ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The faint sound of bagpipes filled the misty chill of the St. Andrews air late Monday while Jordan Spieth was trying to make history.
The moment was heavy as thousands of fans crammed into the grandstands around the 18th green and first tee. Hundreds more lined the streets, stood on balconies and peered through windows jockeying positions for a look.
“Up and down for a playoff.”
That was the last thing Spieth said to his caddie, Michael Greller, as he was about to make his 80-yard pitch to the 18th green, needing birdie on the 72nd hole to join a British Open playoff that already had two participants — Zach Johnson and Marc Leishman — waiting, and another — Louis Oosthuizen — who would join later.
Spieth’s pitch landed a tantalizing 10 feet or so from the flag, but the spin on the ball sucked it back off the green and down into the “Valley of Sin,’’ a swale in front of the green.
And that’s where Spieth’s fantastic bid to become only the second player in the history of the game to win the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in the same year died — fittingly in a place called the “Valley of Sin.”
Spieth’s birdie putt up and over the swale stopped inches away from the cup to put an official end to his remarkable Grand Slam run.
Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion and a good friend of Spieth’s, would emerge from the four-hole playoff the winner of the Claret Jug so many wanted to will into Spieth’s trophy room.
“Right now, it’s just a tough feeling to be that close in a major,” Spieth said. “We gave it a great effort. It doesn’t matter about the historical element of it. Just to be that close on our biggest stage and to come up just short. … You know, how many chances do you get? I believe I’ll have plenty of opportunities like I did [Monday]. But still, when it doesn’t quite work out, it’s tough to swallow.
“Ultimately, I thought we gave it a pretty good run.”
That’s an understatement. Spieth has nothing to be ashamed of. No one in the field faced more pressure than he did, and the 21-year-old handled it all with aplomb — right to the end when he marched out to the 18th green and was one of the first to congratulate Johnson.
When he drained a 50-foot birdie bomb on No. 16 to tie for the lead at 15-under, he sent a high-voltage jolt through the Old Course.
But No. 17, which yielded only one birdie Monday in 83 attempts and where there were more bogeys (48) than there were pars (26), got Spieth. His bogey left him needing the birdie on 18 to keep the dream alive.
“Ideally, par-birdie (on 17 and 18) is a perfect way to finish out here, and that would have gotten the job done,’’ Spieth said. “So it stings a little bit.’’
Spieth should leave St. Andrews proud of what he did — even in defeat.
Earlier in the round, he displayed remarkable bounce-back ability after he took four putts and double-bogeyed the 8th hole. Spieth promptly birdied Nos. 9 and 10 to propel himself right back into contention.
Shortly after it was all over, Spieth tweeted:
There will be more history for Spieth to chase. He turns 22 next week and at next month’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, he will try to become the first player to win the three American majors in the same year.
But for now, Spieth will step off this runaway train he’s been riding for four months, go home to Texas and reflect on both his remarkable accomplishments and the piece of history he left on the table.
“It won’t hurt too bad,’’ Spieth said. “It’s not like I really lost it on the last hole, and 17 was brutally challenging. I just didn’t hit a great putt there, and I just picked the wrong wedge out of the bag on 18. I made a lot of the right decisions down the stretch and certainly closed plenty of tournaments out, and this just wasn’t one of those.
“It’s hard to do that every single time. I won’t beat myself up too bad because I do understand that.’’