Spieth's love of Augusta National stands apart from other courses

DALLAS — It was a simple question at the end of an historic season. The answer was revealing in its clarity and conviction.

If you can only win one tournament next year, which is it?

Jordan Spieth: “The Masters.”

Not a British Open after coming so painfully close only five months earlier? Not a PGA Championship for another piece of the career slam? Not a Byron Nelson win in his hometown?

Just another Masters Tournament ... again and again and again.

“Olympic gold medal would be nice,” Spieth added, “but if you had to pick one tournament, it’s just ... I wasn’t lying to you guys every time you ask me the one tournament I ever wanted to win. If I could win one event in my whole life it’s the Masters.”

Spieth’s love affair with the Masters and Augusta National Golf Club goes back long before his runner-up and victory in two career starts. It’s the only event he and his friends ever fantasized about growing up – even if their collective memories of the Masters only go back as far as Phil Mickelson’s leap after winning in 2004.

“Mainly we would just talk about the Masters,” said Eric Leyendecker, one of Spieth’s closest high school friends. “That was the biggest thing for us. Wow, we couldn’t wait to get to go and watch him play and he’d get to play it. Every time we see the commercials coming on in January, we start getting really excited about it.”

It was love at first sight for Spieth. In 2012, his Texas team competed in Augusta State’s tournament at Forest Hills Golf Club the weekend before the Masters. The Longhorns team attended Monday’s practice round the next day.

“I also just fell in love with the place,” he said. “First time I walked on the grounds and it felt like I wasn’t even on real grass. It felt like I was walking on a video game, like they’d rolled in these giant mats and that’s grass. Nothing was out of place.”

Shawn Spieth, Jordan’s father, had a couple of opportunities to attend the tournament while on business trips to Atlanta, but always elected to return home to Dallas instead so he could coach his sons’ baseball tournaments. By the time Jordan was 12 and good enough to shoot 62 in a tournament, his father made a promise to him.

“I told Jordan when he shot that low round and started working with Cam (McCormick), ‘I’m not going to the Masters until we go together. That means when you’re playing,’” Shawn said. “It was a long wait but it worked out pretty well.”

Spieth finally got to play Augusta National for the first time after qualifying for the 2014 Masters with a victory in the John Deere Classic. It was the second half of a bucket-list trip playing Pine Valley and Augusta in the same day with a member of both clubs. His first taste was nine holes on a late October afternoon after flying down from New Jersey.

“It’s heaven on earth to me,” he said.

“It’s probably half the tournament and half the place itself. It’s viewed – from my perspective and everyone I grew up with and all the junior golfers, amateur golfers and college golfers – as the best tournament in the world. It’s viewed that way by pretty much all if not all the professionals I’ve come in contact with, too. They consider it the best tournament and most fun tournament in the world.”

While the history and the atmosphere set the Masters and Augusta National apart, Spieth’s ability to play the course stands out. Of all the great players who have found Augusta to be perfectly suited to their games, Spieth is the only one to have a career average finish (1.5) that starts with the numeral “1” in multiple starts.

While he’s plenty long off the tee, he’s far from the stereotypical “bomber” that Augusta National traditionally favors.

“Sure, if you’re a long hitter it can favor you if you’re hitting it straight and if you’re willing to take on certain lines,” he said. “But you don’t have to be during Masters Week. It’s a tougher golf course for a shorter hitter any other time of the year. I’m a little longer than average on tour, so you have to have some length to be able to hit shorter clubs into these crazy greens, but what I really felt like what was an advantage for me is that you’re hitting off a different slope on every single shot. So it’s so feel based and you’ve got to adjust and adapt. You can’t just be a technical player there. You’ve got to play different shots off different lies that are just so unnatural for your body.”

Then the greens challenge players with speed and slope like few other venues. For a putter of Spieth’s skill, it’s a perfect match.

“Having to use imagination on the putting surfaces,” he said. “A lot of people love doing that and again it’s feel based. It’s very much speed-based as Mr. (Ben) Crenshaw will tell you. It’s all based on speed. And just knowing the pull. I love when golf courses have sort of a natural pull and being able to trust and tie that in. You have to have a few rounds there before you truly believe in it. The imagination and feel that that golf course requires is so unique.”

His love for the place and desire for the tournament are two big reasons his inner circle are certain that Spieth’s green jacket collection won’t stop at one.

“I didn’t know it would be this quickly,” Leyendecker said of his friend’s Masters success, “but I knew he would get at least two or three with the Masters.”