It’s Time to Talk About Jack, Tiger, and Jordan.
Austin Evans tracks the career trajectory of Jordan Spieth and compares it to the careers of the two greatest players of all time.
As Jordan Spieth was making his epic back nine comeback to win the Open Championship and capture the third leg of the career Grand Slam, he put himself into illustrious company. He joined Jack Nicklaus as the only player to win three different majors before his 24th birthday, as Tiger did not achieve this feat until he was 24 years and eight months.
Measuring players by age is an important factor in looking at the trajectory of player careers, given that a golfer's career is finite. However, it is not necessarily the most accurate way of comparing golfers. Arnold Palmer didn’t turn pro until he was 25 years old, and Seve Ballesteros turned pro when he was only 16. Comparing players by the number of starts from when they turned pro is a more balanced comparison that shows how well a player performed when participating in the week to week grind of playing golf for a living.
Jordan turned pro when he was 19 years old in 2012 and started playing the tour full time in 2013. Jack turned pro in 1961 at age 21, and Tiger turned pro at age 20 in 1996. Here is the comparison chart so far relative to Jordan’s professional career starts.
There are a few things to be noted by these stats. Namely that the depth of fields have increased exponentially in recent years given the amount of money that has been pumped into the game. This makes it more difficult to separate from the field average and therefore harder to win. The advancements in equipment have also made it more difficult to win for the same reasons of saturated competition.
This chart does show a trajectory that puts Spieth in the same conversation with the two GOATs. Given that he is younger than the other two when they reached their 113 start, (Jack, 26, and Tiger, 26,) in theory Spieth will have opportunity to have similar or better numbers by the time he reaches that age.
Are we anointing Jordan as an all-time great way too early? Maybe, but his play deserves all the praise that he receives. Not only do his numbers stack up with the greats, but he also shows their same tendencies when he plays in the big moment. He has the ability to grind through adversity like Tiger did and grind like crazy for pars like he did yesterday for the first 13 holes. He has the same ability Jack did to hole a long putt to maintain momentum or stall an opponents like he did over and over again to Matt Kuchar over the last five holes. He has the ability to conjure up his best shot when he needs it most like he did at Travelers in the playoff, or today by going 5-under in the last five holes.
Is there too much hyperbole around what Jordan is doing and how he is doing it?
Probably.
Jordan has pulled off a lot of great shots, and social media has consequently gone into a frenzy about how crazy it is. Sunday’s back nine not withstanding (because it was insane and probably never been done), golf’s greatest players have always pulled off amazing shots and stretches of play. These players did not get the social media generation mass hysteria effect that this era of golf is enjoying to add mystique to the legend. If Seve had played in an era where Twitter existed, the website would have crashed multiple times. Bottom line, Spieth has been unbelievable, but hot takes are still hot takes.
Will this be the start of a sustained period of dominance for Spieth? Possibly, but not likely. History will remember Spieth dominating the 2015 season, having a very good 2016, and depending on the next two months dominating 2017. But what people likely won’t remember from 2015 was Spieth was amazing through the Open, but then Jason Day ripped off 4 wins in 6 weeks and nearly stole the Player of the Year before Jordan won The Tour Championship. From there, Day sustained his great play through the 2016 Players. Then Dustin Johnson set the world on fire before being defeated by a staircase.
My overarching point is that this era has been domination by committee, where players look unbeatable for short-term bursts. If anyone has the ability to sustain dominance, it’s Spieth. His good track record with health (Rory, J.Day, DJ keep getting nicked up), his sublime course management, and his reliable short game would be able to carry him through periods of lacklustre ball striking. As today showed, he can still get his ball around when he’s struggling from tee to green.
Going into Quail Hollow, the story lines will be Jordan going for the Slam against Rory at a course that McIlroy has dominated. If this Sunday showdown comes to fruition, it could be another amazing final day at the PGA (which has quietly provided some of the best finishes at majors in recent years).
For the time being, this Sunday at Birkdale belonged to Jordan Spieth, the Champion Golfer of the Year.
Austin is TheOcho.ca’s golf contributor. He also writes about basketball and hosts The Ocho Top Ten podcast with TheOcho.ca EIC Riley Evans. Follow Austin on Twitter at @austevans24.
