JORDAN SPIETH

The 21-year old wunderkind Jordan Spieth is the new star of world golf. Only one golfer in history has won the first three (of the four) majors of the year, Ben Hogan, back in 1953. This afternoon, at the British Open at St. Andrews, the home of golf, it looked as if history could repeat itself. Spieth had already won the Masters (convincingly) and the U.S.Open (less so, after Dustin Johnson three-putted the last, when one putt would have given him victory and two a play-off). Despite taking a double bogey on the par 3 eighth, a monster 30-foot putt on the sixteenth put Spieth into a share of the lead with two holes to play. Two holes at par, and he would go into a play-off; but if he parred the seventeenth and birdied the eighteenth, one of the easiest holes on the course, he would win.

He didn't. He bogeyed the seventeenth and missed his birdie putt on the eighteenth. And so the chance was gone. He will probably have nightmares about that eighth hole, since his tee shot landed on the green and he then four-putted. Despite that, I fully expect him to win more majors in the future, perhaps as early as the U.S. PGA championship in August.

And if Spieth is the new superstar of world golf, where does that leave the old one, Tiger Woods? Although Woods has won 14 majors, he hasn't won one since the 2008 U.S. Open, and has been plagued by injury. At St. Andrews, where he has won before, he missed the cut. All in all, it's looking increasingly likely that he won't win another.

Walter Blotscher