Jordan Spieth ‘hasn’t felt’ like defending U.S. Open champion, but he’s ruling over Oakmont

Jordan Spieth said he “hasn’t felt like a defending champion” at the U.S. Open but walking the grounds at Oakmont will give you a totally different impression. He was the king (small k -- the capital is reserved for only one in this part of Pennsylvania) here on Tuesday, playing a late afternoon practice round with what will almost certainly be the largest crowds following Chris Kirk, Patton Kizzire and Harris English this week. This was not the power group from Monday, when Spieth played with fellow superstars Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy, and he sucked up all the oxygen on the course late Tuesday.

Spieth is just 22 years old but he controlled the entire practice tour around Oakmont’s front nine. His playing partners were, of course, getting their work in too, but they often stopped to watch how the defending champ was going about his business in what is, at this point, some light last-minute prep. The others did their work and hit their shots, but they were along for the ride.

While the other the players mostly practiced putting, Spieth focused almost exclusively on chipping up around the early greens. After hitting a couple putts at the first, he walked some 30 yards back up the hill, dropped several balls in Oakmont’s incomparable rough and started going to work. It was the most specific, random (to the uneducated observer) spot to pick out, but it was as if he already knew the exact spots from which he’ll have to recover. So he picked this little patch, 30 yards up the hill in the left rough, and started softly playing different kinds of shots to multiple potential pin locations. He’d then bounce to the another extremely specific spot, maybe this time working on flop shots from that gnarly rough, which even got him with this duff that went about two feet.

The group would not really move on to the next tee until Spieth was done. This happened multiple times early in the round -- when Spieth was done chipping, they’d progress to the next tee. A few times the group behind them would wait in the fairway as the work up around the green continued. He was pulling the strings and if you walked up knowing nothing about golf or any of these players, this would have been quickly discernible and he still would have stood out.

The defending champion is not the betting favorite this week but he was definitely the fan favorite on the grounds at Oakmont. It was just Tuesday afternoon, but the crowds swelled along the rope line from the tee to the green trying to get a glimpse. There were idiots yelling “mashed potatoes” type things upon Spieth making impact on the tee ... on a Tuesday! He was peppered with “hook ‘em!” -- a call he doesn’t/can’t acknowledge anymore quite like he used to because it’s continuous. These aren’t Tiger Woods galleries, but Spieth understands, whether he “feels” like a defending champ or not, that he’ll never play another practice round in relative obscurity again.

Spieth has the largest crowds and it also seems like he has the largest team going to work for him in these practice sessions. Caddie Michael Greller is almost never near Spieth up on the green, but mapping some other far off corner, pacing away and taking notes. Almost every caddie is doing that. But Spieth’s coach since he was a child, Cameron McCormick, is also there circling the greens, taking his own notes, getting in his student’s ear and picking out different spots that he requests Spieth practice from. He was as much a part of the practice prep as Greller. And of course there’s Jay Danzi, Spieth’s agent who walks every step of every round with his golden ticket, looming to make sure everything stays running smooth.

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At one point, all four stood on four different sides of a green -- Spieth way in front chipping, McCormick taking notes from the right side, Greller pacing things off on the back and Danzi overlooking everything with Spieth’s friends from the right side. They had it surrounded, getting the most of the handful of minutes they had while the other players and caddies putted away inside their circle.

Spieth insists on using the term “we” to describe wins and disappointments in the most individual sport on earth. The practice draws both praise and eye rolls, but watching the entire crew go to work at Oakmont did make it feel like there are multiple pieces operating here. It was just a light Tuesday afternoon, but the crowd, the “team” and the defending champ made it seem so much more purposeful.