Spieth’s 63 shows there’s nothing wrong

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — A year ago, a lot of people in golf were asking what was wrong with Jordan Spieth. The answer, in the briefest of explanations: Nothing.

Spieth shot a 9-under 63 on Saturday, his lowest ever at Pebble Beach, and bounded into contention after three rounds of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

With one round to go and most of the celebrity amateurs, including the irrepressible Bill Murray, having taken their hopes and their double-bogies to other locales, the AT&T has become what many wanted: A battle among some of golf’s more recognizable players.

Maybe Beau Hossler, Andrew Putnam and Tom Hoge, the three guys sharing first with 54-hole totals of 15-under-par 200, don’t have their own line of clubs or clothing, but they’re hardly in that grouping of unheralded.

Hossler held a brief lead in the 2012 U.S. Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club when he was a 17-year-old amateur. Hoge is the pro from Fargo, the city in North Dakota, not the dark-humor movie. Putnam has been on Tour and off.

But a stroke behind at 201 are Spieth, FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay and Joel Dahmen. Another shot behind at 202 is the chap from Ireland, Seamus Power, who sadly verified what we all know: Golf can be cruel.

After 64s at two of the more difficult courses, Pebble and Spyglass Hill, Power shot 74 Saturday at Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course.

You might think the tournament would come down to Spieth, a three-time major champion, and Cantlay, the one known as “Patty Ice.” But there’s no defense. You can’t stop the other guy, you just have to outscore him.

Not easy when Spieth has an eagle, eight birdies and only a lone bogey.

“I guess I'm one back,” said Spieth. “I think the leaderboard's pretty bunched. Pebble can yield low scores.“

A 63 would indicate as much.

“So I think I just kind of learned a little from last year,” Spieth said. “Last year I went in with the lead and I was a little tentative early and (Daniel) Berger came out firing, I think, went like birdie, eagle to start. 

“I think not being in the final group (Sunday) I just kind of approach it like (Saturday) where I feel like, you know, sometimes it can be a little easier not in the final group to go ahead and fire away. You almost just set a goal for a number for the day and pretend you’ve got to get there in order to win.”

In the pre-tournament interviews, Cantlay, born in Long Beach, was asked why he didn’t go this week to the tourney in Saudi Arabia, where entrants are being awarded seven-figure bonuses.

He said he wasn’t asked, and besides, he prefers what he called “California golf.” You can see why.

“If the lead stays at 15-under, I'm obviously right there,” he said before the last player came in. “I think I came back from more strokes behind than that. So I'm in great position and I love this golf course, and everyone will be playing on the same golf course (Sunday), so it should be fun.” 

Asked if he and Spieth would have an advantage playing Pebble in consecutive rounds, Cantlay said, “A little bit. The greens definitely were the firmest of the three places here at Pebble. With the wind up a little bit, I think it may dry out a little more.”

After all the times it’s rained during the AT&T and its predecessor, the Crosby, nobody will complain about anything being too dry.

Ireland to Pebble, by way of East Tennessee State

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Rory McIlroy deserves some credit, in a rather convoluted way.

Rory signed a letter of intent to play golf at East Tennessee State but turned pro instead. So the State coach, Fred Warren, went about recruiting other Irish players.

Which is how Seamus Power ended up at East Tennessee, and in a way how Power on Friday ended up with the second-round lead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

An enormous lead, in relation to par if not the actual scoring totals, because two of the courses, Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill are 72, Monterey Peninsula 71.

A lead of five, equaling the biggest for 36 holes, in the history of this tournament, now in its 76th year. Bob Rosburg was five ahead at the 36-hole mark in 1958 and Charlie Wi in 2012. Neither won.

Power had an 8-under 64 Friday at Pebble, the same as Thursday at Spyglass Hill, a 128 total and 16 under.

First-round leader Tom Hoge, Andrew Putnam and Adam Svenson are 11 under. After his 63 Thursday at Pebble, Hoge shot 69 Friday at Monterey Peninsula.

“I was a little shaky at the start,” said Hoge, the man from Fargo, N.D.

Power is the man from Waterford, the community famous for its crystal. But the only kind of glass he cares about is the type cut into golf trophies.

Hoping to get to a school in the U.S., Power was at a European junior event in Italy. So was Warren, the East Tennessee coach, still seeking someone who might be as talented as McIlroy. OK, there wasn’t anyone, but a coach needs to keep looking.

Along came Power.

