PGA Tour

Shane Bacon golf mailbag: Can Jordan Spieth run the table?

Published Jun. 25, 2015 12:05 p.m. ET

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Shane Bacon

I apologize for the delay of this U.S. Open wrap-up mailbag. I’ve spent the last three days standing just left of the 18th green at Chambers Bay with my mouth agape, wondering if what I just saw really happened.

Seriously, I was about to change my flight. I had my phone in hand, ready to email whomever it was I had to email to get all my travel altered so I could spend Monday following the two most impressive American golfers on this planet as they battled for 18 playoff holes at the U.S. Open. It was supposed to happen. Jordan Spieth missed his eagle putt to set it all up, an eagle putt that my colleague Scott McCarron said Spieth got to see three times before he hit it. (Branden’s Grace ball going up the hill, rolling back down, and then his putt back up the hill.)

Spieth missed, and it was all set for the longest hitter on the PGA Tour by 10 yards to dominate the kind of hole he dominates, make his own birdie and give us Jordan Spieth versus Dustin Johnson on Monday. And Johnson three-putted. He three-putted after seeing Jason Day hit both putts from the same spot!

But you don’t need a recap. You need a mailbag. A Chambers Bay-heavy, Spieth-packed, Rory-versus-Jordan look at what just happened. Let’s go.

A reminder: if you want to submit a question, fire it to me over at Twitter at @shanebacon or on Facebook right here.

Bacon: Do you want my thoughts on it or the statistical chances it happens? Neil Paine over at FiveThirtyEight has the chances at around 1 percent, which can be looked at one of two ways:

1. That’s crazy, considering he’s already snagged the first two, the second coming when Spieth didn’t even have his best stuff.

2. It’s never really been done before in the modern era of golf, and he still has to win two more majors to do it.

You can’t count the kid out from doing anything at this point, even if what he’s trying to accomplish is something Jack Nicklaus could never do in his prime and Tiger Woods wasn’t able to do when he was a par-5 ahead of the rest of the golf world.

But what Spieth has going his way is consistency. His bad rounds aren’t that bad, and his good rounds are great, and that’s why he was able to card 18 top-25s in 27 starts last season and 10 top-10s this year, including three wins, in just 17 starts.

Do I think he will win the Grand Slam this season? No, of course not. It might be the hardest thing to do in all of sports, up there with batting .400 in baseball, going undefeated in the NFL and trying to beat Serena Williams in anything tennis-related when she’s 100-percent healthy.

I’d say he has a solid shot at St. Andrews (fire up the #HOTTAKE machine on this one), especially given how great he is with the putter from off the greens. I was out at the Old Course earlier this month, and even I forgot how undulated those greens are. Being on with the flatstick is the most important part of succeeding at St. Andrews. Spieth is the best putter in the world right now, so unless whatever private jet he takes to Leuchars drops his putter into the ocean, I’d say he will a have great shot.

My early St. Andrews favorites:

1. Louis Oosthuizen

2. Rory McIlroy

3. Dustin Johnson

4. Jordan Spieth

5. Bubba Watson

That will probably change. Stay tuned.

Bacon: Really? Dull? Did you see how he reacted after that birdie putt dropped on the 16th on Sunday?

I get that he isn’t out there cracking jokes with fans and fist-pumping with the power of 1,000 Tigers, but what more do you want from a young sensation? He’s a silent killer on the course, as nice as they come off it, polite, sincere and a worthy champion when he wins.

I don’t find him dull. I like anybody who can dominate golf tournaments, especially major championships, like he’s doing.

And to be fair, nobody really knows how any athlete is off the field these days. These kids are taught to give us just enough and nothing more, knowing the better they are at not ruffling feathers, the more happy the sponsors and P.W.C.'s (people with cash) are. It’s a business at the end of the day, and Jordan Spieth is now a brand. A successful brand.

I’d say give him another chance because if you find him dull, I’m not sure you’re going to enjoy golf for the next couple of decades.

Bacon: I’m coupling these questions because it’s basically the same idea; if Tiger had to battle, in his prime, this group of characters, would he still have 14 majors?

I mean, the easy answer is no. McIlroy, Spieth, Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Justin Rose . . . these guys not only have the game to beat Tiger when he’s on (not  “on” like at Pebble Beach or St. Andrews, but maybe at Valhalla or Torrey Pines) but the “no fear” component that was never around when Woods was playing his best golf.

My guess? Woods would probably have 10 majors. I could see someone take four of the 14 simply because they were clicking that week, like Rory at Congressional or Jordan earlier this year at Augusta (or Kaymer at Pinehurst, for that matter).

But a point to remember is a lot of these guys are professional golfers because of Tiger Woods. He was the one they looked up to, he was the one they held well above everyone else in the game, and he was the one that made golf as cool a sport as basketball or baseball in their high schools.

So, while the debate is insane because it’s impossible to compare eras, I’m sure McIlroy would have at least wrestled a couple away from Woods back in those days, and then Kaymer or Oosthuizen or Spieth would have been in the zone during one of those other major weeks.

Bacon: Well, besides the two straight major wins to end 2014 and his victories at both the Cadillac Match Play and the Wells Fargo Championship. Those were pretty decent events for Rory.

I get what you’re saying, to a point. How is there a rivalry when Spieth outlasts Rose and Phil Mickelson at the Masters and Grace and Johnson at the U.S. Open?

