PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — There is no such thing as “too soon” for Jordan Spieth.
Success coming too soon for some players can swallow them up and stunt their long-term success.
This seems unlikely to happen to Spieth, the 20-year-old next-big-thing in golf who last year became the first teenager to win a PGA Tour event in more than 80 years and who last month fell just three shots short of becoming the youngest Masters champion ever.
Much the way he did at Augusta, Spieth will be undertaking yet another career first when he competes in The Players Championship for the first time, teeing it up alongside Zach Johnson and Graeme McDowell at 8:18 a.m. in Thursday’s opening round at TPC Sawgrass.
Spieth won once and had three runner-up finishes in 2013. Including the Masters, he has finished runner-up twice more in 2014.
He’s No. 7 in the world rankings and fifth on the Ryder Cup points list. He is a major championship victory (or perhaps even a Players Championship win) away from his career exploding.
Consider this: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy each won his first PGA Tour event at age 20. Spieth did it at 19.
One of the key ingredients to Spieth’s rapid rise has been his patience and maturity beyond his years. He conceded that not winning the Masters still stings, but he’s levelheaded enough to understand it is a process, and failing to capture the green jacket this time could prove to be a critical juncture in that process.
“There’s a just a long way to go forward. … I’m just kind of sticking my feet in the water,’’ Spieth said Wednedsday. “There really is a long way to go. The Masters was a humbling experience, not being able to pull that off. I’ve set goals. I’ve set goals from when I was 15 years old. I still have yet to accomplish a couple of those and those could take two years and those could take 20 years.
“In order for it to actually happen, I’ve got to keep my head down and keep moving forward and work as hard or harder than anybody, because the guys that have won major championships or have been the best in the world, that’s what they have done. So that’s what it takes.
“[I have to] keep putting myself in position and I believe that it will go my way here soon.’’
When it does, look out golf world. Had Spieth won the Masters, he would have eclipsed Woods as the youngest green jacket winner ever and he would have been front-page news around the world.
“He certainly does have the ‘it’ factor,’’ Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said. “What he’s doing trumps what Tiger Woods was doing at 20 years of age.’’
That statement is not only debatable, it’s jumping a bit too far ahead — something you will not see from Spieth, whose uncanny patience at such a young age is the 15th club in his bag.
“I just look forward,’’ Spieth said. “It’s awesome to be in the place I am right now, being able to play in tournaments like this, being able to play in the majors against the best field in golf and to try and work my way up the world rankings. The guys ahead of me all have major championships, guys right next to me all have major championships, and in order to be No. 1 in the world at some point — which is the goal of mine — I think I’m still very far away.
“So I believe that there is a long way to go and that’s humbling to me, and we’ll see how long [it takes] or if it happens.’’