“He had an American-style game,” Warren told Michael Arkush of the New York Times. “A long hitter, aggressive, trying to make birdies. I was real impressed with him.”

Warren would offer Power a partial scholarship if Power were willing to wait a year. Power agreed.

“No problem,“ wrote Arkush. “Power had written letters to other colleges in the United States but did not receive encouraging responses. In fact, if it had not been for the interest from East Tennessee State, he would have followed through on another plan: Take an accounting course at a university in Ireland.”

Counting numbers is familiar to a golfer. In fact, another Irishman of some fame, PGA championship and Open Championship winner (and Euro Ryder Cup captain) Padraig Harrington has an accounting degree.

After leaving East Tennessee, Power struggled, not unusual for almost all young golfers, playing the Buy.com Tour and something called the eTour, going from tournament to tournament in an old Toyota.

Finally, in 2019 he qualified for the PGA Tour, and in 2021 he won the Barbasol Open. That would have been fantastic except because it was the same week as the Open Championship, the British Open, it didn’t get him in a first Masters. 

It could be corrected with a victory here, of course. Power, who will be 35 in March, has paid his dues.

“That's certainly part of it,” said Power. “I've always loved playing golf. I have fond memories of playing those tours. Obviously, it's not where you want to be, but I mean any time you get to play golf for a living, like you're in a pretty good spot.

“So it's obviously satisfying, but, I mean, guys have gotten here a lot of different ways and it doesn't matter once you're here, it's how is your game going to hold up. That's kind of the fun part, trying to improve and just see where you can kind of put yourself.”

At Pebble this week, with great weather, where he puts himself could be in a special place.

The man from Fargo warms up at Pebble

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Just for the record, it was -5 degrees on Thursday in Fargo, N.D. Also on Thursday, Tom Hoge, the best pro golfer ever to come from Fargo — at least in recent memory — was -9.

That’s because he was playing Pebble Beach, where sometimes conditions during the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am might make people think they’re in North Dakota rather than Northern California.

But not this year. If it wasn’t Maui, the temperature on the Monterey Peninsula leveling at 57 degrees, there were no clouds, no rain and for Hoge no bogies.

OK, so he isn’t as well known as guys like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, and coming into this tournament he had missed 89 cuts of the previous 202 tournaments he played, but Hoge (pronounced HOAG-ey, like the sandwich) finished second in the American Express a couple weeks back.

And on Thursday he shot a 63 on one of the world’s most famous courses in some of the winter’s best conditions. Sell the umbrellas. Ditch the apres-ski boots. Bring your admiration.

This is hardly a lock for Hoge. He’s only a shot ahead of the Irishman Seamus Power, who recorded his 64 at Spyglass Hill, another of the three courses used in the first three rounds. PGA Tour champ Patrick Cantlay had a 65 and former AT&T winner Jordan Spieth a 68, both at Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

Still, for a man from a city made infamous in the black-humor flick “Fargo” a few years back, being in the sunshine and being in the lead is, well, special.

He played here in the years of chilblains and heavy rains, so-called Crosby weather (remember, the tournament was created by Bing Crosby).

“Yeah, I enjoy it,” he said. “You know, when the years have bad weather it's still fun to be out here. And then you get weather like (Thursday) and this week, and it's fantastic.”

Hoge, 32, was born in North Carolina, but his family moved to North Dakota, when he played between blizzards, and he later went to school at Texas Christian.

He started his round at 10, the hole before the course turns away from the water, with a birdie. Then he birdied 11. And 18. But it was on the front where he made the run, six birdies in a row, on holes three through eight.

“It's hard to be in a bad mood out here,” said Hoge. “I mean, Pebble Beach and perfect weather is about as good as it gets. So it was a lot of fun.

“I feel like I've been playing well. I've been excited to get out here on the golf course and feel like Pebble Beach is a golf course that suits me well, so I was excited to get out here this week.”

And get as far away Fargo as possible?

“The first reaction is usually the movie, yes,” Hoge told Helen Ross of PGATour.com, discussing the reaction to his background. “And then the second statement is that I’m the first person they’ve ever met from North Dakota.

“So I’m kind of ready for those two all the time.”

On this fine day, he was just as ready for Pebble Beach.

Cantlay chooses Pebble beauty over Saudi payoff

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — So Pebble Beach, despite a misquoted observation, isn’t the greatest meeting of land and water in the world, but the view on Wednesday — sun glistening on Carmel Bay — was overwhelming,

A highlight of practice rounds for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a sparkling, enticing invitation to a place Patrick Cantlay calls “the epitome of California golf.”

