by Jeff Skinner
Coming into this week’s John Deere Classic Jordan Spieth had been “living the life.” Any nineteen year old kid that gets to travel the country teeing it up with the best golfers in the world has to be living his dream. But Jordan Spieth’s dream turned very real yesterday as he willed his way to victory and changed his life forever.
Spieth’s season is absolutely amazing. He started the season with no status on any professional tour. Not on the PGA, Euro or Web.com Tour. He was a professional golfer with nowhere to play. But this is the kid that came into the national consciousness in 2010 when he stuck around the top of the leaderboard at the Byron Nelson Classic before he finished in a tie for sixteenth.
So he was determined to get by on sponsor’s exemptions and Monday Qualify. In fact he was playing on Thursdays to qualify to get into the Monday Qualifiers. Prior to his earth shattering victory at the Deere his gutsy season was already a success.
Before the Deere he had played in 15 events, had five top tens, made 11 cuts and pocketed $1.2 million. Not a bad take for a teenager. He had played so well that he had earned a Special Temporary Exemption onto the PGA Tour which gave him unlimited sponsor’s exemptions. And he had earned enough cash to get a tour card for next season.
But this win changes all that, in a very big way.
In addition to the $828,000 that puts him over $2 million for the year he reaps a real wealth of rewards.
He earns a PGA Tour Card through the 2015 season. He gains entry into this week’s Open Championship, the PGA Championship in August and next year’s Masters Tournament.
Since he won, all the FedEx Cup points he accumulated (but were not earned because he was not a Tour Member) are now counted towards the FedEx Cup. That translates into Spieth moving into the top twenty in points and quarantines him a spot in the playoffs.
All this means the kid is pretty well set for the next two years.
Combine that with the fact that he is the youngest winner in the modern era (Johnny McDermott won the 1911 US Open when he was one month younger than Spieth) and you have a kid that could command plenty of attention as he grows up on tour.
Talk about a Cinderella Story…Jordan Spieth is just that. The kid shows up with no status and works his way onto the tour, into major championship and into the spotlight of American golf. It doesn’t get much better than that.
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