Jordan Spieth falls short, but embraces the moment at British Open

OK, SO Jordan Spieth didn't become the youngest player to win golf's oldest major since 1893.

Nor did he become only the second man, and first since fellow Texan Ben Hogan 62 years ago, to win the first three modern-era majors in a season.

It means he can't win the Grand Slam, something only Bobby Jones in 1930 has ever been able to pull off.

Instead, like Arnold Palmer in 1960 and Jack Nicklaus a dozen years later, Spieth's pursuit of immortality came to an end by a single shot at the Open Championship. Actually, by a matter of inches. That's how close his lengthy birdie putt from in front of the green at the 72nd hole at the Old Course missed wide yesterday. Making it would have put him into the playoff.

But don't let that be your lasting impression. Or the bogey at the par-4 17th Road Hole, which was playing like the par-5 that it truly is, where an 8-footer slid by right. And the four-putt, double-bogey at the par-3 eighth, which put him four back. Instead, remember the way he birdied his way right back into it going through the turn. And the cross-green bomb he rolled in on 16 to tie for the lead, only the second bird there all day. Just as he'd answered on Saturday with a birdie run after a bogey at nine left him swinging his putter in disgust. Much as he'd birdied the final hole of last month's U.S. Open at Chambers Bay - where he finally won when Dustin Johnson closed with a three-putt from 15 feet - to retake solo first after an inexplicable double at 17.

That's what he does. He embraces the moment.

This week was never too big for him, even when everyone else was thinking it might be. And he kept telling us as much. Could be it's about time we really started listening.

He insisted he didn't come to Scotland to finish third.

No, he didn't arrive early to get ready, as many suggested he should have. Instead, he honored a commitment and went to the John Deere Classic in Illinois, where he won in a playoff. And he seemed surprised that anyone would question his game plan.

You want to argue the point? Or the results?

Mostly, though, remember the names we're talking about. The company: Jones, Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus. If you forget about Tiger Woods, that could be your Mount Rushmore. Spieth became a relevant part of that conversation. And he nearly took it all the way to next month's PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, where he still can join Hogan and Woods (2000) as the only ones to get a modern Triple Crown. It might not be Jones, but the company would be rarified nonetheless.

Makes you wonder what he'll do when he's 22.

"I don't know how many guys have done three majors in a year," Spieth said afterward. "I know Tiger's done it, and I'm sure Jack has."

Oops. Give him a mulligan. He's earned that much.

"So that would be my next goal as far as history goes," he went on. "I'm going to go home and reflect on it. It won't hurt so bad.

"I've certainly closed plenty of tournaments out. And this wasn't one of those. It's hard to do every single time. I won't beat myself up too bad, because I do understand that."

There is that. Yet think about how close he did come, when most everyone was saying the quest was impossible. Because it pretty much is. No matter how indelible a career Spieth puts together, history suggests he might never be in this position again. And if he isn't, at least he sure handled it on his own terms. So the game might have a future.

He started the day one back, following a third-round 66. He was in the next-to-last group with Jason Day, who left an 18-footer just short at 18, and thus missed out of the four-hole playoff in which 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson outlasted Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen. Spieth closed with a 69. It wasn't quite enough. On 18, he pulled his drive left, and his approach landed pin high, but spun back into the notorious Valley of Sin, where Constantina Rocca came up with a miracle in 1995 to save par and get into a playoff he eventually lost to John Daly. This time, it wasn't happening. But for a while it looked as if it might. Spieth at least gave us that.

"I just wish I had given myself a better opportunity," he said. "That was some fantastic golf in a major championship final round. That doesn't always happen. I'm very pleased with the way I played. I think that the way I played this week, and especially today, would have won the U.S. Open by more than one shot. I didn't play as well there. It just took some special golf. That's a helluva major."

You could say the same about the season. Mostly because he's defined it. Years from now, you wonder what will be remembered most about this Open. Kind of like in 2002 at Muirfield, when Woods' Grand Slam bid got derailed by rain that blew sideways in the third round. That's the way this history stuff works.

And there's one more major to go. Someone please tell Spieth he can actually do something Nicklaus never accomplished. Either way, you think he'll be playing for third?