Extra, Extra! Medalist Spieth Needs 19 Holes To Oust Pesky Perry

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Bedminster, N.J. – Jack Perry headed toward the clubhouse with a smile on his face.

Jordan Spieth, on the 480-yard fifth hole, mounted a late comeback to force extra holes. (Steven Gibbons/USGA)

After his second-round match Thursday at Trump National Golf Club in the U.S. Junior Amateur, one might have surmised he was the one coming off an extra-hole victory. Not so. The 16-year-old Perry, from Santa Barbara, Calif., prided himself on taking medalist Jordan Spieth to the precipice.  He just couldn’t send him tumbling over the ledge.

“My goal is to win the Junior Amateur,” said the flushed Perry. “And if not, give [my opponent] a run for his money and not let him walk all over me. … I’m not upset.”

That he did, although he had the Dallas, Texas, prodigy frazzled coming down the stretch. When Perry won the 377-yard, par-4 11th hole on the Old Course, he earned a 2-up lead, his largest of the match.

At that point the 15-year-old Spieth, teeming with emotion, turned gloomy. There were seven holes to play. Spieth felt the sands of time were conspiring against him. Caddie-turned-psychiatrist Mike Abill threw tough love his way, telling him, “Never saying you’re running out of holes. Even if you’re 2 down with two holes to go, you’re in it.”

Spieth parlayed the negative energy into hard-boiled determination. If he was going to fall like weeds to a scythe, he was going to, at the very worst, dull the blade.

On No. 12, Perry executed the first of a couple fatal errors, as he called it. He sent his drive into a bunker and couldn’t get up and down to give a hole back. After trading pars through the next three holes, Spieth found new life on the par-3 16th. Perry dumped his tee shot into the right greenside bunker. His next shot came out thin and rolled to the other side of the green. Perry grimaced.

Spieth, in the meantime, executed an easy lob to 3 feet of the flagstick from the back fringe. When his par-putt fell in, he had new life. He bellowed with excitement.

“I was thinking, ‘No looking back,’” said Perry when asked how he felt being 2 up. “But I was expecting him to come back, especially Jordan Spieth, because he’s a really good putter.”

The comeback looked to be short-lived because Spieth had 6-foot putts to go ahead and win on the 17th and 18th greens.  In each case, he took perfunctory putts as the gallery and Perry headed to the next hole. After the lagging putt went left, Spieth looked skyward and muttered, “Come on. It didn’t break.”

“They were misreads,” said Spieth afterward. “It wasn’t adrenaline, it wasn’t nerves; just misreads.”

The only time nerves did take over came on No. 1, the longest par 4 in the championship at 514 yards. It served as the first playoff hole.

Spieth split the fairway while Perry blocked his drive into mulch. Perry stung a 4-iron slice that put him in the fairway. The two had traded compliments all round and this time was no exception. Spieth sang his praises, belting out, “Nice shot!”  Perry then stuck his 100-yard approach to 6 feet.

That’s when Spieth’s nervous system took over.

“I was kind of in shock,” said Spieth, a semifinalist last year. “When his ball was in the air, I was thinking, ‘Come on, he just stuffed his ball,’ putting a lot of pressure on me.”

Spieth answered back superbly, choking down on a wedge from 45 yards out, in the left rough, and sticking his shot to 3 feet of the hole.

Perry went first. He had fine rythym but missed the intended the target, the right center of the hole, and the ball lipped out of the left edge. This time Spieth was  dogged in his approach. He wasn’t going to miss another opportunity to close out Perry.

“It was on the side of two little hills,” said Spieth, adding that the putt was tougher than it looked.

After the ball disappeared, the two competitors congratulated each other. Perry told Spieth that he wanted him to “win this. I want you to win this week.”

He said it with a smile.

Which brings us back to Perry’s walk back to the clubhouse. By his account, sometimes it’s OK to come out on the other end as long as you prove something to yourself.

“You asked me how I feel,” said Perry. “I’m not upset but I’m not thrilled that I lost. I took the best player to the brink. It’s not the end of life. It’s just a game.”

Ken Klavon is the editor of new media. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.