Open Championship: Joy for Jordan Spieth at Birkdale

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Jordan Spieth won the 146th Open Championship by three shots to Matt Kuchar, the margin by which he led the same rival ahead of Sunday's final round. Nothing to see here.

Except this was one of the most thrilling conclusions to any major championship. More thrilling, even than Spieth's collapse to hand the 2016 Masters to Danny Willett; more thrilling than Dustin Johnson's gift to Spieth in the previous year's US Open.

"As you can imagine, thoughts come in from my last scenario when I was leading a major on Sunday," said Spieth after he was presented with the Claret Jug. 

Level with six to play, Spieth found himself so far right of the 13th fairway that, when his ball was found, it was so deeply entrenched upon a bank far too steep for balance, that his search began for a place to take a penalty drop.

That search made its way to the practice ground, where Spieth - after some 20 minutes of discussion with calm but confused officials - could eventually line up his third. Somehow, he was down in three from fully 260 yards, a bogey which could and, in the hands of someone else most surely would, have been worse.

Kuchar won the hole, but if ever there was a Pyrrhic victory it was this one. Galvanised, Spieth produced his best shot of the day at the par-three 14th, almost holing a six-iron and making the return putt. We were tied again. Spieth's bogey had changed the course of the championship in his favour.

That point was underlined at 15, where another Kuchar jab saw him make birdie from greenside sand. Tied still, it seemed. But no: Spieth would choose this moment to hole his longest putt of the day, likely the championship, and an eagle to return to the top of the leaderboard on his own.

If Saturday's report speculated as to what constituted a knockout punch, then Sunday's play answered: it was a birdie putt on 16, from 30 feet or so, which saw Spieth finally place both hands on the Claret Jug.

Kuchar was relentless in his pursuit and asked another question of Spieth at 17, but the Texan by now was in total control. His birdie putt, from no more than six feet, was forced through any break and right into the back of the cup.

Players of Spieth's calibre do not tend to lose two-shot leads on the 18th hole, but nor do they lose sight of the task at hand. Spieth elected iron over driver, taking bunkers out of play, before finding the heart of the green to end once and for all what had developed into a titanic battle.

Kuchar was by now beaten, but it was cruel nevertheless that he was forced into a bogey at the final hole after a plugged lie in sand. He had known for a while that his attempts to stop the unstoppable had come to an end. It was the bravest performance of his career, braver still than a PLAYERS Championship crown, but only earned him second.

Spieth's golf from the moment he dropped his ball on 13 was of another world. The ability and poise he showed to execute more or less every shot thereafter was beyond anything that he had achieved before.

A tournament which had appeared set to go the full distance suddenly went where it was meant to go from the conclusion of Thursday's play. To a 23-year-old with three majors to his name already, who is now one step away from a career grand slam.

Spieth will be 24 when his chance to complete it arrives at Quail Hollow next month. He may not even begin that event as favourite. But over the last three seasons, his golf at the highest level has been unmatched.

Perhaps, when the curtain is drawn on his career one day, we'll reflect that he was never able to match that stretch at Royal Birkdale. Nor should he be. It was the champion golf of the year, almost beyond description.

Spieth reaction

Click here for more player quotes from Royal Birkdale

On winning the Claret Jug: "This is absolutely a dream come true for me. I was able to drink a bit of wine out of this when Zach Johnson won it a couple of years ago and a lot of people told me it was bad luck and I started to believe them through nine holes today. It feels good to have this in my hands."

On having the chance to complete a career Grand Slam: "It's incredible. It's a life goal of mine, it's a career goal. Growing up playing golf, I just wanted to be able to play in major championships and compete with the best in the world, and things have happened very quickly.

"I look back on '15 and thought 'yes, I enjoyed it', but I never realised the significance until you kind of hit a low, hit a pitfall, to appreciate the high so much. This is as much of a high as I've ever experienced in my golfing life and I'm going to enjoy it more than I've enjoyed anything that I've accomplished in the past."

On memories of his Masters meltdown flashing through his mind: "As you can imagine, thoughts come in from my last scenario when I was leading a major on Sunday.

"We never mentioned it, but all of a sudden it creeps into your head. I was so confident and all of a sudden the wheels have kind of come off everything and how do we get back on track to salvage this round and just give yourself a chance at the end. It took a bogey to do so."

On spending around 20 minutes looking for his ball before eventually going on to hole out for an unlikely bogey: "If I was a very straight driver of the golf ball, I would have made a different score on that hole. But having been in unplayable situations before, I just asked the question, is the driving range out of bounds?

