Jordan Spieth took the golf world by storm with his dominant victory in the Masters earlier this month, and the performance could have been even more memorable if he executed a few more shots. Sir Nick Faldo is thrilled that he didn’t.
The record for the lowest single-round score in any major tournament is currently held by Faldo and a handful of others. Spieth’s first-round 64 was just one stroke away from tying the 63’s that were put together by Faldo, who would not have been a graceful loser if his mark fell, and several others.
“I was sitting up there dodging bullets from this young man,” Faldo said Wednesday, per Rob Oller of The Columbus Dispatch. “Day one, he’s in the middle of the 15th fairway at 8 under par, and my fellow announcers were all, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if he shoots a 62?’ And I’m thinking, Jack and I are both in the 63 club; that’s the best round in any major.
“So I’m sitting in my (tower) at 18, saying, ‘No, it wouldn’t be nice.’ He takes that 4-wood out, and I know it’s the wrong club and I’m going, ‘Hit it! Hit it! Hit it!’ And he did, and he hits it over the green and three putts (for bogey), so that was that.”
Rooting against a 21-year-old kid in the middle of a round? That’s cold, Nick. Faldo also admitted to yelling “Yes!” the following day when Spieth missed a short putt on the 18th hole that would have broken another one of Faldo’s records — lowest 36-hole score (130) — that Spieth and Faldo now share with two other golfers.
Nicklaus was a bit more gracious.
“That wouldn’t be my attitude, but that’s OK,” he said. “Nobody likes to see their record broken, but if someone breaks it, well done.”
Faldo later conceded that he would “eventually” congratulate Spieth.
Faldo rubbed a lot of people the wrong way during his playing days, and he is not afraid to criticize the game’s most popular players now that he is an analyst. I bet he’d get along great with Mercury Morris.
H/T Golf Channel
