AP photo courtesy Golfweek.com
Dallas, Texas (May 23, 2010) -- Jordan Spieth found himself in the limelight at the PGA Tour Byron Nelson Classic on Sunday, and vindicated himself quite well, thank you.
Playing with Corey Pavin, Spieth was within one 3 strokes of the lead after a birdie on the 10th hole got him to 7-under on the tournament. But a bogey on the 13th, and double-bogey on the 15th dropped him out of the top ten.
Undaunted, Spieth birdied the 16th to get back to 5-under for the tournament. His favorite moment of the tournament came right after that.
"After I hit my tee shot on 17 today, the par 3, I kinda chickened out the last three days on 17, and finally I said all right, enough with this, you're going to look back and say that you wish you'd fired at this pin, even if it goes in the water. You've got to try to make a hole in one here."
It took some kahunas, I would say, to hit that shot, and it went short right of the hole, which is not exactly the smartest play. I wouldn't have been able to sleep tonight if I would have chickened out and pulled that left and just tried to scramble for a par. So I stood up there and I said, let's hit a punch cut and see what happens, and mid air it looked like it could go in, and I heard some people saying, 'Get in, be the right club,' so I was happy to see it land on dry land and stay on the green."
Alas, Spieth missed the birdie putt, but he did enjoy seeing a Jesuit (his high school) banner on a house adjacent to the hole.
The number 1 ranked junior in the country, Spieth is also, without a doubt, the only player in 2010 to walk the fairways of a PGA Tour event, in contention, with his caddy carrying a high school golf team bag and more fans following his group than the leaders.
Indeed, the city of Dallas has a new "Star."
* * *
Friday's Golfweek report by Ryan Lavner
Jordan Spieth, 16, made the cut Friday at the Byron Nelson Championship.
Spieth, of Dallas, Texas, shot 69 in Round 2 at TPC Four Seasons to post a 3-under 137, three strokes above the projected cut line. He is the sixth-youngest player to make the cut at a PGA Tour event.
Spieth, the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion and Golfweek’s No. 1-ranked junior, was even par through 11 holes Thursday before play was suspended due to darkness. He returned early Friday morning, finished
off a 68, and then, after only a brief rest, shot 69 in the second round to qualify for the weekend. Spieth already has received a special exemption to play the St. Jude Classic next month by virtue of his AJGA Player of the Year award.
Spieth wasn’t the only high school student making history Friday.
Grayson Murray, 16, shot a second-round 66 to make the cut at the Nationwide Tour’s Rex Hospital Open.
Murray, who qualified for the event May 16 by winning the Tarheel Junior Tour’s Rex Hospital Junior Invitational, birdied five of his last seven holes at TPC Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C.
“Obviously I’m proud of myself, and a lot of guys say just to be there is one thing,” Murray told Golfweek, “but I am always telling myself that I can compete with these guys, that I belong out here. We’ve got two more days, and I’ve got some more good rounds in me.”
Murray, who has given a verbal commitment to Wake Forest, won the Golfweek Junior Series event at Pine Needles by nine shots last fall.