Sign up with Google
Creag
The Boar's Rock
- Joined
- May 19, 2009
- Messages
- 43,526
When it comes to the calendar grand slam, Williams is a safe bet; Spieth is a long shot
by Archie Henderson | 15 July 2015
FROM tomorrow Jordan Spieth will attempt to continue on a mission that so far has proved impossible.
By Sunday, the calendar grand slam of golf will either still be in orbit or — as has happened on three previous occasions — it will have crashed and burned.
Talk of winning all four of golf‘s majors in a single year started at the weekend with tennis, when it became clear that Serena Williams could win all four women‘s grand slam titles this year.
Spieth, a 21-year-old Texan, has won the Masters and US Open and needs to repeat that form in the British Open from tomorrow until Sunday and again in the PGA next month to go boldly where no other golfer has gone before.
Williams is a safe bet; Spieth is a long shot.
All the tennis superstar needs to do is win in New York on September 13 and the “Serena Slam” will become a calendar grand slam. She already holds all four grand slam titles, but over two years.
There seems to be no one to stop her. In winning the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon this year, she has been taken to three sets in the final stages only once — by Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in Paris. She has won the US Open for the past three years.
Against the still active major winners, her record is: Maria Sharapova, whom she beat to win in Australia this year (18 wins, two defeats), Ana Ivanovic (8-1), Svetlana Kuznetsova (8-2), Victoria Azarenka (17-3), Petra Kvitova (5-1), Francesca Schiavone (7-2), Samantha Stosur (8-3) and elder sister Venus (15-11).
Who would bet against her? Not so with Spieth.
Three of golf‘s greats have been where Spieth stands now — and failed.
Arnold Palmer, who had beaten Jack Nicklaus a month before in the US Open, lost by a single stroke at the St Andrews Old Course.
Twelve years later, at Muirfield in Scotland, Nicklaus came to grief by a stroke against Lee Trevino.
Thirty years after that, and back at Muirfield, Tiger Woods arrived having won six of the previous nine major tournaments.
But, he shot the worst round of his career up till then, a 10-over-par 81. He recovered with a 65 in the next round, but still trailed by six shots when four golfers tied with the best score and Ernie Els prevailed in a play-off.
Tomorrow, Spieth returns to the scene of Palmer‘s demise in 1960 at St Andrews.
He will also be a year younger than the only man to have won all four then-major championships in a single year. But that was Bobby Jones in 1930 when there was no Masters and no PGA, only the US and British Open championships and their amateur equivalents.
Spieth will need to ignore history and embrace Serena Williams as an example as he goes off on his personal mission impossible.
This article first appeared in The Times
Source: RDM.co.za | http://www.rdm.co.za/sport/2015/07/15/why-serena-will-win-it-all-and-jordan-spieth-won-t
by Archie Henderson | 15 July 2015
FROM tomorrow Jordan Spieth will attempt to continue on a mission that so far has proved impossible.
By Sunday, the calendar grand slam of golf will either still be in orbit or — as has happened on three previous occasions — it will have crashed and burned.
Talk of winning all four of golf‘s majors in a single year started at the weekend with tennis, when it became clear that Serena Williams could win all four women‘s grand slam titles this year.
Spieth, a 21-year-old Texan, has won the Masters and US Open and needs to repeat that form in the British Open from tomorrow until Sunday and again in the PGA next month to go boldly where no other golfer has gone before.
Williams is a safe bet; Spieth is a long shot.
All the tennis superstar needs to do is win in New York on September 13 and the “Serena Slam” will become a calendar grand slam. She already holds all four grand slam titles, but over two years.
There seems to be no one to stop her. In winning the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon this year, she has been taken to three sets in the final stages only once — by Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in Paris. She has won the US Open for the past three years.
Against the still active major winners, her record is: Maria Sharapova, whom she beat to win in Australia this year (18 wins, two defeats), Ana Ivanovic (8-1), Svetlana Kuznetsova (8-2), Victoria Azarenka (17-3), Petra Kvitova (5-1), Francesca Schiavone (7-2), Samantha Stosur (8-3) and elder sister Venus (15-11).
Who would bet against her? Not so with Spieth.
Three of golf‘s greats have been where Spieth stands now — and failed.
Arnold Palmer, who had beaten Jack Nicklaus a month before in the US Open, lost by a single stroke at the St Andrews Old Course.
Twelve years later, at Muirfield in Scotland, Nicklaus came to grief by a stroke against Lee Trevino.
Thirty years after that, and back at Muirfield, Tiger Woods arrived having won six of the previous nine major tournaments.
But, he shot the worst round of his career up till then, a 10-over-par 81. He recovered with a 65 in the next round, but still trailed by six shots when four golfers tied with the best score and Ernie Els prevailed in a play-off.
Tomorrow, Spieth returns to the scene of Palmer‘s demise in 1960 at St Andrews.
He will also be a year younger than the only man to have won all four then-major championships in a single year. But that was Bobby Jones in 1930 when there was no Masters and no PGA, only the US and British Open championships and their amateur equivalents.
Spieth will need to ignore history and embrace Serena Williams as an example as he goes off on his personal mission impossible.
This article first appeared in The Times
Source: RDM.co.za | http://www.rdm.co.za/sport/2015/07/15/why-serena-will-win-it-all-and-jordan-spieth-won-t