Rory did finish fourth alone at Augusta and T-9 at Chambers Bay, but he wasn’t really a factor because of his opening rounds at both events (at the majors this year, Rory is 2-over in the first two rounds, 14-under in the last two).

I compare the two like this; Rory is Nolan Ryan. When his fastball is hitting its spots, he’s unbeatable. Spieth is Greg Maddux. He’s always rock-solid, and that’s why he is competitive week in and week out. Jordan has more of a complete game, but Rory has firepower that is unmatched by almost anyone in professional golf.

What we need, of course, is Rory and Jordan to battle in a major, and that’s why St. Andrews is so exciting. Rory nearly shot 62 at the 2010 British Open on the Old Course, missing a bunny on the 17th for a birdie before making birdie on 18 for 63. Of course, he followed that up with an 80 in the second round thanks to some terrible weather, still managing to finish T-3, eight back of Oosthuizen.

And that gets to my next point: Rory and Spieth need to be paired together for the first two rounds. The golf world is about two names right now, and that’s it. No offense to anyone else out there, but when we get to St. Andrews, the talk will be about Spieth’s chances at the Grand Slam and Rory’s chances to knock Spieth off this recent major run.

Pair them together so one doesn’t get an advantage with weather, and pair them together because it’s the matchup we all want to see. I hope it happens, I really do. And if they throw Oosthuizen or Hideki Matsuyama or Jason Day in there as a third, all the better.

If we get Rory versus Jordan on a Sunday at a major . . . you know, I can’t even finish that sentence. Cross your fingers. It will be amazing if it happens, but as we all know, we never really got that Tiger-versus-Phil battle we all wanted to see late on a Sunday at a major, so no reason to jinx the chances now.

If it happens, the sports world will take notice.

Bacon: The dude was 12 shots back after round one! TWELVE! And nearly won the whole damn thing.

It would have been the greatest comeback in modern U.S. Open history, but what people don’t totally get is just how hard it was to go low at Chambers Bay (well, until Sunday, when the USGA made the second nine a lot friendlier, adding to all the excitement we enjoyed on the way in).

Oosthuizen and J.B. Holmes were the low men on Friday with 66s, Oosthuizen was the low man on Saturday by two shots on a day when only five other men broke 70, and after struggling early Sunday, he birdied six of his last seven holes to post 29 on the back nine and give himself a real good chance at stealing the championship.

Louis tied six other guys for the most birdies in the entire championship (18), and he shot 77 on Thursday. Guys, 77!

It was a truly incredible performance. Oosthuizen was the best golfer at Chambers Bay for 54 holes, but golf is four rounds, and that’s that. He shot himself out of the championship the first day, then somehow found something that nobody else could figure out the final three days. And if he doesn’t make three early bogeys on Sunday, he’s the U.S. Open champion right now and we’re all looking at his final three rounds as some of the finest this championship has ever seen.

Finishing T-2 is a bummer when you’re already a major champion, but few bouncebacks have been as impressive as Oosthuizen’s. He’s now finished first at the British, second at the Masters and T-2 at the U.S. Open. As golf fans know, when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best in the world.

And, appropriate question: Do you change up what you drink out of the Claret Jug when you win a second British or stick with the same liquor? Oosthuizen might be able to answer that for us in just over three weeks.

Bacon: It wasn’t the greens, and, honestly, I’m not sure it was a choke.

I’ve had a few days to process all of this, and here is what I think about Johnson and what he needs to take from Chambers: Johnson hit the ball better than anyone by a long shot, struggled with the putter especially on Sunday and still nearly won the U.S. Open over big names like Spieth, Oosthuizen and Jason Day.

Along with that, when he had to hit clutch golf shots down the stretch, he did just that. The last three swings of his championship were perfect. Seriously, think about it. His tee shot on 17 ended up 6 feet away, and he made birdie. His drive on 18 went 353 yards and was described to me by a golf journalist friend of mine who has been in the business for years as “the best shot I’ve ever seen in my life.” And then he hits 5-iron from 249 yards to 17 feet to set up an eagle chance. And really, he got a bad break. That ball could have rolled back. It didn’t, but it could have inched closer to the cup considering how quick that slope was.

And, to be fair, the eagle putt wasn’t bad. He missed it on the right side, made what appeared to be a good stroke and knew if he went for the eagle he would have a few feet coming back for birdie. Unfortunately for Johnson, the next putt was horrendous and that’s where he lost it.

But the positives outweigh the negatives. Johnson should look at Chambers as a great week that nearly saw him win a major without a great week on the greens. Hopefully, the camp around him relays similar information because St. Andrews is a great spot for Johnson considering his length and how he can move the ball right to left.

Bacon: Happy?! Of course not. I hated to see it. What Grace was doing paired alongside Spieth was the most underrated story of the week at Chambers Bay.

One swing and it all went away. Like Johnson, hopefully Grace focuses on all the good stuff from Chambers and not the one bad swing on 16 (and he seemed in good spirits when Amanda Balionis caught up with him at the Travelers).

Bacon: In the sense of being a part of a broadcast team doing its first major championship, you’ll always be my first, Lone Fir. You’ll always be my first.

Shane Bacon is a regular contributor to FOXSports.com's golf coverage. Follow him on Twitter at @shanebacon.

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