For two rounds, playing in each other’s company at the Bridgestone Invitational, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy seemed as happy as sandboys, on holiday, the stresses of Royal Birkdale left far behind. This week, it will be back to the serious business of trying to win major championships as the fourth and final one of the year, the US PGA, unfolds at Quail Hollow, North Carolina.
Quite rightly they are joint favourites, for Spieth is the man of the moment as Open champion, and McIlroy has an unmatched record at Quail Hollow, with two wins and the course record. This week and beyond, the consensus is growing that although others will no doubt intrude from time to time on their private party, it is these two who will contest supremacy.
In the Bridgsestone tournament, which ends tonight, Spieth and McIlroy have been playing as if for recreation, with smiles on their faces and delight, perhaps a little envy, in each other’s signal talents.
Spieth can only dream that he might drive the ball like McIlroy, so that it soars, appears to hang in the air while you count to 10, and comes down to earth in another parish; McIlroy can only hope that one day the ball that leaves his putterhead will behave like Spieth’s, as if programmed to seek and find the hole. Both must occasionally wonder what kind of golfer would be an amalgam of the two of them: the best imaginable.
Each, of course, arrived at the Bridgestone Invitational with a considerable weight lifted off his shoulders. McIlroy had enacted a decision long pondered, and no doubt dreaded, to dispense with the services (he refuses to entertain the word “sacked”) of his caddie, JP Fitzgerald, his faithful bag-carrier since July 2008.
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Spieth had proved that he could close out a major in the most demanding circumstances, and by so doing laid to rest the meltdown he had suffered at The Masters in 2016.
“Caddie’s role can be the difference between success and failure
Both could dwell on the matter of caddies. Spieth has a great one; it is clear that McIlroy needs one. After his stunning victory at Birkdale, Spieth paid tribute to his caddie, Michael Greller. He had made three vital interventions, two psychological, one technical, to help Spieth climb from the deep hole that he had dug himself with three bogeys in his first four holes, squandering his three-stroke overnight lead almost as wantonly as he threw away a more handsome advantage at Augusta National last year.
After hitting his tee-shot on the seventh hole, Spieth was taken to one side by Greller, who reminded him that a week earlier he had posed for a group photograph with Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps. “You are the same calibre,” was Greller’s message. “Believe that right now because we are in a great position in this tournament. We’re starting over here.”
Greller’s next key intervention came at the 13th hole, where Spieth drove his ball more than 100 yards off line on to a steep grassy dune. Spieth chose to take a drop under penalty on the practice ground.
Spieth reckoned that he had 270 yards to the hole and chose a three wood; Greller was sure the target was far closer and that a three iron was the right club.
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Often, when they disagree, Spieth trusts his own instincts, but not on this occasion. “He seemed very adamant about what club to hit,” Spieth said. He did as he was told and somehow fashioned a remarkable bogey.
The lead had been yielded to Matt Kuchar but Spieth had somehow escaped. “There’s a momentum shift right there,” Greller said as they left the green. He was right. Spieth picked up five strokes against par in five holes to win.
Spieth paid tribute to Greller. “You deserve all the credit in the world for this major championship,” he said to him as he cradled the Claret Jug. Greller, a former maths teacher, has been Spieth’s caddie since the American turned professional in 2012. In that time, he has learnt his trade and above all learnt when to intervene with his player, and when to keep quiet.
Now McIlroy needs an assistant of similar sensibility. Currently, he is employing a close friend, Harry Diamond, to carry his bag. Diamond is a good companion and an excellent player himself, but has little experience as a caddie.
That has not mattered so far. When McIlroy is playing well, his caddie has an easy job of it. As McIlroy said: “We both did the numbers and I sort of consulted him a couple of times. It was good.”
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But when McIlroy’s instinctive, natural game comes undone and he must focus on damage limitation with course management, the caddie’s role can be the difference between success and failure. Too often, Fitzgerald seemed to be content to give McIlroy the yardage and hand him the club when what was required was sound advice and the odd lecture.
Soon, McIlroy must make a choice that will have a profound effect on his career. He needs a caddie who knows his craft, whose company he enjoys and who can learn McIlroy’s game and personality well enough to know when to let him freewheel and when to apply the brakes.
Then McIlroy can fully apply himself to the task of beating all the others, and especially Spieth, his good buddy and most dangerous rival, and the man who will beat him to the career Grand Slam if he wins at Quail Hollow.
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US PGA Championship, day one
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