Monday 13 April 2015 17:07, UK
Jordan Spieth’s record-breaking Masters victory has prompted comparisons with one of the greatest players of all time. Here, we look at why the 21-year-old can be likened to 14-time major winner Tiger Woods.
When Spieth tapped home for a bogey on the 18th he became the joint lowest scorer in Augusta’s 79-year history with 18 under par. The other player to reach that score was Woods in 1997 – as a 21-year-old no less.
Woods’ Green Jacket in 1997 marked the first of his 14 majors to date. Eighteen years later and Spieth has matched that feat and world No 1 Rory McIlroy has backed him to win many more throughout his career.
Spieth now has five tour victories to show for his fledgling career, including 16 top 10 finishes. Impressively, the Texan has also never dropped outside the top five at Augusta in eight rounds.
In the year Woods won his first major, he had collected six tour wins with six top 10 finishes. The 39-year-old also ended the year ranked world No 2; Spieth rose to the same ranking with yesterday’s triumph.
Cameron McCormick, Spieth’s swing coach, was one of the first men to recognise the Texan’s talent and the new Green Jacket winner hailed the Australian’s influence on his phenomenal week. McCormick was touted as a potential mentor to Woods last year, but the four-time Masters champion instead opted for Chris Como.
There are family connections between the pair too as Woods’ father, Earl, was responsible for Tiger’s early golf development and even released a series of books outlining his coaching methods, while Spieth revealed he is inspired by his younger sister.
One area which favours Spieth is the amount of birdies he carded throughout the four days. The figure was a remarkable 28 in 72 holes, three more than the previous best of 25 held by Phil Mickelson.
He also led the Masters wire-to-wire, gaining a three-shot advantage on day one. In contrast, Woods was three shots adrift at the beginning of day two in 1997, but did storm to a 12-shot victory by the end of play on the final day.
It isn’t just the Masters where Spieth has dominated the rest of the playing field. The 21-year-old tops the average putts per round on the PGA Tour this year at 1.67 ahead of Dustin Johnson and also boasts the best average score-per-round of 69.3.
