Spieth one round away from FedEx Cup and Tour Championship
Jordan Spieth is one round away from ending the season by ending the discussion.
Spieth carries a one-shot lead over Henrik Stenson into the final round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, and, if he can finish off his fifth PGA Tour win of the season on Sunday, he’ll win the season-long FedEx Cup, its $10 million first-place prize and quell talk of anyone other than him winning the peer-voted PGA Tour Player of the Year award.
The 22-year-old shot 2-under 68 for the second time in three rounds on Saturday, turning around a three-shot deficit to Stenson into a 54-hole edge. In difficult, rainy conditions, Spieth turned in even-par 35 and continued to gain on Stenson, who he played with in the final pairing, as the Sweded dropped shots three times on the back nine. A birdie on the par-5 15th helped Spieth gain back a shot he lost to Stenson’s birdie on the 14th. Then, on the 235-yard par-3 18th, Spieth spiked home a 20-foot birdie putt to cap off the round and take the lead.
If Spieth wins on Sunday, he sets several records. He’d be the youngest since the 1920s, back when the PGA Tour as we know it didn’t really exist, to have a five-win season. With the $1.48 million first-place check from taking the Tour Championship, Spieth would pass Vijay Singh for the most single-season earnings in PGA Tour history. And, of course, he’d be the youngest player to win both the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup.
Perhaps most dangerous for the competition on Sunday, Spieth knows, after a two-major season, he is playing with house money.
“No matter what, it’s a dream come true season,” Spieth said. “Two majors, a couple other wins, and what we have been able to do consistently this year, that’s a huge step up from anything I’ve ever done. So I don’t need tomorrow to justify it.”
However, Spieth knows that the $10 million prize that goes along with the FedEx Cup isn’t funny money. It plays and it’s life-altering.
“But I’m not going to sit here and say $10 million doesn’t mean anything to me, because it does,” said Spieth, perhaps unconsciously calling back to Rory McIlroy’s honest sentiment shared earlier in the week that the eight-figure payday doesn’t mean much to him, but rather it’s competition that motivates the four-time major winner.
Spieth has performed his best in the major championships this year, winning two and coming within four strokes of winning the single-season Grand Slam. It should be no surprise, then, that Spieth will treat this Sunday like the sport’s four biggest.
“I’m very motivated,” he said. “It’s something I want badly, and it’s going to feel a lot like a major championship when I step on the first tee.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
