Jordan Spieth's 4-putt double bogey cost him the Grand Slam
Jordan Spieth came up one shot shy of a playoff for the British Open on Monday, and he should blame the par-3 eighth as the undoing of his single-season Grand Slam chances.
Spieth, trying to become the first golfer in the modern era to win the Grand Slam having already claimed the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015, arrived at the par-3 eighth just one stroke back of the lead. But a four-putt (yeah, we're calling it that) led to a double-bogey 5 that took him from 14-under down to 12-under and three shots off.
Spieth rebounded with birdies at the ninth and 10th, then tied for the lead after a birdie at the 16th. However, a failed up-and-down bid at the 17th and a missed birdie try from the Valley of Sin at the 18th put him at 14-under 274 and a shot behind Zach Johnson, Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen.
[Slideshow: Round 4 of the British Open]
It was the tee shot that set up the four putt, with Spieth's ball ending up some 100 feet from the cup. His first putt went way too long, rolling off the green shared with the 10th hole. From there, Spieth's third shot – though technically not his second putt – went about 5 feet by for a testy bogey bid.
As has been his nemesis throughout the championship, Spieth missed the close one to put a 5 on the card. In the 38-hour, two-day second round, Spieth had five three-putts that are the difference between a disappointing finish and a third leg of the Grand Slam.
"I just tried to sling one in there and I left it 40 yards from the pin on the green there, and it's just a no-brainer," he explained. "If you make bogey, you're still in it. If you make double bogey, it's a very difficult climb, and there's absolutely no reason to hit that putt off the green. I can leave it short, I can leave if eight feet short and have a dead straight eight-footer up the hill where I'll make that the majority of the time.
"My speed control was really what cost me this week," he continued, "the five three-putts the second round, and then just my speed control in general wasn't great."
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
