Jordan Spieth still on course for Grand Slam at The Open

The historic Grand Slam of majors is still on….

There’s obviously a still long way to go, but multi-talented Texan Jordan Spieth opened his Open account in fine style with a 1st round 67 (-5).

US Masters and US Open champion Spieth clearly means business again and five birdies in his first seven holes set him on the right track.

Most players would be well happy with -5, but not Spieth: he’s a perfectionist and is never satisfied. He tends to go around with a grimace rather than a grin and anything slightly offline and he’s not a happy bunny. A bit like Tiger in his pomp…

Spieth’s expectations are sky high now and if he doesn’t deliver it disappoints but, most significantly,doesn’t unduly upset him. He’s cool, calm and collected and at the moment it appears nothing can knock him out of his stride.

As far as the Grand Slam is concerned, he says: “It’s not weighing heavily on my mind at the moment. I’m kind of avoiding it.

“Obviously I want to win this event and I know what’s at stake but such talk, in my view, is premature though if I do win here, people wll probably start to get excited.” They already are, Jordan they already are….

Spieth is well aware of the threat of his arch rival Dustin Johnson who he snatched the US Open from at Chambers Bay.

“If DJ. keeps driving it the way he is, then I’m going to have to play my best golf to have a chance. It’s hard to argue with somebody who’s splitting bunkers at about 380 yards and just two-putting for birdie on five or six of the holes when there’s only two par-5s. I don’t have that in the bag, so I’ve got to make up for it with ball-striking.

“But I think I can beat him…if I didn’t, I would go ahead and walk off and take a flight back home tomorrow.”