Jordan Spieth has come back for another Sunday show at the Masters

The Masters might be entering an era where there’s Jordan Spieth, and then there’s everyone else. It was never more evident than on the 15th hole late on Saturday afternoon at Augusta National. Spieth stood 106 yards from the pin, perched at the top of the hill with a pond below that purportedly wrecked his 2017 Masters just two days prior. That’s when everything went completely silent.

There are roars at Augusta but it’s not a particularly rowdy place, a point of pride that the green jackets uphold in the name of Bobby Jones’ notion of a proper patron. But just because it doesn’t get rowdy doesn’t mean it’s still or completely silent. Patrons are always moving one or two rows back from the rope line, trying to get ahead and find a better spot to view the next shot. There’s also always side talk, murmurs, and whispers. It’s not some great commotion, but there’s movement and it’s never completely noiseless.

This was not the case as Spieth sized up his third shot into the 15th green. It was the first time this week that I witnessed a hole go completely silent, completely still. The patrons stopped in their tracks some 150 yards away from Spieth and did not move a muscle or make a whisper. It would have been fine if they did -- they were 150 yards away!

There was no wind. The color palette of polo shirts in the grandstands above Sarazen bridge reflected perfectly off the pond. Sunlight perforated the shadows stretching from the grandstands surrounding the 15th green, 16th tee, and the towering pines. It’s one of the most crowded scenes in golf and the only noticeable movement was the cigar smoke wafting from the shadows to the sunlight (the Masters has to boast the highest per capita population of half-zip-sweater-wearing cigar-smoking men in the world).

When I say it’s Jordan and everyone else, I don’t mean to suggest that he’s bigger than the tournament or incapable of being beat -- we’ve seen that already. It’s just different when he’s on one, and he’s been on one every single year he’s played this event in his nascent career. The still and silent scene at the 15th accentuated this difference.

On Thursday, he was on that same hill and a similar distance away, just 98 yards from the flag. Six strokes later, he’d be in the hole with his second quadruple bogey in as many Masters rounds. This time, he put it seven inches from the cup. With the ball in the air, the crowd started to murmur with anticipation, nervous that another water ball might be coming. But this was a different shot from a different angle, and that quietude turned into one of the loudest roars of the week as the ball nearly went in the hole. He had to gesture to the grandstands to pipe down as Phil went to play his next shot. Spieth tapped in for birdie to get to 5-under and momentarily within a shot of a lead that soon looked like it would be his.

The shot at 15 would lead to Spieth’s final birdie of the day, but with a 4-under 68, he’s back in contention yet again for his fourth-straight Masters. For the first time in his Masters career, Spieth will not play in the final group on Sunday. But on a loaded leaderboard full of some of the best international stars in this game, he might still be the one to beat over the final 18 holes at Augusta National.

That’s because even after the implosion of last year, Spieth is becoming an unofficial host of this event. Others may intercede and take home a green jacket. He cannot win every year, but Spieth’s name on the leaderboard at Augusta is a tradition and it’s the one name that the other players have to check most. Last week after missing a cut in Houston, he said, “I think we know and the other players that are playing next week know that we strike fear in others next week.”

Spieth could be 10 shots off the lead, as he was after the first round here, and it’s still the case. He’s gone from that hole to now in the penultimate group on Sunday. Saturday’s 68 was his best round of the week and it was the classic Spieth march around Augusta. He caught a heater on the front side, ripping through a four-hole stretch with three birdies and one of the all-time recovery shots that the 7th hole has ever seen. At No. 6, he poured in a very Spiethian putt from 44 feet that got the crowd roaring early.

Coming off that putt, Spieth pumped one right at the short par-4 7th and caught a big kick into some pine straw. He slapped his glove in anger as soon as he came over the crest and saw the final resting spot of his drive. There was another classic Spiethian exchange with his caddie — “Oh, absolutely not!” and “What are you’re talking about?” and “Buddy I can get this into the sand trap” were three demonstratives he made towards his looper, Michael Greller. After pulling a few clubs, they settled on a shot that would try and run up into or near a bunker in front of the 7th green. Instead, he somehow punched it around some trees, then over the narrowest of paths between the multiple bunkers protecting the front of the green. Even Spieth said “Oh my god” when he saw it bounce onto the putting surface. Considering the desperate debate just moments earlier, both Spieth and Greller could only incredulously stare and then laugh at each other with the result. They kept giggling up the fairway. Somehow, it got on the green. But that’s what Spieth does around here, even when maybe he doesn’t expect it.

It was vintage — if that’s a word you can use about a four-year career — “Spieth at Augusta” stuff. The putt at 6, the recovery at 7, an eagle chance at 8, a flagged approach at 9, an all-world up-and-down par save at 10 that had Nick Faldo saying “Wow, how did he do that?” Then again at No. 12, which he said was a tougher up-and-down save than the one that just had Faldo marveling. It just kept coming.

He went for it again at the 13th, opting against a layup. That decision in the final round when he won in 2015 resulted in what he called this week the “favorite shot of his career.” This time, he invoked Arnold Palmer as his ball laid in the pine straw amidst trees down the right side. Even Greller was taken aback by his “What would Arnie do?” line during the debate on laying up. It seems like a made-up line from a movie script written by Jim Nantz, but Spieth dropped it and then opted against a layup. He roped a 4-iron from the pine-straw to the perfect spot in the back of the green, setting up his second eagle chance in six holes.

It was all there on a course and for a crowd that’s becoming his more and more as he keeps posting at the top of the leaderboard at this event. After the round, he was asked why he succeeds so consistently here.

“I’m not sure. I mean, I guess the golf course was Tiger-proofed at one point. You can’t really Jordan-proof it.”

It was less a boast and more an admittance that he keeps contending here not because he hammers the ball off the tee. Lengthening it isn’t going to mitigate his ability to figure out how to keep getting into contention and winning. It might not be fear, but that should make his contemporaries a little disconsolate.

Now comes another Sunday. This time he won’t be in the final group and it sounded like he relished being the hunter for once. Spieth is only two shots off the lead with only three players ahead of him. He knows firsthand how it can change quickly on a Sunday. It’s a loaded board but he’ll be the focus on the grounds tomorrow and his competitors and the crowd will feel it from the first birdie, which, given his track record, will come. One of the leaders, Justin Rose, said Saturday night that “Jordan obviously has a special relationship with the Masters.” So they’re thinking about it too.

Spieth said that he’s approached the week “not really giving” a shit (he pulled up before blurting out the curse, of course) and tomorrow is going to be pedal down from the start. “I plan to play aggressive ... finishing fifth versus 10th tomorrow doesn’t mean much to me, so that frees me up.” He’s already done almost everything on this course and now gets to attempt a chasedown of Rosie, Rickie, and Sergio. His past here makes his presence on a leaderboard a greater Masters. It’s going to be a hell of a show on Sunday at Augusta.