Cantlay, currently No. 4 in the world ranking, is a home state guy all the way. He was born in Long Beach, went to UCLA and chose familiarity and natural beauty over the lure of a huge payoff.

Not that he wouldn’t someday change his mind.

There’s another tournament about to start on Thursday, head to head against the AT&T some 5,000 miles away, where the setting may be less inviting unless you’re big on sand dunes, but the money is enormous — the Saudi Arabia Invitational.

The PGA Tour gave exemptions to those who chose the Saudi event — and please don’t ask about politics; “we’re only going there to play golf” — but below the surface is a bigger issue, the future of the pro game..

The Saudi tournament is part of the DP Tour, which used to be the European Tour, and because Greg Norman is maneuvering behind the scenes, the probability is there’s only going to be one tour, with the biggest names.

This time a former AT&T winner, Dustin Johnson; a former Masters champion, Patrick Reed (as Johnson is also); Tony Fine; and (gadzooks) even five-time AT&T champ Phil Mickelson are there.

But former U.S. Open, British Open and Masters champ Jordan Spieth (who endorses AT&T products) and Cantlay are here. So was defending AT&T winner Daniel Berger, until he was forced to withdraw because of a back injury.

Cantlay perhaps is the least famous of the most famous golfers on the globe. As an amateur, he was No. 1 in the world. Then last summer, he not only won the FedEx Cup but did it in a fashion, making putt after putt under pressure, which gained him the nickname, “Patty Ice” — he was that cool.

He may not yet register on a scale with Tiger Woods or Mickelson, but his colleagues know how good he is, especially around the greens, where golf is decided.

What Cantlay (who turns 30 next month, on St. Patrick’s Day), decided was to stay loyal and stay close by. Not that he didn’t pay attention to Saudi Arabia.

“I think with the amount of money they're talking about,” he said, “it's always very tempting. I think it's tempting for everybody. And to deny that would be, you know, maybe not true.”

The actual Saudi purse is smaller than the $8.7 million AT&T purse, but there are reports that golfers will be paid tens of millions in fees, illegal on the PGA Tour.

“But I'm really glad that I'm here this week,” said Cantlay, “and I love Pebble Beach and so that definitely factored into my decision.”

Golf and tennis are dependent on the recognition factor, on fame, personality — as Tiger’s presence verified. People would flock to see him, even if they didn’t know a thing about the sport.

If golf does shift toward a super tour, grabbing away the crème de la crème, where does it leave those left outside? Will anyone care about the minor leaguers, as it were?

“I think it's a complicated thing, and I don't think there's an easy answer,” Cantlay said. “If people want to be more interested in golf and want to put more money into golf, I think that's a good thing. I think definitely there's a want of the best players in the world to play against the other best players in the world, and so it's hard to quantify exactly.  

“Some move the needle more than others, and some are at the top of the game more than others.“

Right now, with the beauty of Pebble Beach as a backdrop, Cantlay can concentrate on a more specific issue, playing well.

Tour surrenders AT&T golf to Saudi event

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So the PGA Tour surrendered, although no one involved would use that term. Maybe “gave in to reality” is more accurate.

Realized the big names always get their way, so why not give them what they want and avoid a conflict in what was once called the gentleman’s game.

The winners, among others, are Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and the Saudi International tournament.

The losers are the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, CBS television and the restaurants and shops on the Monterey Peninsula.

The AT&T, which started as the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, has been around for more than 80 years. It’s a traditional stop on Tour. But tradition has no chance when matched against oil sheiks.

They created a tournament that the Asian Tour chose to endorse after the former European Tour (it’s been re-named the DP World Tour) stepped away. It is held at Royal Greens Golf Club near Jeddah and offers a huge purse and appearance fees.

That both events are to be staged in the first week in February makes for a difficult situation. Let’s go to the past tense — made for a difficult situation.

When a Tour player wants to enter an event opposite one on the Tour schedule, he must receive approval — and agree to stipulations for the future.  

On Monday, Saudi officials sent a media release mentioning they had commitments from 11 major champions. Golf Digest asked who would blink first. We found out quickly enough.

It was the Tour. When the AT&T does get underway, they should put white flags in the cups.

