American young gun Jordan Spieth dreams of emulating Rory McIlroy after upstaging the world No.1 and big home hope Adam Scott to score a runaway six-stroke Australian Open victory.
The 21-year-old prodigy fired a spectacular course-record eight-under-par 63 in Sunday’s final round at The Australian to win at 13-under 271.
Veteran Rod Pampling (68) birdied the last two holes to clinch outright second spot, one shot ahead of Brett Rumford (70), with two-time champion Greg Chalmers (71) fourth a further stroke behind and Scott (71) fifth at three-under.
Jake Higginbottom, Robert Allenby and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox were the only other players to finish under par in continuing tough conditions.
As his rivals struggled, Texan Spieth produced one of the great rounds in Open history to land his long-awaited first win of the season – just as McIlroy did last year at Royal Sydney.
“I feel great now,” said the 2014 US Masters runner-up.
“There’s been a lot of close calls between now and since I last won and it’d be a lie if I didn’t say it was eating at me a little bit.
“It’s tough when you get so close in big events against world-class fields and you’re not able to pull it off.”
Spieth hailed his sublime bogey-free performance as “definitely the best round I’ve ever played”.
“I salvaged every stroke possible today. There was nothing left out there and that’s very rare to find,” he said.
McIlroy’s drought-breaking one-stroke win over Scott last year set up a phenomenal 2014 in which the Northern Irishman landed his third and fourth majors at the British Open and US PGA Championship and regained the sport’s top ranking.
“If I had the follow-up year that Rory had this year, I think I’d be pretty pleased,” Spieth said.
Despite rising three spots to world No.11 with his Open romp, and openly admitting his goal is to scale the rankings summit, Spieth conceded it was unrealistic to expect to reach such lofty heights in 2015.
“I think I am very far away,” he said.
“Honestly, this week was big because I felt the pressure and felt the nerves and performed the best I have ever performed.
“But there is a big difference between playing great at Augusta and coming up just short, and closing out a tournament.
“It just feels completely different and, even though that week was one of the most memorable of my golfing career, it still wasn’t a win and it still wasn’t the same feeling as this week walking up the 18th.
“So in order to do this in majors it is going to take a lot more than what it took this week.
“No disrespect to this championship, a major championship dwells on your mind more than any other tournament.
“I believe I am still far away because I believe I have to win a major or two to start to significantly progress to that goal – so now I look to April (and the Masters).”
The Texas native is the first American to win the Open since Brad Faxon at The Metropolitan in 1993 – when Spieth was just four months old.
As well as earning a cheque for $225,000, Spieth will join some of golf’s all-time greats including Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman to have his name etched on the Stonehaven Cup.
“I didn’t realise Gary Player won it seven times and Jack won it six, with more recent names like Adam and Rory,” Spieth said.
“When I look at this trophy, I see Hall of Famers and you don’t see that on every trophy and it’s really cool that my game will go on here.”
He is also the youngest champion since Aaron Baddeley won back-to-back titles as a teenager in 1999 and 2000.
