The college coach who recruited Jordan Spieth once went up to Donald Trump and told him 15-year-old Spieth would win the event at his course
Texas, Oklahoma State, Stanford, USC, and UCLA all had their sights on Jordan Spieth long before he became the winner of the 2015 US Open.
John Fields, the Texas coach, first saw Spieth when he was 11 years old at a junior event in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and he became enthralled.
He made it a point to watch him play whenever he could, and when he traveled to Trump National for the 2009 US Junior Amateur, he was approached on the course by Donald Trump himself.
Trump was already campaigning to hold a US Open or PGA Championship at one of his courses, and during their conversation, Fields told him with no uncertainty that 15-year-old Jordan Spieth was going to win the event.
“How can you tell me that, with so much golf left?” Trump asked, but Fields knew.
And he was right — Spieth won the medal play portion, and blazed his way through the match play rounds to capture the biggest tournament of his career.
Trump sent Fields a note calling him “the predictor,” and two years later, Spieth became the second player in history to win the event twice. The first — you’ll notice a pattern here — was Tiger Woods.
Fields got the big call when he came back from a vacation in Hawaii. “I’m not going to beat around the bush,” Spieth said. “I’m coming to Texas. I’m coming to help you win national championships.”
Excerpted from "Slaying the Tiger" by Shane Ryan Copyright © 2015 by Shane Ryan. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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