Hlas: Spieth leaves door open, but has the key

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Jordan Spieth, human.

Well, sort of.

The 21-year-old continued to chomp and chomp on Augusta National and the rest of the Masters field Saturday. His 54-hole score of 16-under-par 200 set a tourney record. But he at least had the common courtesy to insert enough late dramatics to keep everyone interested for Sunday's final round.

Instead of leading by seven shots as he briefly did Saturday, his margin over second-place Justin Rose is just four, with Phil Mickelson a stroke behind Rose. Spieth's double-bogey at the 17th hole gave this competition the distinct feel of not being totally resolved.

Whether that is an illusion will be determined Sunday.

England's Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open winner, certainly gave it his all with five birdies in the final six holes. Mickelson matched Rose's 67 Saturday, with the highlight a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 16.

But you'd still rather be Spieth than his opposition. Especially after he turned a messy second shot that landed among the spectators seated at the final hole into a Mickelson-esque flop shot that led to a 9-foot par putt he sank.

'If it comes out the way I want it to, which is just a little heavy with that grass behind it,” Spieth said, 'it's going to land halfway down that hill and it could be really good. It came out just how I expected.”

Had he botched that hole on the heels of driving his tee shot at 17 into some trees, sleep wouldn't have come easily for him Saturday night.

Maybe Spieth caught a break by Rose making a 28-foot birdie on his last hole. That nudged Rose ahead of Mickelson and it assured Rose would be Spieth's playing partner in the final round instead of Lefty.

Mickelson has won this thing three times and is an old favorite of Masters fans. Being side by side with Mickelson with so many of the fans following the two pulling for the player who is over twice Spieth's age probably couldn't have helped the youngster.

Then again, how shook up was he when he followed a double bogey on 17 and botched approach on 18 with that great up-and-down for par?

'I would have enjoyed playing with Phil,” Spieth insisted Saturday night. 'It wouldn't have made much difference to me. It just maybe would have been a little bit louder.”

But it isn't as if Spieth is some sort of villain, a young Texan bad guy wearing a black hat. His relaxed and well-spoken manner combined with his on-course wizardry has made him a lot of his own fans in a short amount of time.

'I've played with him a number of times now,” said Zach Johnson. 'I hang around with him quite a bit because we get Spieth was one of the featured pros at the 2014 Zach Johnson Foundation Classic in Cedar Rapids last July.

'What he's done … I won't say it overly surprises me,” Johnson said. 'I mean, it's very impressive, that goes without saying. But I'm not shocked at his maturity level on the golf course here, confidence from last year.”

Under the circumstances of racing off to a 64-66 start and being in Saturday's final pairing, Spieth's 70 was actually almost as remarkable as what he did in his first two rounds.

That delicate flop shot at 18, that was the definition of 'world-class.”

'That just took some guts,” Spieth said, 'and having been in this scenario or having been in contention enough, having been on Tour for a few years, I felt comfortable enough playing that full flop.”

It's his third year on the PGA Tour. Had he stayed at the University of Texas instead of turning pro two years ago without any membership status on the Tour, he would be graduating next month.

As a rule, stay in school. But if you're going to drop out as a sophomore, try to put your next two years to as much use as Spieth has done.

Comments: mike.hlas@thegazette.com

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