Brilliant Spieth the main challenger to McIlroy’s crown

The Masters was first contested in 1934, but it now comes off as a made-for-TV event.

With a natural stage that remains reassuringly familiar, it is a setting that historically summons final-day dramatics. A Masters back-nine showdown is expected, duels with outcomes that define legacies.

On Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club, more of the same was projected. Yes, at the start of the round, Jordan Spieth was atop the leaderboard by four strokes, but heavyweights lurked: Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Those four players had won 24 major championships, and it stood to reason that one of them would press the 21-year-old Spieth.

Except for Woods, who shot a desultory 73, Mickelson, Rose and especially McIlroy did not shy from the challenge. But no one was catching the new young knight of golf.

For years, the new breed of dominant golfer figured to be someone flashy like Rickie Fowler or boastful like Patrick Reed. Instead, golf's newest major champion is a resolutely humble, soft-spoken Texan whose version of iconoclastic flamboyance on Sunday was a dark belt with white trousers.

And when the next world golf rankings come out, it will be Jordan Spieth who will be No. 2 to McIlroy’s top billing, and might that not be the rivalry of the future?

“He’s been awfully impressive,” McIlroy said of Spieth, whose record-tying tournament score of 18-under-par 270 was four strokes better than Mickelson and Rose and six better than McIlroy.

“I’m sure Jordan will win many more,” McIlroy continued. “It’s always good to get your majors tally going early.”

McIlroy, who shot a 66 on Sunday, would know, having won the 2011 U.S. Open when he was 22. He has since won three more major titles. He used that experience to pressure Spieth as best he could Sunday, with six birdies and no bogeys.

“I was making a little charge, but it’s hard to notice that when the guy in front keeps putting his foot down and squashing hope,” McIlroy said, smiling.

On Saturday, Spieth's big-name competitors made not-so-veiled references to the pressure Spieth would face in the final round, raising the harrowing memories of past meltdowns by third-round Masters leaders like Greg Norman and McIlroy.

“We’ve seen it before: Anything can happen,” Woods said.

Woods then bogeyed two of his first seven holes on his way to a tie for 17th.

Mickelson, 44, was trying to become the second-oldest golfer to win the Masters. He holed a shot from a bunker at the 15th hole for an eagle, which elicited the biggest roar of the day by far. Spieth was standing over a dicey putt on the 14th hole when the ovation for Mickelson’s eagle cascaded over him. He stepped away momentarily. When the cheering did not subside, Spieth just went ahead and knocked in the putt anyway.

Mickelson’s surge was short-lived - his tee shot on the par-3 16th landed in a bunker. One hole later, he missed a makeable birdie putt on the 17th green. There would be no more last-day heroics from Mickelson, who finished with three pars and his 10th second-place finish in a major championship.

“There are catastrophes out there on this golf course,” Mickelson said.

“Jordan just sidestepped them, which is his nature.”

Mickelson has for at least two seasons gone out of his way to praise Spieth for his professionalism and comportment. On Sunday, even in defeat, Mickelson did it again.

“Jordan is a tremendous quality individual,” Mickelson said. “It’s hard not to pull for the guy.”

As Spieth’s sole playing partner, Rose had the best opportunity to make Spieth sweat in a head-to-head match. Rose twice cut the lead to three strokes, with a birdie on the second hole and again after Spieth bogeyed the fifth hole, but neither Rose nor anyone else was ever that close again.

“Jordan just didn’t help any of us,” Rose said.

There was one pivotal late juncture. With Spieth’s lead over Rose still four strokes, on the 16th green, Spieth had a lengthy par putt, and Rose had a short birdie putt.

“I thought that if I make and he misses, that’s a two-shot swing, and the game is on with two holes to go,” Rose said.

Rose missed. Spieth made his putt. “He just never really opened the door,” Rose said.

“I’m not saying I expected him to; he’s been playing so well.” Rose grinned.

“But it is the Masters,” he said. “So you never know.”

Spieth was too steady, too steely and, even at 21 years old, too seasoned. It is no coincidence that he won one year after playing in the final group - and losing a lead he held on the front nine of a Masters Sunday.

“I learned from last year to be patient, that it is going to be a long day,” Spieth said. “Don’t try to rush to victory.”

The big-name veterans were chasing him. Before the eyes of a worldwide golf community, Spieth became a veteran at evading them. It may not have been the usual Sunday at the Masters, with a roller coaster of emotions. But it may be the day when a new face stepped to the forefront of the sport, confidently, if modestly, shouldering his way to stand alongside the game’s elite.

If so, that will make Jordan Spieth’s runaway performance memorable and dramatic enough.