In an Open of endings, Jordan Spieth provides the brightest of beginnings

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — There was a moment when it all came together, when Jordan Spieth’s insanely long putt on the 16^th hole of the final round of the British Open rolled true, when you thought, it can’t be this easy.

(AP Photo/Jon Super) It wasn’t. The Spieth Slam came to a sudden stop only moments later, when Spieth bogeyed the next hole and couldn’t birdie his way into a playoff on the 18th. So, no British Open, no Grand Slam, no run for the ages. But man, it was a hell of a ride.

This was a British Open of endings. Tom Watson took his (second) final walk across the Swilcan Bridge, and it’s likely Sir Nick Faldo won’t be back to St. Andrews as a player ever again. Famed announcer Ivor Robson has chirped his last tee time. Tiger Woods stumbled through two rounds on the course, the large TIGER WOODS CHAMPION 2000/2005 billboards a painful and ironic backdrop.

But it was also an Open of beginnings. Amateurs played their way deep into the final round, with Jordan Niebrugge placing in a tie for sixth and Oliver Schneiderjans and Ashley Chesters tying for 12th. Sure, Zach Johnson won, and that’s absolutely great for him. He played smart, he played well, he deserves this victory. All due respect to Johnson, but this was Spieth’s Open, right up until the minute he gave it away on the 71^st hole.

All right, that’s not exactly fair. The Road Hole was the toughest on the course, the par-4 averaging 4.6 strokes for the tournament and 4.8 on the final day. But after all that he’d done, after all that we’d seen, after he’d shouldered all the hopes of an entire sport … to come apart on a putt, of all things, seemed not just unfortunate, it seemed unfair.

Spieth had just come off one of the most impressive demonstrations of golf will you’re likely to see. He’d double-bogeyed 8, dropping himself three strokes behind the leaders and looking doomed.

But he got both strokes back on the next two holes, then snagged another with that long birdie putt on 16. When he made the putt, which vaulted him into a tie for the lead, he didn’t shout. He didn’t pump his fists and bellow to the sky. He simply gave a little air-punch, then walked with a stony disposition over to the 17th tee. There was still work to be done.

Even after the devastation, Spieth still exhibited grace. He missed a putt on 18 that would have put him in the playoff, and then, as he left the course, he clasped his hands together and motioned to the grandstand, thanking them for their support. They cheered all the louder. Then he stuck around to congratulate Johnson on his victory.

“It won’t hurt too bad. It’s not like I really lost it on the last hole, and 17 was brutally challenging,” Spieth said. “I made a lot of the right decisions down the stretch and certainly closed plenty of tournaments out, and this just wasn’t one of those. It’s hard to do that every single time. I won’t beat myself up too bad because I do understand that.”

You know the history: Speith is one of three Americans to win both the Masters and the U.S. Open in a single season only to lose the British by a single stroke. The other two: Arnold Palmer in 1960 and Jack Nicklaus in 1972. There’s no reason to put Spieth in their hallowed company just yet, but there’s no reason to think he’s not on that trajectory, either.

On Wednesday, just before the Open began, a champions’ showdown brought together nearly 30 of the tournament’s former winners, from 2010’s Louis Oosthuizen to the octogenarian Arnold Palmer. It was an impressive display of golf history. Come 2075, those of us still around might see Jordan Spieth playing in his own champions event. He didn’t get there this year, but one day, he almost surely will.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.

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