DAY three of a major is known as Moving Day and at St Andrews yesterday Jordan Spieth certainly got his skates on.
A disjointed second round, interrupted by rain and high winds, had left the young American five shots off the lead, putting his chances of winning a third major in succession at risk.
The Masters and US Open champion needed to produce something special in only his third competitive round over the Old Course and, six days after arriving in St Andrews, he demonstrated he was just about getting the hang of the capricious beast that is links golf. Spieth, out with Sergio Garcia, birdied the first and never really stopped after that, collecting seven in total in a round of 66 that took his total score to 11 under par, one behind the leaders.
He is not the first visitor to these shores to have been thrown by the oxymoron that is Scottish summer.
But in much more benign conditions – very little wind, and only occasional flurries of rain – he demonstrated just why he is rated as the hottest property in golf right now.
Few would bet against the 21-year-old, who is self-confident without coming across as arrogant, being the man cradling silverware again to night.
He will have to do it slightly differently this time, however. When he won the Masters in April he did so wire-to-wire.
At the US Open last month he was tied for the lead after 36 and 54 holes and went on to win his second major following Dustin Johnston’s capitulation on the final green.
This time he will start his final round from a trailing position. Given how well he played yesterday, however, it is not a scenario he is hugely concerned about.
“At this point it’s free rolling,” he said, looking about as relaxed as a man about to spend the next week on a hammock in the Bahamas. “I’m not playing for a place. I don’t want to finish third tomorrow. I want to win. But it’s going to be hard. I doubt somebody will really break through in the pack given this golf course can yield a lot of birdies. It will be a pretty bunched leaderboard so it’s about giving myself as many chances as I can.”
Spieth made his Open debut in 2013 at Muirfield as the Scotland basked in a rather uncharacteristic heatwave. He has discovered this week that sunshine and blue skies are not the norm for this part of the world.
“Yeah, it’s, I think, typical Scotland we’ve seen the last couple of days,” he said. “It was just absolutely beautiful coming in on the last few holes [on Saturday night] and then we’ve also had some wicked weather where you just want to go home.
“It’s kind of cool to see it all. The last two Open Championships, especially Muirfield, you wouldn’t have thought you were in the UK. This year, we’re seeing a little more teeth in the weather.”
The weather was not the only thing to show its teeth. When Spieth three-putted on the ninth for the only bogey of the round, he did not attempt to hide his disappointment.
“Walking off the ninth green was as frustrated as I’ve been in a tournament other than off 14 yesterday morning,” he added. “I don’t normally ever display frustration but I did both times. I couldn’t hold it in. I think I punched my golf bag. I wasn’t going to break a club or anything or throw a club, and I didn’t want to hit Michael [his caddie] so I figured I’d hit my golf bag instead.”
The prospect of Spieth becoming the first golfer to win a professional grand slam grows ever likely. It is the sort of stuff that has historians and media types slathering in excitement but he is taking it in his stride.
He said: “To be able to try to go into the last major [the US PGA] and accomplish something that’s never been done in our sport is something that only comes around to a couple of people ever. I’d like to be one of those people to havethat happen.”
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