Newtown Square, Pa. – Time is a constant presence in every major championship. It sets the scene and shapes the meaning of the week. It’s a free-flowing force that interacts with each player differently. Those who are young and full of promise are trying to accelerate it; those in their prime are trying to keep it; and others hope to bring it back, if only briefly.
At 10:50 a.m. at Aronimink Golf Club on Saturday, time and its effects took center stage.
Eleven years ago next month, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson played in a US Open on Sunday that will be remembered long after the dust has settled on their careers. They reached the final two sets on Father’s Day at the 2015 US Open and traded shots across the water at Chambers Bay. They were the present and the future of golf, both perhaps at their zenith, even if they didn’t know it.
Spieth won that US Open after Johnson three-putted the final hole. Johnson would win the trophy the following year. More victories came. Both would add another major during the last decade, doing just enough to provide the tiniest reminder of the past. But things often fade quickly.
They were paired together in The PGA Championship Saturday, spending three more hours ahead of the leaders. With a stacked leaderboard and a softer structure, the Philadelphia crowd wanted fireworks.
Spieth still looks like he did Sunday in Washington. But he’s no longer a golf wonder. He is 32 years old and married with three children. He hasn’t won in four years and his hitting drought is close to a decade. His playing is still magnetic and erratic, the kind of addictive mix that creates electricity, but it goes off as quickly as it sparks. Aside from the graying beard and the LIV Golf logo on his cap, everything about Johnson seems unchanged. He still walks with the same slow, slow gait and still sends golf balls hurtling through the air with that signature wrist flex. Johnson hasn’t won at LIV in two years and hasn’t won a major in almost six.
Time just keeps on moving. One day, everything is in the palm of your hand. Next, you’re trying to stop the sand from slipping through your fingers.
Spieth and Johnson chatted as they teed off as their trip to Philadelphia began. Spieth is still the same in that regard. He speaks; he talks to himself, to his caddy Michael Greller, to his playing partner. The dialogue rarely stops. When he ran an 11-foot birdie putt past the hole on No. 6, Spieth approached Greller and asked, “How did he miss that?” When they finished the hole, he stood to survey the breach. “Wow,” he exclaimed to himself. When he missed a tee shot on No. 10, he walked away muttering, “Come on, Jordan.”
Johnson remains stoic. When he nailed his spin on No. 6, all he offered was a curt “Oh,” before a “Para!” He wandered into the crowd, hacked his approach to the green and spun among them toward the tee line, fans watching him like a golf eclipse rarely seen on major weekends these days. He missed a birdie putt on No. 7 and gave his caddy a short point for swinging straight – no dialogue needed.
They are both the same as ever, only overtaken by years.
Both birdied the par-5 ninth. A small collection of nines arrived in the early afternoon, but, for the most part, Spieth and Johnson spent Saturday engulfed in cascading waves of hype generated by those looking to make the most of the time they have left (Justin Rose) and those looking to cement their place in it (Rory McIlroy).
Meanwhile, Spieth and Johnson raced forward as if they were driving through molasses as they tried to catch a speeding car.
“It’s very disappointing,” Spieth, who also shot a 70, told GOLF after the round. “It’s going to be less windy tomorrow, so you’re not going to be able to make as much ground without going too low. Today was the day to do that and I just haven’t been able to figure out these greens.”
Spieth still feels “close”. He has run it well this week. He remains one of golf’s greatest entertainers. The putt he hit on No. 11 on Friday — “a low par, 60-degree punch,” Spieth recalled — is a reminder that he can create magic that few are capable of. It’s almost all there.
And yet, something is still missing.
“The result comes down to making the shots,” he said. “It’s hitting inside 150 yards and making putts. I feel like I’ve hit some pretty good shots from that range and had a lot of looks, and if my shots were winning: The shot would be the same as anybody in the top 10 in the field right now, I’d probably be in the lead.
“Having said that, I feel like I came in here saying this is the best chance I’ve felt in seven or eight years to go and win a major. If I stay that way, it’s going to feel easier and easier. I had a week off at Augusta, too. I’ve had some good ones. I’m going to try and do a good one tomorrow and make it up to everybody.”
Spieth stood by the steps leading to the Aronimink clubhouse. He was five shots back at the time and tied for 45th. He is one of golf’s greatest thinkers, and when faced with the question of time and how it has changed him, he looked away for a second.
“Sure, I think about it,” he said. “Both (on and off the course) I’m very different. I’ve changed a lot.”
Spieth then left golf and talked about his wife and kids and how they have made “everything better.” Different can be good. Life’s blessings often change as we do, as priorities change. As Spieth spoke, Johnson walked past in silence and headed to his car.
Spieth walked up the steps to the clubhouse, toward the 18th green where, minutes earlier, he and Johnson had finished. It didn’t end in heartbreak, ecstasy, or grand realization. Only with questions about the time and where everything had gone.
;)
