“What would have happened if he had two-putted the eighth?”

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End that question with the eighth green at the Old Course and anyone who follows golf closely knows the topic: Jordan Spieth, holder of the green jacket and the U.S. Open trophy, with a chance to win The Open and he inexplicably putts uphill, way past the hole, intp the only spot you can't putt your ball, well off the otherwise benign green.

James Corrigan, in reviewing Spieth's year for the Telegraph, goes back to the same spot that I keep thinking of in remember 2015. Because that putt encapsulates the historic majors season posted by Spieth by reminding us how close he was to winning the first three majors of 2015. But it also reminds us that someday he'll lie awake at night knowing the first three were so within his grasp and yet even the world's best putter could throw in a shockingly average putting week and still miss a playoff by one.

Corrigan writes:

The point is that if Spieth had enjoyed even one of his average putting weeks, he would, by his own reckoning, have become just the second golfer to win the Masters, US Open and Open in the same year and become the first to have the chance to win all four at the USPGA. In the event, he finished second at Whistling Straits behind world No 2 Jason Day, but who knows much how the Claret Jug could have inspired him in that August week?

We could easily have been talking about the greatest season in golf instead of just “one” of the greatest and with the strength in depth in the game we can only wonder when we might witness a player coming so close again; especially a player of his tender years.