Jordan Spieth, Masters Champion - He Gives Us Courage

In An Unexpected Journey, the first of the current films of Tolkein's Hobbit trilogy, Gandalf the Grey, leads the Dwarves to the Elfin kingdom to protect them from evil marauders. In the course of the visit, Gandalf speaks with Galadriel, the eternal Elfin Queen, who is his protectress. She asks him why he has brought a Hobbit, a 'half-man' on the dangerous quest. Gandalf replies : "I do not know. Saruman the Great believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay...small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps it is because I am afraid...and he gives me courage." ~~~~~ I couldn't help thinking of Gandalf and Bilbo yesterday evening as the sun faded on the 79th Masters at Augusta National Golf Course. A young man of 21, almost a half-man if you studied his boyish face as he played, proved that Tolkein was right -- it is the small acts of kindness and love that save us from evil. Jordan Spieth didn’t just win the Masters on Sunday. He single-handedly lifted golf out of its post-Tiger Woods despair. Despair that Tiger would never play well again - he did this weekend, possibly because he was chasing his own youth in the guise of Jordan Spieth. Despair that Phil Mickelson would once again cling to second place - he did, for the 11th time at Augusta, but with the thrilling shots on the back nine on Sunday that have become his trademark. Despair that the Masters itself would be reduced to a lifeless, routine watch as Rory McIlroy would or wouldn't get his artificial Slam by winning. He didn't but he has found a golfer who, 4th in the world before his Masters win and 2nd now, seems poised to make Rory prove, as he has not had to do until now, that he really deserves to be Number One in the world of golf. ~~~~~ That seems a lot for one win - even at Augusta. But, the remarkably precocious Texan burned up Augusta National from start to finish. “Greatest day of my life,” Spieth said, just one year after his second-place finish in his Masters debut. In claiming his first green jacket, Spieth tied Woods’s 72-hole Masters scoring record with an 18-under par 270. His 28 birdies was a tournament record -- again besting Tiger, who held the record at 26, but made on an Augusta course 500 yards shorter than this weekend's. Spieth was the only player ever to reach 19 under par in the Masters, even though a bogey at 18 denied him the record. He had to settle for a tie. He is the second youngest Masters champion in history -- Tiger still owns this particular record. Spieth led the 2015 Masters from start to finish. The last person to do that was Raymond Floyd in 1976. ~~~~~ Jordan Spieth has exploded beyond golf to become the stuff of dreams worldwide. The Guardian wrote : "Precious few major championships are defined by a single player. Those that are offer a nod towards current or impending greatness. At 21, Jordan Spieth now deserves his place among the game’s aristocracy....Over four days the Texan looked like a kid playing a golfing computer game....Seasoned onlookers could be seen scratching their heads, flicking back through history for comparison. They were not readily found." ~~~~~ Dear readers, you know my passion for the Masters, the mecca of golf, where exceptional golfers can be denied victory by such small things as laying up in front of the creek on 13, afraid to answer the green's siren call of an eagle for those willing to forget that the creek is there. Or hitting into the sand at the edge of tbe 18th green on Sunday afternoon. Yesterday, Jordan Spieth hit a brilliant second shot from an uphill lie onto the 13th green. It was that shot, I think, that broke the spirit of Spieth's playing partner, Justin Rose, who had the only real chance of challenging him. And then, Jordan Spieth was the Masters champion. He did it without shouts and grimaces, without punching the air or thrusting a fist upward. He did it with grace and modesty. We have left the Tiger era, glorious though it was. We have entered the Spieth era. And in so entering, we have been given courage by a young man with a terrible talent and with the muscle, nerves and spirit to make us forget for a moment the agonizing times in which we live. As Gandalf said, we are afraid and he gives us courage.