By Will Pearson, europeantour.com
at Augusta National
After Jordan Spieth mastered Augusta National to win his first Major Championship, europeantour.com picks out six talking points from the 2015 Masters Tournament.
1. Jordan Spieth is a born record breaker
“Winning is in my blood, it’s how I was raised.”
Jordan Spieth’s simple words on how an upbringing of healthy competition helped forge this 21 year old prodigy into a ruthless, relentless, remarkable, record-breaking machine.
The second youngest winner in Masters history; the first wire-to-wire triumphant (with no ties) since 1976; a 72-hole total only matched by Tiger Woods in 1997; the most birdies ever seen in a single Masters; the fourth player to have won at just his second attempt. The list is positively endless.
In the end, after holding off Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy, among others, since day one, the cool, calm and collected Texan could breathe a giant sigh of relief as a one-foot tap-in at the last secured a magnificent Masters and a maiden Major success.
With the smallest of putts, Jordan Spieth opened the door on the biggest of futures.
“It was very nerve-wracking, I didn’t sleep well last night,” he revealed. “With two Major Champions behind, I knew I couldn’t let up.
“But now it’s done? Without a doubt, the most incredible week of my life.”
2. The wait for a European winner goes on...
…but their performances at Augusta National continue to impress.
So near, yet so far. It is well publicised that no European has prevailed at the Masters since Jose Maria Olazábal secured a second Green Jacket way back in 1999 – but that doesn’t tell the whole story by any means.
Justin Rose’s 14 under par total, which on Sunday garnered a share of second place with Phil Mickelson, would have been good enough for victory in 70 of the last 78 Masters.
Not so this year, unfortunately.
However, outside that incredible win at the 2013 US Open, Rose’s runner-up finish represents his best result in a Major Championship.
“It was a thrill to be out there and play in that arena,” said Rose. “The final group on Sunday at the Masters is dream stuff and it's stuff that I tried to really soak in. It was an incredible day out there.
“I tried to get a run going but ultimately came up a bit short. There is no shame in losing to that performance from Jordan – he’s going to be flying the flag for golf for quite a while, I’d say.”
Elsewhere, in a healthy return, there were a further three Europeans inside the top six this week at Augusta in Rory McIlroy (fourth), Paul Casey and Ian Poulter (tied sixth), with the World Number One also left to reflect that, at another time but not another place, his 12 under par total might yet have yielded that coveted Grand Slam among the Georgia pines.
3. Golf is better with Tiger Woods
Much of the talk in the build-up to this year’s tournament had centred on whether former World Number One, 14-time Major Champion and four-time Green Jacket winner Tiger Woods would be in the field and, if so, whether he had the game to compete.
The answer to that was proved an unequivocal yes.
Woods admitted he had worked “from sun up to sun down” in order to get himself in shape for a return to competitive action on the unforgiving terrain of Augusta National, where staggering beauty belies a beastly test.
While the Tiger of old, a champion here in 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005, might have felt a tad nonplussed by a tied 17th finish, considering all the struggles and injuries Woods has been through in recent times it was an impressive return.
His first Masters appearance in two years, the first back-to-back rounds in the 60s at Augusta since 2005, and the first time he has completed 72 holes in almost a year – this week represents Tiger’s best finish in a tournament since 2013 – and on the biggest of stages too.
Granted, there is work to be done and mountains left to scale in order to return to his all-conquering best but – as his Sunday pairing with Rory McIlroy once again proved – Tiger Woods is still box office material.
4. Augusta can be a haven for eagles
If the 2015 Masters will be best remembered for the giant swathes of history re-written by the sublime Spieth, the entire field can take some solace in the fact they contributed to a new group record which had stood, coming into the week, for 23 years.
In the 1991 edition of the tournament, 37 eagles were made over the course of the tournament – a figure dwarfed by the 2015 total of 47.
In other terms, that’s 94 crystal goblets that Augusta National will be distributing with a dozen alone going to big-hitting Dustin Johnson and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who each made three apiece.
5. Henrik Stenson doesn't three-putt
His nickname is the Ice Man and Henrik Stenson lived up to that moniker on Augusta’s glacier-like greens throughout Masters week.
The former European Number One might well have been targeting a finish higher than tied 19th coming into the season’s first Major, but one thing he cannot feel aggrieved by on departing Georgia is the quality of his putting stroke.
Along with American Steve Stricker and Korea’s Sangmoon Bae, Stenson was one of just three players from the 99-man field to not card a three-putt all week – a remarkable achievement given the mountainous, electric-fast putting surfaces on Alister MacKenzie’s masterpiece.
And if you think Augusta’s greens were potentially playing a little easier than in previous years, just ask Jason Dufner, Erik Compton, Anirban Lahiri and Kevin Stadler, all of whom succumbed to six three-putts over the course of the tournament.
6. The Masters never disappoints
From the vista of Magnolia Lane to the majesty of Amen Corner; from ‘Tea Olive’ to ‘Holly’; from the whitewashed colonial clubhouse to those distinctive yellow pin-flags.
From the burning, white sand bunkers to the pinks, whites and reds of the blossoming shrubbery; from the smell of the towering loblolly pines to the rise and fall of the undulating fairways and greens; from the Big Three on Thursday to the Green Jacket on Sunday.
The light gone and those iconic roars now dimmed; another year done, another champion crowned and another chapter logged in great and grand old history of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament.
Ever-present, the gateway to Major season and a long summer of golf, perhaps only The Open Championship and The Ryder Cup stand comparison to the Masters in terms of pure golfing theatre unfolding upon the most inspiring, the most awesome, the most vivid of sets.
Roll on 2016.
