: Jordan Spieth.

    Jordan Spieth confirmed his status as the next superstar in golf by winning the Masters by four shots with a joint-record score. His 18-under 270 matched the same score that gave Tiger Woods his first green jacket in 1997.

    Spieth is five months older than Woods was that year and the parallels between the two will continue throughout the Texan’s career.

    With a first major secured, the question will now be how many more for a golfer who displayed a nerveless round under pressure from Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose, whose final scores of 14-under would have been good enough to win the last three Masters.

    Rose had played the first five holes in two over par on Saturday and was also three over for the first four on Friday, but reversed that trend in emphatic fashion with birdies on the first and second.

    That cut Spieth’s lead by a shot for the first time as the American followed Rose in from 10 feet on the first but failed to get up and down from the back of the second green, but the world No4 then holed from 15 feet on the third.

    Spieth misjudged a chip from right of the fifth green and in the end did well to salvage a bogey, allowing Rose to get within three of the lead for the second time thanks to a superb recovery from a greenside bunker.

    But the gap was back to four shots when Rose’s tee shot on the sixth span back off the front of the green, and another shot looked certain to go on the next. 

    Rose drove into the trees and failed to escape fully at the first attempt, but then conjured up a superb pitch which used the slope behind the pin and almost rolled back into the hole.

    The shot drew a thumbs up from Spieth, but the 21-year-old was unable to make par himself from the front edge of the green and saw his lead again cut to three shots.

    Spieth had said after his third round he could not rely on his short game to secure a first green jacket, but an excellent pitch from just short of the eighth green set up a birdie that Rose could not match.

    And when Rose three-putted the ninth Spieth had the comfort of a five-shot lead with nine to play, with Phil Mickelson another shot back having also bogeyed the ninth.

    However, if the front nine provided some drama for the huge crowds that had gathered either waiting for the confirmation of a new champion or a remarkable collapse, the back nine delivered nothing but the realisation of a truly special talent.

    After birdie on 10, Spieth bogeyed the 12th to show he is human but further birdies on 13 and 15 kept Rose, who himself claimed three successive birdies, at arm’s length.

    Having led from first round to last, Spieth sealed it with a bogey on 18th – denying him an all-time record score – to become the first wire-to-wire winner at Augusta since Ray Floyd in 1976.

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