At 19, Spieth youngest PGA winner in 82 years
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, July 16, 2013
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Jordan Spieth holds the trophy after winning a three way five hole sudden death playoff after the final round of the John Deere Classic held at TPC Deere Run on July 14, 2013 in Silvis, Illinois. |
19-year-old Jordan Spieth outlasted David Hearn and Zach Johnson on the fifth hole of a playoff to win the John Deere Classic in Illinois on Sunday, becoming the youngest winner on the PGA Tour in 82 years.
Spieth, who doesn't turn 20 for another two weeks, hit a two-foot par putt to earn a spot in the British Open field at Muirfield. He is also the first teenager to a PGA title win since Ralph Guldahl took the Santa Monica Open in 1931.
"I didn't think it would happen this early," said Spieth, who turned professional in December. "I had a plan. I guess the plan got exceeded."
Spieth started the day six shots behind third-round leader Daniel Summerhays. But he forced his way into the playoff by holing out of the bunker from 44 feet on the final hole of regulation.
Spieth got lucky when that shot took a pair of fortuitous bounces. But he also put himself in that position with a brilliant final round.
"The shot on 18 was the luckiest shot I ever hit in my life," Spieth said. "The fact that it bounced right and hit the pin and dropped down to the cup, it's just extremely fortunate."
Elsewhere, Phil Mickelson heads to the British Open in the best form possible after ending a 20-year European winless drought with a play-off victory in the Scottish Open.
Mickelson, and the highest world ranked player in the field, captured his 50th pro career success after defeating South African Branden Grace with a birdie at the first extra hole.
Both players had ended regulation play tied at 17-under par with Grace posting a 69 and finding his way into the playoff when Mickelson horribly three-putted the last hole for bogey in a round of 68. Mickelson then played one of his trademark wedge shots landing his 45-yard third shot a few feet past the hole before the ball spun back to some six inches from the cup for the easiest of birdies, while Grace missed his birdie putt from 25-feet.
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