The Masters: Ranking the 25 most exceptional performances at Augusta
By Bill Felber
5: Jordan Spieth, 2015 Masters, 270 (-18), Std. Deviation -2.79
Jordan Spieth was only 21 when he went wire-to-wire to win the 2015 Masters. The feat made him only the fifth player in tournament history to hold the sole lead after all four rounds, and the first to do so in nearly four decades.
Spieth made it easy on himself with an opening 64 that translated to a three-stroke advantage over his nearest pursuers. He backed that up on Friday with a 66 that upped his advantage to five strokes over Charley Hoffman. A 70 on Saturday established a new 54-hole record at -16, four ahead of Justin Rose and five better than Phil Mickelson.
That put Spieth in position to break Tiger Woods’ 1997 tournament scoring record if he could post a 69 on Sunday. For a time that looked to be a cinch. Spieth birdied the first and third holes to sit at -18, four strokes ahead of Rose in second and equaling Woods’ record.
But bogeys on the fifth and seventh holes injected a hint of drama into the closing round, dropping Spieth back to -16. He birdied the eighth and 10th to return to record-tying pace, bogeyed 12 but made it up with a birdie at 13.
Another birdie at 15 positioned him to set a new record at -19. At the 18th, Spieth faced an eight-foot par putt to set the new record, but missed it and had to content himself with a record-tying total of 270.