The golfing world is buzzing about Masters champion Jordan Spieth after the 21-year-old won the Masters at just the second time of asking on Sunday.
The American completed a rare post-to-post win in the season’s first major, showing maturity beyond his years to triumph by four strokes.
In his wake, Spieth left a gallery of golfing greats including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson all singing his praises.
His peers are agreed that a new chapter is being written in golf and that talented and likeable Spieth looks like being one of the heroes of the story.
Mickelson, whose first crack at the Masters came two years before Spieth was even born, is an avid admirer of his young countryman.
“He’s just a tremendous shot‑maker, great putter, great short game. He has no weaknesses. He doesn’t overpower the golf course, but he plays the course strategically well. He plays all the shots properly,” he said.
“And he has that ability to focus and see things clear when the pressure is on and perform at his best when the pressure is on.
“That’s something that you really can’t teach. Some players are able to do it, some players aren’t, and he is.”
Spieth is not alone in representing the new wave of American golfers coming through to take over from the likes of Woods, Mickelson and Jim Furyk.
At last year’s Ryder Cup in Scotland, he and Patrick Reed united effectively as a team in what turned out to be a losing effort against the European squad.
Reed, three years older at 24, gained a close-up insight at Gleneagles into what makes Spieth tick as a golfer.
“He doesn’t get himself in too much trouble. Even if he misses drives, it’s not way off line. And then his short game is good enough to manage.
“I would say his weakest part is his chipping and it’s not that bad. But his putting is just phenomenal.”
Others like Zach Johnson have a more esoteric view of the new US phenom.
“There’s something innate, obviously, with him and those type of individuals, something intangible that probably a lot of athletes occasionally touch, but rarely maintain,” he reflected.
– Rivalry with McIlroy –
Spieth’s first win in a major inevitably drew comparisons with Tiger Woods’ ground-breaking nine-shot triumph in the 1997 Masters at age 21 and more recently with Rory McIlroy’s eight-stroke victory for his first major win at the 2011 US Open.
And it was the potential for a rivalry with 25-year-old McIlroy, one that could last for the next two decades, that many pondered after Sunday’s dominant win.
McIlroy, who already has four major titles to his name, and who is just the Masters short of winning all four major titles, is aware that he has a new challenger to deal with and — new to him — that man is younger than himself.
“He’s been playing great for a 21-year-old, he’s way more mature than I was at 21 and a hell of a golfer and a great person as well. So I’m really happy for him,” the world number one said of the new world number two.
Golf fans may not have to wait too long to see the two playing together at a major with the US Open looming large in June.
The US Golf Association can pick and choose who will play with who in the first two rounds at Chambers Bay in Washington state and there will likely be a push to send out the two top young guns in each other’s company to watch the sparks fly.