PGA TOUR: Jordan Spieth Runs Away With Hyundai Tournament of Champions

Jordan Spieth put to rest any questions about sustaining his 2015 momentum as he churned through the field at Kapalua.

Jordan Spieth entered the final round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions with a five-shot lead over Brooks Koepka and six-shot lead over defending champion Patrick Reed.

Spieth’s prior three rounds resulted in 66-64-65 and showed no signs of slowing down. Assuming that Spieth would shoot no worse than a 4-under on Sunday meant that the other two golfers needed to churn out at least a eight or nine under par.

However, the odds were against the rest of the field. The last time the world No. 1 golfer lost a 54-hole lead of five strokes or more was Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters when he blew his six-shot lead. That’s closing in on 20 years ago for those counting.

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Koepka had an eventful first seven holes, going one under without carding a par. He had four birdies and three bogeys to start his round to get to -20, but he slowed down after that and lost pace with the lead.

Patrick Reed did his best to chase down Spieth starting his round with back-to-back birdies. He finished his front nine with a birdie to get within three shots of the lead, but it wouldn’t be enough to chase down the reigning FedEx Cup champion.

All Jordan had to do was set himself on cruise control and he did just that. He carded three birdies on the front nine and only had one hiccup on the 8th hole. Spieth only had two bogeys all week and they came at the par-3 8th hole.

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Spieth took note of Reed closing in on his lead. Once Reed got within three shots, Spieth immediately birdied the ninth and 10th holes to get to 27-under and extend his lead to five.

Reed took a step back when he bogeyed the 15th while Spieth birdied it and moved to -28. He followed up his birdie at 15 with another on the 16th expanding his score to 29-under. The 22 year old flirted with Ernie Els previous tournament record of -31, but wouldn’t quite get there.

He settled for -30 and won the Hyundai Tournament of Champions by eight shots. It was his first start of the 2015-16 season and first victory as he continues his dominance from last season.

It’s his seventh win on the PGA TOUR before the age of 25, joining only Tiger Woods as the other golfer to do so. It’s also his sixth win in his last 21 starts.

Spieth’s performance on the par 5s at the Plantation Course of Kapalua was on another level. He was 16-under with two eagles, 12 birdies, and two pars. Almost half of his low scoring came on par 5s this week.

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Many question whether or not Spieth can possibly repeat what he did last year. I’d say he’s off to a pretty good start.