This past weekend at Pebble Beach, Jordan Spieth proved why he is one of the most respected players to currently swing a club. The 23-year-old phenom achieved his ninth career PGA tour victory by dominating at the ATT Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Let’s look at some highlights.
Spieth’s Putting Game
No one doubts Spieth’s putting game. Back in 2015, it was on full display when he sunk a 30-foot putt for birdie, breaking his tie with Sean O’Hair and Patrick Reed and winning him the Valspar Championship. This also moved him to 6th place in the Official World Golf Ranking.
His enviable putting abilities were on full display again at Pebble Beach this past week as he only needed one putt to close out 13 different holes. This kind of closing power is what gave him a 6-shot lead after only playing 54 holes.
Nonetheless, in his post-tournament interview, Spieth actually cited his putting as a weak point that has been hurting his confidence a bit. After this tournament, though, it doesn’t seem like that’s going to be an issue going forward.
A Mistake-Free Sunday
With this kind of cushion going into Sunday, the tournament was Spieth’s to lose. While Sunday wasn’t his best performance, it wasn’t without some highlights. He managed to avoid getting a single bogey to end at 2-under-par with a score of 70. This gave him a very commendable four-shot win.
In fact, the only person to even come close to Spieth was his friend, Kelly Kraft, the 2011 U.S. amateur champion.
For a young golfer who has accomplished so much (including numerous comparisons to Tiger Woods), it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that he called his performance “sort of boring.”
Of course, most of us could only ever dream of playing this “boring.”
A Timely Victory
Despite how well Spieth has played throughout his career, this was a very important victory leading into the Masters. It’s his first on the PGA Tour since the Dean & DeLuca Invitational last year. Between now and April, Spieth shouldn’t have too much trouble remaining in good shape as the clock ticks down.
Justin Timberlake Didn’t Disappoint
Being Pebble Beach, it’s only natural that there were some other notable highlights of the day.
Many fans rushed to catch a glimpse of Justin Timberlake’s performance. The singer-songwriter-actor-all-around-enviable-human-being brought his four handicap to the tournament and did not disappoint.
On the historic seventh hole of this beautiful course, Timberlake even had a near-hole-in-one. The ball lipped the cup and ended up just three feet or so shy, giving Timberlake an easy one putt for birdie.
Timberlake wouldn’t be done with his performance, though. On the 16th hole, he chipped in and then did it again on 17, too.
Apparently, between winning Grammies and going on sold-out world tours, the man also has time to become seriously good at golf. As many pointed out, JT was responsible for some of the best shots – from anyone – of the entire tournament.
With that, we wait another year to visit this legendary course for another exciting tournament.
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