Yes, I know the players are “independent contractors” and go where the money is, and I also know that in personality-driven sports such as golf (Tiger Woods, Mickelson) and tennis (Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams) the stars have leverage.

But they built their reputations and bank accounts in tournaments that enabled them to learn and improve. And earn.

The AT&T may offer celebrities and wonderful courses deep in the forest or along the bay, but it’s golf competition, and you want the top players, the ones who drive up attendance and TV ratings as well as drive a ball 330 yards down a fairway.

Long ago, when I tended to write about Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, even if they weren’t on the leader board or in the field, a golf official suggested I focus on the little-known players, to let people know who they were.

But that infamous headline, “Unknown wins Crosby,” will get only shrugs. ESPN, for better or worse, figured it out: Names are more important than games.

It didn’t matter that Tiger before the accident was 10 shots behind. To ESPN he was the story, often the only story.

You know that over the weekend Woods and his 12-year-old son, Charlie, played in the PNC father-son tournament. There were stories and videos from here to St. Andrews. Wow!

Tiger hasn’t been in the ATT for a while, but Mickelson and Dustin Johnson not only were there but more than once finished first. This coming February, however, they’ll be in Saudi Arabia.

The longtime tournament director of the AT&T, Steve John, has to be diplomatic and measured in any criticism. He’s not going to whine about players he hopes will be back in coming years.

"We are still focused on the many highlights of our tournament week," John told James Raia in the Monterey Herald. "We will be messaging that we will eclipse the $200 million milestone in supporting deserving non-profits in and around our community."

“We have received overwhelming community support from fans showing how eager they are to see their favorite celebrities.”

Good, but Phil Mickelson or Dustin Johnson wouldn’t hurt. In fact, they would help.

At Pebble, a Pro-Am without any “ams,” including Bill Murray

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By Art Spander

It was created by a man who could swing a 5-iron as impressively as he could hold a musical note. In time, his tournament, the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, became the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. What didn’t change was the last part of the label, “Am.”

The pros, from Snead and Hogan to Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods, had their place and their victories, but what made the Pro-Am special were the amateurs: entertainers, athletes and politicians as eager to compete and as we were to watch them. 

Now the event, a mid-winter festival on the Monterey Peninsula, has fallen victim to Covid-19, as have so many other attractions. They’ll hold the AT&T in February, as always, but not like before.

According to a release from the PGA Tour, the AT&T will be played “without the traditional multi-day format,” which means it won’t be the traditional Crosby/AT&T.

Inevitable, perhaps, the way the virus has surged, chasing the 49ers and the Sharks to Arizona and forcing the suspension of so many NBA and college basketball games, but still disappointing.

The courses are the same, although only Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill will be used, Monterey Peninsula Country Club unneeded for a greatly reduced field.

The charity beneficiary is the same, the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, which Crosby told me in the early 1970s, when some of the pros didn’t like the format, was the only reason he didn’t withdraw his support.

The threat of inclement weather will be the same, although the Pacific storms are as unreliable as were Jack Lemmon’s tee shots.

Lemmon, of course, was a regular, a good guy if not a good golfer, who tried for years without success to make the cut but even in his unfulfilled attempts made us appreciate his persistence and sense of humor.

Sure, we were thrilled by Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson, but we were no less enthralled by Huey Lewis — who might break out in song at every tee box — or Tom Brady.

Back in the ’50s, when the world was naïve, the guy who kept us attuned and laughing was Phil Harris, who had a ton of one-liners and also more than a minimum of one-putts.

In one rainy Crosby, he slopped off the inundated 17th green at Pebble and told the press, “I can’t wait to get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini.” If you’ve heard that before, well, jokes survive.

The routines by Harris, Dean Martin and even Crosby himself have been taken over by Bill Murray, who has done everything from pull a female spectator into a bunker to hurl a frozen fish at spectators.

If the tournament occasionally resembled a variety show, well, how many times could you remind the audience that every putt breaks toward Carmel Bay?

Murray was a player as well as a comedian. He grew up near Chicago, caddying with his brothers, and in the 2011 AT&T he teamed with D.A. Points, who won the pro section. Murray won the pro-am.

On the 16th in the final round at Pebble, Points, getting into the spirit of things, yelled at Murray loud enough to he heard, “It would help if you made a putt.” Which Murray then did. “His being funny helped relax me,” said Murray, who hardly needs help at relaxing.

