Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy are the same ... but quite different
The two best golfers on the planet are similar in results but pretty different in execution. Here's a look at the mechanics of their interactions on Thursday at Whistling Straits.
By
Kyle Porter
•
6 min read
More PGA Championship: Leaderboard | Round 1 thoughts | Five to watch Friday
HAVEN, Wis. -- It's no big secret that Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are diametrically opposed as athletes and as people. For as thoughtful and masterful with words as they both are, it's true that they are arriving at the same spot in two very different ways.
Results may not vary between them, but execution sure does.
I jumped into their group on Thursday at Whistling Straits to see what oil and vinegar looks like when it trickles along Lake Michigan down the back nine of Whistling Straits.
Their scores didn't matter to me. Martin Kaymer was five back of Matt Kuchar in 2010 and went on to win the PGA Championship in a playoff. Unless you're shooting 77s in round one, the end result of Thursday's round matters very little.
What I wanted to see is how these two, the first and second-best golfers on Earth, interacted. How did they engage each other? Would there be fireworks? Would it be chummy? What is that much greatness balled up into a single group actually like?
I crouched behind the 11th tee as they started eating into the back side of the course. Everybody was even. I was ready.
Now let me be clear about something, I've watched McIlroy hit drives before. Dozens of times. I was at a Nike event in Las Vegas a few years ago where I watched him hit balls from about five feet away.
And I have never seen him hit a drive like he did on the 11th hole today. I didn't even know what happened when he hit it. It sounded like the air cannon that nearly gave Zach Johnson (the third in this group) a heart attack at the John Deere. If Spieth and Johnson made a "thwack" sound when they connected, McIlroy's was a mind-mystifying explosion. It happened so fast, and 359 yards later, it ended.
Johnson and Spieth huddled around their golf balls 55 yards before McIlroy could reach out and touch his. It was stunning.
We landed at the 11th green after all three went for it in two. Johnson had to scramble. McIlroy and Spieth passed the time heartily, both laughing at a story McIlroy was telling. I did not expect this. I also did not see it again for a couple of hours.
McIlroy made birdie. Spieth three-putted for bogey.
We walked to the 12th.
Spieth hit his ball a little hot and it surged over the green at the par-3 12th. He chipped thin and it somehow found the bottom of the cup. He's been touched by the golf gods like this, you know. Right after he found pay dirt, I heard a man being handcuffed by the cops behind the grandstand at No. 12 shouting, "I follow the beaten path. What's exotic about the beaten path?"
I found that fitting.
An overzealous PGA Championship phone police volunteer confiscated a man's cellular device shortly thereafter. I ran after Nos. 1 and 2, jamming my iPhone deeper into my pocket.
As we left the 12th green, I started thinking about just how different these two actually are from each other. Some differences are obvious.
Jordan is tall and slightly stiff; Rory is short and bends when he hits wayward drives. Rory is ripped; Jordan has morsels of baby fat still dripping away. Jordan wears Under Armour; Rory wears Nike. Jordan loves his 3-wood; Rory probably sleeps with his driver. Jordan is loud and sometimes outrageous on the course; Rory fist pumps silently. Jordan's short game is divine; Rory hits 3-irons that could put hair on Spieth's chest.
On Thursday, McIlroy wore his "still No. 1 and you can't do anything about it" pants. Spieth went conservative and traditional.
Other differences are more subtle like, for example, McIlroy putting his golf glove in his back left pocket and Spieth doing the opposite. I thought about how Spieth would never ever ever have his sponsor write "Reign On" on the tongues of his shoes like McIlroy. They are the same but wildly different.
There were fans in Nike rooting for Spieth, fans in Under Armour yelping for McIlroy. On the 15th tee box, both golfers pumped their drives and headed for the restroom off to the right of the tee box. McIlroy asked Spieth if the men's room was just one stall. He didn't wait for answer. Spieth walked in the men's room; McIlroy went to the women's. I stood there laughing at how these things write themselves.
On the par-5 16th tee, McIlroy destroyed another drive, walked over to his caddie J.P. Fitzgerald and mouthed the word "perfect." Spieth needed a rules official to look at his drive after he'd gone left and nearly off the side of a hill. He punched out. McIlroy banged a 3-wood greenside. Spieth nearly holed his wedge. McIlroy gave him a thumbs up as he looked away; he got up and down. Jordan nodded. They both made birdie.
"Everything seemed to be on point, and I expect him to move up the board," said Spieth simply afterwards about McIlroy's game.
These two, they are fiercely competitive. Off the course, Spieth seems a bit more wound up than the Ulsterman and probably is. On it, they stood next to each other a lot. They walked together a lot. They waited for Zach Johnson a lot. They rarely spoke though.
I couldn't help but think about that 16th hole: McIlroy crushing driver-3-wood into the beastly mouth of the green, Spieth all over the yard before saving himself with his wedge. I thought about how differently they played the hole, how they play golf (and life) in general and yet how similarly they score. How the end results are nearly synonymous.
McIlroy hit a high draw to the par-3 17th hole. A panicked marshal waved his flag wildly to the right. McIlroy's ball landed 11 feet past the cup. I looked at the marshal. He was looking at his feet and playing with his flag like his wife had just asked him how important that Saturday morning scramble with the boys was.
McIlroy has this baby hitch in his swing takeaway matched by a hitch in his gait when he hits a great shot. It's minuscule, barely recognizable, but he yips the club ever so slightly when he takes it away. If the ball lands where he wants it, he does this mini-hop step that flows endlessly into that strut he's become so famous for.
Spieth has none of that. He employs a forward press and just starts screaming at the thing.
We walked to No. 18 as the sun sat down on Lake Michigan. McIlroy and Spieth re-engaged their conversation for the first time in what felt like a really long time. They'd both nearly come out of the cauldron that is a round of major championship golf.
Their drives were yards from each other. Zach Johnson pored over his options 25 yards back. Spieth told a story this time as the drones behind the 18th tee box buzzed. McIlroy could not stop laughing. I wasn't close enough to hear it, but I would have paid (OK, expensed) $50 to know what they were talking about.
They walked down the steps to the 18th green to alternating chants of "Jordan!" and "Rory!"
Jordan made par for a 71. Rory made bogey for a 71.
The same score, but so different.
