AUGUSTA, Ga. — Ben Crenshaw, who will be playing in his 44th and final Masters beginning Thursday, remembers when he first met Jordan Spieth.
“I looked right at him and he looked at me, and I thought I was looking at Wyatt Earp,” Crenshaw said this week. “He just had that look about him, just wonderful.”
Crenshaw saw the “competitive fire” in Spieth’s eyes, a quality that hasn’t dimmed, which is why the two-time Masters winner believes golf’s future is in good hands.
As Crenshaw, a native Texan, closes out his Masters playing career, Spieth, 21, also a native Texan, makes his second Masters start in Thursday’s opening round grouped with Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Billy Horschel at 1:15 p.m. ET.
“I think the world of him,” Crenshaw, 63, said of his fellow University of Texas alum. “He’s way more mature than what I was when I was 21. He has things together.”
Bubba Watson might have won his second Green Jacket last year, but Spieth was the star of the weekend. Trying to become the youngest player to win the Masters and the first rookie since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979, Spieth posted birdies at the par-3 6th and the par-4 7th and carried a two-shot lead to the eighth tee on Sunday. But he suffered bogeys at the par-5 8th and the par-4 9th. Watson, meanwhile, drained two birdies, putting Spieth two shots back as he started the back nine.
Feeling the pressure of a Masters Sunday, Spieth found the water at the par-3 12th and got nothing out the par-5s at 13 and 15. He wound up shooting 72 to Watson’s 69.
“The hardest lesson taken from last year was that I had an opportunity to make a dream come true and I had it in my hands and then I was just a little anxious,” Spieth said this week. “You can make the excuse that as a first-time and whatever, 20 years old, that that’s likely to happen. But in my mind, I was playing the best through 60 holes, 62 holes and had an opportunity to continue that the next 10 or 11 holes and didn’t quite close it.”
Instead of suffering a mental meltdown, Spieth arrives at his second Masters as the favorite in many circles after posting a victory and two second-place finishes in his past three starts. He has six top-10 finishes in nine starts on the PGA Tour this year.
Crenshaw and his caddie Carl Jackson gave Spieth a crash course on Augusta National last year. Now the youngster has his own memory to fall back on.
“Having been so close last year and having a little experience and riding some momentum, I hope to put myself in contention and use what I’ve learned since last year,” Spieth said.
There’s been talk of the changing of the guard in golf. Crenshaw has announced he’s competing in his final Masters; Phil Mickleson is 44 and hasn’t won since the 2013 British Open; Tiger Woods is 39 and coming off an eight-week absence to re-discover his game. Young players flexing their skills include Spieth; four-time PGA Tour winner Patrick Reed, age 24; Rick Fowler, 26, who finished in the top 5 of all four majors last year. And let’s not forget Rory McIlroy, attempting to complete the career Grand Slam at age 25.
“I don’t think we’re watching a changing of the guard,” Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said. “I think it’s already changed.”
Spieth likes his chances this week.
“Last year, I remember being here saying I had no expectations and didn’t know what it was going to be like,” he said. “This year, I come in maybe expecting to play well on a course I feel very comfortable on. I feel like it suits my game nicely and also I feel like I’ve been playing well. As long as I’m getting enough rest and just keeping with what’s been going on the last month, I should be able to make some birdies and get myself up there.”
Texan to Texan, Crenshaw will be among those rooting for Spieth.