No Murray this winter. No quarterbacks — Tony Romo has been a consistent entrant, and Peyton Manning an occasional one — no wisecracks, no entrants sitting near the 17th tee being interviewed by Jim Nantz.

No crowd at the 15th tee, “Club 15” the description, chanting before the golfers hit their tee balls.

There will be golf played at Pebble next month, but not the golf we’ve come to expect. How can it be a pro-am without the “ams”?

Mickelson: ‘I got outplayed, and I’m fine with that’

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — For a moment there, when he was 3-under-par on the first six holes, it seemed Phil Mickelson, back on the course he loves, was going to show us again it didn’t matter how old he was or how few fairways he hit — that it was magic time once more.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven 

Spieth still trying to get back to being the golfer he was

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — He finished strong, a birdie on 17. Sure, Jordan Spieth after a 2-under 70 is a mile out of the lead. But he played a much tougher course, Spyglass Hill, than the guy, Nick Taylor, who shot a 63 at Monterey Peninsula.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven 

S.F. Examiner: Spieth, Pebble deserve each other in best way

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

PEBBLE BEACH — It’s a party, a picnic, a weather forecast, a comedy routine, a study in history and — not incidentally — a golf tournament. One, that thanks to a man’s love of the game and a bit of property described as “the most felicitous meeting of land and water in creation,” is one of a kind.

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the derivative of the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, has been raising umbrellas and money for about a zillion charities on the Monterey Peninsula ever since Bing Crosby hauled it up the coast in 1947, probably before many of you were born. Golf, of course, was born 600 years ago, give or take a century.

Read the full story here.

©2017 The San Francisco Examiner

SportsXchange: Spieth strolls to four-shot win at Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
SportsXchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The 12th hole at Augusta? The two balls in the creek last April? Ancient history now. For Jordan Spieth, for his fans, and not the least for golf. 

He may have lost on one of the sport's biggest stages, but Sunday, in the sunshine, alongside the crashing surf, he won on another big stage.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2017 SportsXchange

SportsXchange: Spieth surges into six-shot lead at Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
SportsXchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It's a cliche, but also an unavoidable fact of the game, that in golf one drives for show and, yes, putts for dough. A two-foot miss counts as much — if not more psychologically — as a 300-yard tee shot, one stroke. 

So when Jordan Spieth, who even at the young age of 23 is one of golf's brilliant putters, said his game on the greens hadn't met expectations, others could only shake their heads. 

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2017 SportsXchange

SportsXchange: Three tied for rain-interrupted Pebble Beach lead

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By Art Spander
SportsXchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif -- Bad weather struck the Monterey Peninsula on Thursday midway through the opening round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, turning some putting greens into small lakes and forcing officials to suspend play.

Rich Lamb, Seung-Yul Noh and Joel Dahman were among a few golfers to finish before the rainstorm arrived, each shooting a 4-under-par 68 at Spyglass Hill, one of the three courses used the first three days -- along with Monterey Peninsula, and Pebble Beach. 

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2017 SportsXchange

Global Golf Post: Young Players, Celebs Revive Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA — His legacy lives on the bluffs above Carmel Bay, flourishes in the comfortable tavern called the Tap Room. Bing Crosby is a name out of the past and yet into the future. The new kids on the block, the millenials, may know know of the man, but they do know his golf tournament.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2016 Global Golf Post

The Sports Xchange: Taylor gets 'magical' win at Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It would have been a great story if Phil Mickelson had won. It might be an even better story because Vaughn Taylor did win.

Golf, as tennis, is built on personality, recognition, and certainly, success. Mickelson is famous, beloved even, and at 45 is in the final stages of an excellent career. He hadn't finished first in two-and-a-half years, and after he came so close in this AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, just missing a five-foot putt on the final green which would have forced a playoff, you can wonder if he'll ever again finish first.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Mickelson up 2 at Pebble after 66

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Phil Mickelson always was the most cooperative man on the PGA Tour, amiable, informative.

When Mickelson was called "Lefty," it wasn't only because of the manner he swung a golf club but a term of endearment, an appreciation of his style, easy going, helpful, a nicknamed you'd give your best friend.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Mickelson one behind Kang, Iwata at Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It's not exactly Augusta National. Or the neighbor around the bend, Pebble Beach. Rather, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, one of the three courses used for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, is just exactly what the name implies, a club course, but it's an appealing one that curls around the edge of Monterey Bay and wists through shore-side dunes.

