AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — What a difference from one year to the next for Jordan Spieth.
In 2014, the young Texan squandered a lead at the Masters on the final day with back-to-back bogeys just before the turn, and could only watch as Bubba Watson pulled away to claim his second green jacket.
On Sunday, Spieth firmly seized control of a tournament that has been his from the start, walking to the 10th hole with a commanding five-shot advantage.
Better start sizing him up for his first green jacket.
Showing no signs of cracking, the 21-year-old stretched a four-shot lead at the beginning of the day, pretty much wrapping things up with a birdie at the eighth and a par at the ninth, gaining two shots on his playing partner Justin Rose.
Rose was only three behind after Spieth bogeyed the seventh, missing a short but icy putt. But Spieth bounced back — as he had every time anyone put heat on the kid — with a birdie at the par-5 eighth. Rose missed his birdie attempt from about 6 feet after a sloppy pitch from just off the green.
At No. 9, Rose put his approach 20 feet from the flag but three-putted from there. Spieth made a nice, comfortable par to keep his score at 17-under par — five shots ahead of both Rose and Phil Mickelson, who just up ahead had birdied the 10th.
The only drama, it seemed, was whether Spieth would break another Masters scoring record on a cloudy day at Augusta National. He already set new standards for 36 and 54 holes, and he pushed his score to 18-under par with another birdie at the 10th, the lead growing to six shots.
Tiger Woods finished at 18-under 270 in 1997 while winning his first Masters title in a runaway.
Spieth, just a few months older than Woods that day, was dominating in similar fashion.
With eight holes to play — including two par-5s — he already had 26 birdies for the week. That was another record, eclipsing the 25 birdies that Phil Mickelson made 2001.
Spieth, who set the tone in the very first round with an 8-under 64, was poised to become the first wire-to-wire winner since Raymond Floyd in 1976 and only the fifth in Masters’ history.
___
Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.