IT was a rapid-fire response to a straightforward question. Asked if there could be another all-conquering, dominant figure at the top of the global game like Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth wasted no time in delivering his verdict. “I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” he said.
Funnily enough, that was the same riposte this correspondent got when I asked my colleague what the chances were of him bringing me a cup of tea and an Empire biscuit to keep the clanking cogs of the furious Open Championship preview industry ticking over.
It’s a well-documented fact that we are in another little run of the major first-timers.
Brooks Koepka’s breakthrough triumph in last month’s US Open at Erin Hills was the seventh major in a row to be claimed by a player who hadn’t previously captured one.
Of course, Spieth has a couple of those much sought after spoils of golfing war safely stashed away in his Dallas pile.
A green jacket hangs in the wardrobe and a US Open trophy is plonked on the mantelpiece.
Spieth’s momentous year in 2015, when he won the first two majors of the year and worked everybody into a flapping, frothing lather at the prospect of him actually winning the Grand Slam, led to many hysterically anticipat-ing that he would go on to exert some kind of dictatorship on the golfing order in much the same way as the Tiger reigned with a tyrannical rule.
Since then, though, the 23-year-old Texan, who just missed out on a play-off for the 2015 Open at St Andrews by a shot, has yet to add to his major tally while a magnificent seven, including the likes of Jason Day and Dustin John-son, have conquered in those big four events on the calendar to get the major monkey of their backs.
Woods may be missing from Birkdale, but his shadow continues to loom large.
We may not have known it at the time but, in many ways, the era of Tiger’s dominance in the majors ended the last time the Open was staged on these redoubtable Southport links back in 2008.
Woods had won the US Open that year with a jiggered knee and missed the Birkdale showpiece as he continued his recovery from the subsequent surgery. Since making his magical breakthrough with his first Masters win in 1997, Woods would win 13 of the next 45 majors that were played up until the 2008 Open.
He has won none since and his sporting life, professionally, personally and physically, has unravelled in that time.
You don’t need to remind Spieth of the magnitude of Woods’ golfing accomplishments. “Having experienced a year like he continued to do for years, it just takes a lot out of you,” reflected Spieth of that double major winning campaign.
“It’s very tough to do. And you have to have a lot of things go right at the right times. So it’s been pretty much the entire career that he [Tiger] was lucky. No, I’m kidding. What I’m saying is, I doubt you’ll see a dominance like that maybe ever again in the game.
“I just think guys are learning, guys are getting stronger, athletes are going to golf.
“Guys are winning younger and playing more fearless, even in major championships, and I just think that it’s so difficult now. It was probably equally as difficult then, I can’t speak for that era, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up for a domination like that whatsoever.
“I think it’s going to be a very exciting time going forward of guys that are going to be playing and battling against each other. You’ll see a group of ten to 12 guys over the next 15, 20 years that are going to have a lot of different competitions that come down the stretch with each other. That’s exciting.”
Spieth is excited about his Open prospects this week too as he prepares for his fifth appearance in the event.
The sun has certainly been out to play the last couple of days but the conditions are expected to turn for the championship with rain and brisk winds.
Spieth has an early-late draw over the first two days and if there’s one thing that gets players muttering, moaning and cursing through the clenched teeth, particularly in the links arena, then it’s the luck of that draw when Mother Nature gets involved.
“You kind of cut half the field depending on the draw,” he added. “Sometimes it’s more or less 75 percent. But most of the time there’s at least a group that gets the worst weather.
“And it’s almost impossible to win in those circumstances at an Open Championship. That’s the most frustrating thing about this championship.
“But there’s nothing you can do about that other than keep your head down, play as well as you can, and see what happens after two days.”
All will be revealed.
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