"And I got the answer 'no' and thought that's a much better location for me to hit the next shot because I can get it much closer to the green and it saves me almost a full stroke from going back to the tee.

"I knew we had momentum on our side and we were tied. And all of a sudden I felt and believed that I could win that golf tournament, when 30 minutes prior - and really the entire day after the fourth hole - I didn't feel that way." 

Spieth cut for US PGA

Jordan Spieth has the chance to complete a career grand slam at next month's PGA Championship, and Sky Bet make him an enhanced 10/1 to do it at the first attempt.

The Texan has won three majors in fewer than 20 attempts already, but Quail Hollow, hosting the event for the first time, is considered to be at the mercy of 7/1 favourite Rory McIlroy.

However, Spieth has won his last two starts and seems sure to be popular for another major championship.

Sky Bet's John Rhodes said: "Spieth is 8/1 in our book to win the grand slam next month, but we've enhanced that to 10/1 to see if we get any takers.

"He did incredibly well to win at Birkdale but it's questionable whether Quail Hollow suits him as well as it does the other big names."

Click here for Sky Bet's PGA Championship odds

Collated Open Championship scores

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 70):

(a) denotes amateurs

268 Jordan Spieth (USA) 65 69 65 69

271 Matt Kuchar (USA) 65 71 66 69

274 Haotong Li (Chn) 69 73 69 63

275 Rory McIlroy 71 68 69 67, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 67 73 67 68

276 Brooks Koepka (USA) 65 72 68 71, Alex Noren (Swe) 68 72 69 67, Marc Leishman (Aus) 69 76 66 65, Branden Grace (Rsa) 70 74 62 70, Matthew Southgate 72 72 67 65

277 Chan Kim (USA) 72 68 67 70, Paul Casey 66 77 67 67, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 73 65 70

278 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 68 72 66 72, Chris Wood 71 72 68 67, Jason Dufner (USA) 73 71 66 68, Zach Johnson (USA) 75 66 71 66, Ian Poulter 67 70 71 70, Austin Connelly (Can) 67 72 66 73

279 Charley Hoffman (USA) 67 73 72 67, Xander Schauffele (USA) 69 75 70 65

280 Richard Bland 67 72 70 71, Richie Ramsay 68 70 70 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 69 74 70 67, Rickie Fowler (USA) 71 71 67 71, Jamie Lovemark (USA) 71 69 70 70

281 Jason Day (Aus) 69 76 65 71, Andrew Johnston 69 74 67 71, Bubba Watson (USA) 68 72 71 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 73 68 70, Tony Finau (USA) 70 73 67 71, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 69 76 72 64, Daniel Berger (USA) 68 76 70 67, David Drysdale 72 73 66 70, Tommy Fleetwood 76 69 66 70, Lee Westwood 71 74 69 67

282 Steve Stricker (USA) 70 72 69 71, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 71 72 68, Laurie Canter 70 72 72 68, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 73 69 68 72, Russell Henley (USA) 70 70 75 67, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 72 72 70 68, Webb Simpson (USA) 71 74 70 67

283 Ross Fisher 70 72 66 75, Joost Luiten (Ned) 68 72 70 73, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 69 75 69 70, Kevin Na (USA) 68 75 68 72, Sung-hoon Kang (Kor) 68 73 76 66, Peter Uihlein (USA) 72 72 69 70, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor) 71 71 71 70, Jon Rahm (Spa) 69 74 70 70, Matthew Fitzpatrick 69 73 68 73, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 69 75 68 71

284 Dustin Johnson (USA) 71 72 64 77, Scott Hend (Aus) 71 74 65 74, J.B. Holmes (USA) 71 72 71 70, Justin Rose 71 74 69 70, Toby Tree 70 75 69 70, Jimmy Walker (USA) 72 72 70 70, Kevin Kisner (USA) 70 71 74 69

285 Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 73 70 74

286 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 75 70 70 71, K.T. Kim (Kor) 73 71 69 73, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 66 78 71 71, Shaun Norris (Rsa) 71 74 65 76, Sean O'Hair (USA) 72 73 71 70, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 70 72 74 70, Young-Han Song (Kor) 71 74 69 72, (a) Alfie Plant 71 73 69 73

287 Andy Sullivan 70 75 69 73, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 73 72 68 74, Gary Woodland (USA) 70 69 74 74, Joseph Dean 72 72 70 73

288 James Hahn (USA) 68 76 70 74, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 69 75 71 73

289 Danny Willett 71 74 73 71

290 Kent Bulle (USA) 68 72 74 76