There are great views of water and mountains, and holes that mid-to-high handicappers are able to enjoy. Holes that the pros, when they're on their games as Sung Kang and Phil Mickelson definitely were Friday in the second round, take apart.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Reavie claims lead at Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The words hit Chez Reavie as hard as he might hit a five-iron.

For weeks, he continued to play the PGA Tour, absorbing the pain in his left wrist and, to use a cliche, gutting it out.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

Jordan Spieth fills the room

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By Art Spander

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The room, the interview room for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, had been chock-a-block full. Then Jordan Spieth was finished, and even though another major champion was ready to sit down, most of the media also were finished. Jason Day, the new guy, only shrugged at what at best was disregard and at worst an insult.

But first Day showed he had a sense of humor. “I think Jake Owen pulled most of those people in here,” said Day about Spieth’s amateur partner, the country and western singer — and two handicap golfer. Then after a pause, Day added a rhetorical, “Didn’t he?”

Certain performers, athletes, entertainers and politicians have the “it factor," charisma, a quality that, well, fills rooms, TV screens, front pages and their bank accounts. Not that Jason Day, one of the top three in the World Golf Rankings, hasn’t made the big bucks. What he and many others haven’t made is the big splash.

Arnold Palmer was the first and perhaps still the most memorable. Arnie was just a guy who liked people and could hit a ball a mile. And that’s what golf needed, still needs, because golf has no team loyalty.

Thousands of people can make birdies. Arnie made us pay attention, pay homage. So did Jack Nicklaus. And certainly Tiger Woods. And now Jordan Spieth.

And if Spieth isn't yet Tiger as far as history — Woods has more wins than anybody besides Sam Snead, more majors than anybody besides Nicklaus — or in personality, Jordan is heading in the right direction as far as results. His personality always has been sunnier than Tiger's.

Two majors in 2015 for Spieth, seven victories before age 25. But no less important, confidence without a scintilla of arrogance and an ability to give long, thoughtful answers to questions, a rare virtue in a hurried, impatient world.

“It doesn’t worry me,” said Day of the people fleeing before his interview. “It just needs, it just shows I need to work harder, and hopefully a couple more people will fill the room after that.” Unfortunately, it’s not so easy. Or understandable.

A star isn’t always born or developed. The progression begins with talent. Lady Gaga’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to open the Super Bowl was an event unto itself. She already had a reputation, a career, then left us with a memory. Perfect timing, the biggest event of any year in the United States and wham, she left us gasping. Wow.

As did Spieth, already heading toward greatness by becoming only the third in a half-century, next to Arnie and Jack, to start the year with wins in both the Masters and the U.S. Open. He gave the Grand Slam a run, just missing a playoff in the British. Wow.

We used to call Tiger “The Man.” Spieth, then, is “The Man II.” Although he appears embarrassed by the comparison. To Spieth, at 22, fundamentally half as old as the 40-year-old Tiger, Woods is an inspiration, not an association.

His climb into the No. 1 place in the rankings, a position long held by Woods and more recently by Rory McIlroy and Day, is seen by Spieth as an opportunity rather than verification.

It isn’t “Hey, look at me,” it’s “You know what I’ve been able to do?”

Such as play against Woods, and even shoot 63 on the North Course at Torrey Pines, in 2014. Such as being introduced to one man he long has admired from his hometown Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki.

“I grew up living half a mile from him,” said Spieth of the 2007 NBA most valuable player, “and he was my hero growing up in Dallas. I never met him. The other day I got to take pictures and hang out with him. And I thought that was pretty awesome. I wouldn’t say that’s probably an advantage to the position we’re in, but with (the No.1 ranking) it becomes a responsibility for sure.”

The key in life, we’re told, is to take your job and responsibilities seriously, but not yourself. Spieth has full comprehension. He can needle and joke with others, unworried what they might say in response.

Owen, the singer, sitting next to Spieth, said Colt Knost, another Texas pro — and winner of the 2007 U.S. Amateur at San Francisco’s Olympic Club — told him, “When Jordan talks to the ball, the ball listens to him.”

In Singapore, Spieth hits a ball to the edge of a bunker, yells, “Just give me a normal bounce,” and the shot ends up in the middle of the fairway. “That’s a normal bounce?” questioned Owen.

Nothing’s normal for Jordan Spieth. “But you haven’t changed in the four years I’ve known you,” said Owen to Spieth, “as far as your graciousness to the people around you and the way you handle yourself ... I really admire that.”

Who wouldn’t?