Athletic Director Steve Koch says the three-time Texas 5A champion doesn't have an enemy in the world.
Those at
Dallas Jesuit (Texas) saw all the signs. The poise. The focus. The skill of their former three-time state 5A golf champion Jordan Spieth.
But at 21 years and 8 months? Less than four years out of high school? The Masters? With a record four-day total of 18-under par to tie the great Tiger Woods? At fabled Augusta National Golf Club?
"You could see it coming," said Dallas Jesuit Director of Communication James Kramer on Monday. "But you couldn't see it coming. I mean, not this fast. How could you? The Master's is like the Super Bowl, the World Series of golf."
The buzz around Dallas Jesuit was still palpable on Monday, even with significant folks missing.
His former coach Cathy Marino and the golf team were in Waco for a regional tournament at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course. The school's president, Mike Earsing, was away for the day. Athletic Director Steve Koch was in Seattle at a conference.
Koch was inundated with congratulatory handshakes and questions from fellow athletic directors. Everyone wants to know: "Is Jordan Spieth too good to be true?"
Not so much his golf. But his persona?
"He's just a very likeable, friendly, genuine, mature young man," Koch said by phone Monday. "I don't know that he has an enemy in the world. It's easy to jump on his bandwagon because he's just so darn likeable."
Sense of prideHe was an "A" student at Jesuit, a school of 1,100 boys. He was heavily involved with the school, attended football and basketball games regularly.
When the student body realized what a talent he was, they paid back his enthusiasm. Like when Spieth got an invite to the Byron Nelson Classic his junior year in high school.
"I think half the school skipped school that day to attend the tournament," Koch said.
Koch, who has been the school's AD for 21 years, said he would have loved to have been in Augusta. "But like every one else in the Jesuit and Texas community, I was glued to the TV."
And when he watched Spieth stroll up the 18th fairway to long, loud ovations and eventually win by three strokes over Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose, there was a large lump in Koch's throat.
"There was such a strong sense of pride," he said. "Everyone is just so proud of him, for his golf ability and all the hard work he's put in. But equally so for the way he handled all the pressure during each round and how he handled all the adulation after."
Kramer said a Master's flag hung outside of campus. A congratulatory film from the school to Spieth is in the works.
"To attain your life's dream by the time you're 21 is just amazing," Kramer said. "It took Phil Mickelson 12 years before he won his first major. …. For Jordan to do it so early and for the Jesuit community to be an ancillary part of it is very exciting. We always wish him the best."
Marino told WFAA TV over the weekend that she wasn't the least bit surprised by Spieth's assault on Augusta. She saw something very special even when he was "a skinny little freshman.
"Right off the bat, he was shooting really low scores."
Senior Jesuit golfer JC Campbell, who has played with Spieth a few times, agreed that he always had a special quality, but "to set records this early — at 21 and eight months? It's incredible."
Humble natureIt was also incredible watching the scene of Spieth hugging his mom, dad, grandfather, younger brother and girlfriend, his high school sweetheart. He then slapped hands and hugs with a group of his friends from Dallas.
"Most of those kids were friends from Jesuit," Koch said. "They made the trip. That made it all the more special."
His youngest sibling, a 14-year-old with special needs named Ellie, didn't make the trip, but Spieth told reporters his favorite part of the aftermath was telling her she won. She had come to the Houston Open the week before and kept asking him after each round: "Did you win?"
Spieth told her, "Not yet." And then again, "Not yet." And eventually, "No."
"I can tell her I won now," he said Sunday with a smile.
That made Koch smile as well.
"They're wonderful people and a wonderful family," Koch said. "I think Ellie certainly has helped Jordan take a step back and appreciate all his God-given talents."
Spieth echoed all of that on Sunday to reporters.
"She's the funniest member of our family," he said. "It's humbling to see her and her friends and the struggles they go through each day that we take for granted – their kind of lack of patience or understanding, where it seems easy for us and it's not for them."
All of that perhaps explains Spieth's grounded nature and ability to bounce back easily from a bad shot or bogey.
On his website he wrote: "Being Ellie's brother humbles me every day of my life."
