April 8th 2016, Augusta, Georgia, U.S.A.: This is just the third Masters for Jordan Spieth, but you wouldn’t know it the way he strolls around the place. He plays it like he's going to win. He plays it like a couple of guys who have seven Green Jackets between them.
“It is like playing with a Tiger or a Phil,” said Paul Casey, who played against both at the height of their careers. Casey is in his 10th Masters and was alongside Spieth on Thursday. “Playing with Jordan, there definitely is something there.
“He just exudes ‑‑ it's obvious he's a major champion, but he just exudes that sort of, whatever ‘that’ is ... It's a knowing, it's a confidence. It's the way he walks. It's the way he stands. It goes all the way through from the way he speaks and the way he shakes your hand and the way he deals with people. It's wonderful.”
So, too, has been his golf at Augusta National.
Something happens when Spieth turns off bustling Washington Road with its rows of strip malls and stoplights and onto Magnolia Lane, shaded, serene and secluded.
“I enjoy this tournament more than anywhere else,” Spieth said. “It's easy for us. We don't have any or many distractions in our preparation, and we enjoy that you're able to kind of feel like you get enough done and you have enough time to do everything, and I think that's useful when we start on the first hole.”
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Spieth is 29 under par in his first nine rounds at the Masters. By comparison, Woods, who has won four Green Jackets, including one in his first Masters as a professional, was 21 under in his first nine rounds at Augusta National as a pro. Nicklaus, a six-time Masters champion, was even par in that same span.
Of those nine rounds, Spieth has led after six of them, including all four last year when he went wire-to-wire and tied the tournament scoring record at 18-under 270 to win by four.
Spieth has never shot a round above par at Augusta National and through 162 career holes here has made 48 birdies, including the six he had on Thursday.
“I was impressed by everything today,” Casey said. “That was a flawless round of golf."
More than his half-dozen birdies, Spieth was impressed by the zero bogeys he made on a blustery, windy Thursday in which he said his ball-striking was “average” but he scored “extremely well.”
“I just didn't feel confident after the first couple mid‑iron shots I hit, I didn't feel confident over the ball with irons,” he said. “It was extremely special to stay bogey‑free on a day like today at the Masters, yeah.”
Never mind that less than 24 hours earlier, he cracked his driver face and had to put a backup into play.
Or that the wind was gusting 20-25 mph for much of his back nine. Casey called it “one of the toughest days I’ve ever seen around Augusta National.”
Or that he hasn't won since early January and in recent weeks was being hit with a barrage of questions asking what's wrong (even though he'd finished in the top 20 in his last three stroke-play events).
Or that on the par-4 11th, the start of Amen Corner, he drove it into the trees on the right and was staring at a possible bogey. Debating between a wedge and a 4-iron off the pine straw, he opted for the latter, splitting a small gap between the trees, with the ball hopping onto the green and stopping just shy of rolling down a bank on the left and into the water.
Even Nicklaus, Woods and Faldo got lucky once in a while.
“I should not have hit the shot I hit,” Spieth said. “Michael (Spieth’s caddie) did everything in his power to call me off of hitting that shot.
“It was going to take a pretty special shot to go low and at the green to get within a hundred yards of the green. ... So I liked the option and Michael didn't, and I said, ‘Just trust me on this one.’ And he said, ‘All right.’
“That was one of the best shots I've ever hit in tournament competition given where it was, and there was no camera or anything to see it. And I was laughing afterwards, that's how kind of dumb the decision was, and pulled it off.”
And now he has a chance to pull off something even more special.
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