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Jordan Spieth: “Not On Rory McIlroy’s Level”

By Billy Dowling

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Three weeks ago Jordan Spieth tied the all-time scoring record at Augusta on his way to winning his first major championship.  Not only did he add a new Green Jacket to his closet, he opened up the floodgates to a potential rivalry with Rory Mcilroy.  Since then there’s been debate after debate about who exactly is the world’s best player.  Rory only added fuel to the fire with his win last week at the Match Play, and then the PGA Tour put a cherry on top by pairing the two together for the first two rounds this week at THE PLAYERS.  It’s a a dream scenario; the two young titans of the sport putting their rivalry on full display for the world to see.  Just don’t tell them that.

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Spieth and McIlroy have been the best players on tour for the past ten months.  They’ve won multiple tournaments including the past three majors during that time frame.  So far in 2015 Rory has won on both the European and PGA Tours, and Spieth had a stretch of four straight top two finishes including his romp at The Masters.  They are far in away the game’s best players right now but Spieth has yet to see himself as McIlroy’s equal.

"“As far as a rivalry goes he moved even further away from what I would consider a budding rivalry right now,” Spieth said.  “I could certainly appreciate if I could get to where he’s at, but right now I don’t see myself there”"

You have to tip your hat to Spieth who continues his persona as a likable champion.  Yes Rory may be the best player on the planet, and is coming off a win last week where he pretty much willed himself to victory, but the world number two isn’t as far off as he thinks.  Spieth has excelled on golf’s biggest stages and did so before he could legally buy his victory champagne.

Golf fans are craved for that next “big thing” to latch on to.  As we move further and further away from the glory days of Tiger Woods, our focus turns to these two .  Woods had Phil Mickelson, but for most of their primes it was a one sided fight.  Ever since Rory re-announced himself to the world with back-to-back majors over the summer the we have been starving for a challenger.  Rickie Fowler was an option and so was Jason Day.  Except those two have yet to win majors and really step up to the table.

"“Last year it was Ricky, this year it’s Jordan, there’s been four or five rivalries over the past year,” Rory said.  “It doesn’t really do anything for me.”"

Maybe he’s sick of the rivalry or he could just believe that when he’s at his best he can’t be beaten, and if that’s the case he may have a point.  Last week he was a mess, he did nothing right, except for when he had to.  When he needed to hit a fairway he did, and when there was a big putt to be made, he sunk it.  Rory showed us that he has the ability to dig in and fight to the very end.  It’s a quality that took some time to develop, and something Spieth has yet to show.  He’s been a great front runner with blow out wins at the Australian Open and Augusta, but there has yet to grind one out.

They may not want to call it a rivalry but we can all agree on one thing, they both want to be the best.  Rory has been adamant in the past about how important it is to be the game’s number one player.  Up until now we’ve searched and hoped this wouldn’t be a runaway and our wishes have been granted with Spieth even if he still thinks he’s stuck in the pack chasing McIlroy.

"“It’s certainly a huge goal of mine to make it interesting with him and possibly take over number one, but I think he’s as far ahead of me as I am with the next nine guys, I just happened to be the guy who occupies number two right now but there’s a lot of guys after that.’"

Quotes from PGATour.com

Next: The Players Is Big But Not Major

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