How recent U.S. Open champs fared following year
2014 Martin Kaymer/ missed cut 2015.
2013 Justin Rose/T12 2014.
2012 Webb Simpson/T32 2013.
2011 Rory McIlroy/missed cut 2012.
2010 Graeme McDowell/T14 2011.
2009 Lucas Glover/ T58 2010.
2008 Tiger Woods/T6 2009.
2007 Angel Cabrerra/missed cut 2008.
2006 Geoff Oglivy/T42 2007.
2005 Michael Campbell/missed cut 2006.
OAKMONT, PA. — Jordan Spieth is behind schedule. His 2016 season thus far has been merely superb. And that’s markedly off last season’s pace.
By this time last year, heir Jordan was well on his way toward assuming control of golf. Had one major championship in the bag, with another on order. He was spawning Grand Slam talk at all the best wine tastings and cigar bars.
Look at Spieth this season: Two victories in 13 starts, which in his rare tongue translates to 11 non-victories. One very painful second in the season’s first major. No. 2 in the world rankings. Third in scoring average. No. 3 in money winnings, with just more than $4 million banked — why, barely enough to keep the lights on.
Some people just warp expectation, and for them it’s No. 1 or nothing.
Jack Nicklaus, the official spokesman for greatness, certainly understands. Speaking before his Memorial Tournament, Nicklaus weighed in on the top layer of players today, and a mindset identical to his own: “I’m sure that these guys’ goals are the same as mine. They want to win every time they play. If you don’t win, then you’re not happy.”
So it is that Spieth, having failed rather dramatically to become the first repeat Masters winner since Tiger Woods (2001-02), now itches to become the first repeat U.S. Open winner since Curtis Strange (1988-89).
It’s a headline anytime Spieth doesn’t win, but a stop-the-presses event when he rounds the front nine on Masters Sunday with a five-shot lead only to throw himself, twice, into Rae’s Creek on No. 12.
Spieth had no choice but to try to shake off the collapse, for retirement at the age of 22 didn’t seem like much of an option. In his four events since the Masters meltdown, Spieth manifested the kind of wild swings that sometimes show up more literally on the course (he’s 93rd on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy and 117th in greens in regulation).
One week he’s missing the cut at the Players Championship, the next he’s contending at the Byron Nelson until a Sunday 74. Another week he’s shooting 17 under to win at Colonial, and the next he can’t break par on the weekend at the Memorial.
While trying to figure out which version of himself is likely to show up this week at the year’s second major, the U.S. Open at Oakmont, Spieth suggests you pay closest attention to that victory near his Texas home. That was the just the splint that his sprained golfing psyche needed, he said.
“I moved on,” he said Monday. “We went and won, and I think that was really big for us to actually win a tournament. Not just contend, but to actually close one out.
“So, honestly, I think (the Masters) is out of our heads now just from that one experience at Colonial.”
It’s worth note that all of golf’s so-called Big Three are coming to Oakmont with some new trophies added to their collections within the last month — Spieth at Colonial, Rory McIlroy at the Irish Open and world’s No. 1 Jason Day at the Players. They’ve all gone in for their booster shots of confidence.
Unlike the overcooked greens at Chambers Bay upon which Spieth won his U.S. Open last year, Oakmont is a much greener kind of hell. Adapting to the various conditions of the majors obviously is one of Spieth’s strengths. For as crushing as the Masters implosion was, he still was the runner-up. Spieth has finished top four in his last five Majors. No one else here can make that claim.
Such a record does not speak of a player who will make a habit of drowning balls on the Sunday of a major — besides, there is no water at Oakmont, only ankle-high rough and bunkers that can be as difficult to escape as a Florida timeshare.
As for any Masters hangover, we refer again to Nicklaus. The winner of 18 majors recently recalled contending at the U.S. Open as a 20-year-old, only to “fall apart like a $3 suitcase.”
“Maybe the best thing that ever happened to me was the learning experience that I had from it,” Nicklaus recalled. “Did it destroy my life? No. And (the ’16 Masters) won’t destroy Jordan’s life.”
It is now a matter of public record that Spieth won’t win every major tournament he plays. But it has yet to be shown that he won’t at least have a decent shot.
“We’ve been spoiled the last five of them, having a chance to win each of them,” he said.
“We recognize that that’s not necessarily normal to have a chance of that many in a row.
“But why do what’s normal?”
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