Tuesday 4 August 2015 10:56, UK
Jordan Spieth turns 22 today, having already made himself one of the sport’s household names with major wins, multiple other successes and countless broken records.
The American may have achieved plenty in a relatively short space of time, but how does his record stand up alongside golf’s most successful names? We’ve delved in to the golfing archives to see how the start to Spieth’s career compares to that of some of the sport’s all-time greats….
Major victories – Two
By following a wire-to-wire win at Augusta with victory at the US Open, Spieth became the fourth-youngest player and the first post-war to have multiple major wins aged 21. Gene Sarazen was the last player to boast more major titles before turning 22, with the American winning the PGA Championship twice and the US Open during the 1920s.
Rory McIlroy’s final-round collapse at the 2011 Masters was the closest he came to a major triumph at that age, with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer also among those also not to have claimed one of the big four at that stage of their careers.
Tiger Woods won the Masters five months younger than Spieth did, but didn’t follow that up with another until claiming the PGA Championship trophy two years later.
Professional wins: Seven (five on PGA Tour)
Just like McIlroy had four years earlier at the Dubai Desert Classic, Spieth claimed his first professional title aged 19 by taking John Deere Classic victory through a sponsor invite, making him the fourth-youngest winner in PGA Tour history.
Speith’s first win came a year ahead of Ballesteros’ and Woods’ wins, but Tiger had registered six of his 79 PGA Tour titles before turning 22.
Sam Snead, who is top of the all-time wins list, had to wait until he was 24 for his first triumph, while Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer were a year older than that when they secured their first triumph.
Highest world ranking – world No 2
Victory at last month’s 144th Open would’ve seen Spieth replace McIlroy as the second-youngest player to ever hold the world No 1 spot, but he suffered a near-miss and finished tied-fourth at St Andrews.
The birthday boy still has another ten months, though, to move into pole position and beat McIlroy, with the Northern Irishman not claiming the top spot until he was six weeks short of turning 23.
Comparisons with former greats are tricky considering the OWGR (official world golf rankings) have only been in place since 1986, but only Woods has reached No 1 earlier in his career. The 14-time major champion was 21 years and 167 days old when he moved in to the position for the first time.
PGA Tour career earnings - $17,392,783 (£11,214,642)
Spieth is already on course to smash the record for most money earned on the PGA Tour in a calendar year, with the two-time major champion having already collected more than $9million in prize money during 2015.
As the youngest player to ever make $10million on the PGA Tour, the 22-year-old has made just over double what McIlroy had playing both sides of the Atlantic at this age.
Not only has he won more than double anyone else on the tour has managed so far this year, Spieth’s won over five times the amount that Woods, top of the all-time money leaders, had made at the same stage of his career.
Ryder Cup appearances - One
Spieth became the second-youngest American in history to play in the Ryder Cup when he appeared at Gleneagles last autumn, some 209 days earlier than the first of Tiger Woods’ seven starts.
Previous PGA Tour regulations prevented the likes of Nicklaus and Palmer featuring until much later in their careers, although Sergio Garcia is the youngest to play in the tournament at just 19.
Watch Spieth in action at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, the PGA Championship and the Barclays during August live on Sky Sports 4 – your home of golf
