Jordan Spieth eclipses competition to win Tour Championship

Jordan Spieth ends his spectacular season with a thumping victory at East Lake

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Jordan Spieth ends his spectacular season with a thumping victory at East Lake

September 28, 2015: Jordan Spieth made a slam dunk on Sunday, shutting the lid on a discussion that already felt unnecessary. Going into the week, there were still a few sections wondering if the young American was indeed the Player of the Year. Spieth really did not need to assert himself any further, as suggested even by Rory McIlroy. But then Spieth did deliver a compelling final argument that brought the debate to a thumping end, with a four shot victory over a decimated field to clinch the FedexCup and the Tour Championship.

Starting the day with a one shot lead, it was Spieth alone who stood the stresses of playing for the big prize as the rest of the fizzled out in the distance.

Midway through the year, Spieth seemed unstoppable. A grand slam of majors felt nearly inevitable, his domination appeared a natural outcome every time he took the field. In the end though six victories, including the Masters and the US Open capped by another significant performance in the Tour Championship underlined a near perfect season for the young man.

The 22 year old American earned an eye-popping $12,030,465 without accounting for the $10 million FedExCup bonus. That is more than many families can add up through a lifetime of toil.

Spieth was toiling too – Cameron McCormick put his ward through the paces, to iron our his short game ahead of the final event on the Tour. Michael Greller, Spieth’s caddie was also doing some early rounds understanding pin positions, trying to read the Bermuda greens for his boss.

The results were immediate – Spieth jumped into the lead with a birdie at the 18th on Saturday and nailed his finish to perfection. The numbers underlined his solid performance this week – finishing at the top of the charts in terms of putting, scrambling and strokes gained.

“For whatever reason, everything else was slipping into my head for a couple of those weeks,” Spieth said.

Amazingly, Spieth was the only player to break par in all four rounds of the Tour Championship. Danny Lee, the subject of a jocular altercation with Rickie Fowler through the week along with Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson were just playing for second, finishing at 5-under, four shots behind the winner.

“It’s validation to the year. It’s validation to these playoffs, and how can you go through the lows of a season so quickly after you’re so high,” Spieth said. “People can give up on you easily.”

“And to not care about that, to worry about our own stuff, and to come into the brightest stages and perform is going to give me a lot of confidence going forward because there’s going to be ups and there’s going to be downs, I know it. But to be able to bounce back this quickly from the low in my season is really cool.”

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