Jordan Spieth has barely been old enough to legally drink alcohol and he's already part of golf history. The 21-year-old became the second-youngest player to win the Masters and tied the tournament's all-time scoring record after finishing 18-under par.
Spieth took home $1.8 million with the victory and experienced the first wire-to-wire victory at the Masters since Raymond Floyd's win back in 1976 (Trevor Immelman led after all four rounds during his victory in 2008, but was the co-leader after Day 1). The University of Texas alum also broke the 36-hole and 54-hole records en route to his win and topped Phil Mickelson's mark of most birdies for the tournament with 28. His 64 after the first day ended up being the lowest opening round by a champion.
While Mickelson and Justin Rose seemed like they could make a move on the final day to catch Spieth, they were never given the opportunity to do so. Spieth did have four bogeys in the fourth round, but made up for it with six birdies and maintained excellent consistency to avoid feeling late pressure from some of golf's top veterans.
"This was arguably the greatest day of my life," Spieth said, via The Associated Press. "To join Masters history and put my name on that trophy and to have this jacket forever, it's something that I can't fathom right now."
While everything Spieth has accomplished on the way is tremendous, it's not all that surprising, especially among professional golfers and pundits. Spieth finished T-2 at the Masters last year when he was 20 years old and the only obstacle that kept him from a green jacket was Bubba Watson, who shot three-under on the final day and finished three strokes ahead of him. Coincidentally, Watson was the one who presented Spieth with his first green jacket on Sunday.
Additionally, for as young as he is, Spieth has already achieved great feats as a professional golfer. He has three PGA Tour wins (all coming this season) and has already played in the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup. Two of those wins came in 2015 and were in his past four events, while the he finished second in the other two.
His heroics on Sunday propelled him into the discussion as one of the elite golfers on tour and cemented his early career alongside the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Woods won his first major (the Masters) when he was 21 years and three months old in 1997, while McIlroy won his first major (U.S. Open) when he was 22 years and one month old in 2011. Tiger now has 14 major victories at 39 years old and Rory has four at the age of 25.
Speaking of which, Woods entered the final round at six-under but injured his wrist after a shot on the ninth hole and couldn't recover, ending the day with a 73 and finishing T-17 at five-under. McIlroy, who was paired with Tiger, shot the day's best round (66) on Sunday and finished in fourth place. He was two-under after the first two rounds, which was not good enough to catch Spieth, who was 14-under at that point.
There's still a ton of golf to play this season and it's just the beginning for Spieth. If he can continue at his current level of play, fans may see more history be made in the coming months.
Watch out, Tiger and Rory.
