In 2000, Tiger Woods put together a season that is still golf's gold standard for calendar-year dominance.
Jordan Spieth's second-place finish in the PGA Championship cemented his 2015 season as historic.
And it's the 22-year-old's play on the sport's biggest stages, where he thrives, that puts his season in the same breath as Tiger's 2000.
"You want to feel the pressure that we felt today," Spieth told reporters Sunday following his 4-under 68 at Whistling Straits, not nearly enough to knock off winner Jason Day.
"That was fun. It was fun waking up today, knowing I've got another chance to win a major.
This is — you get that blood running through your veins, your mind just knows the position that you're in. It's just a different feeling than any other position."
Spieth isn't done yet, either. He's got the FedEx Cup playoffs and Presidents Cup to play over the next few months.
His overall body of work this year hasn't quite reached turn-of-the-century Tiger yet, but it's in that category.
Woods won the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship 15 years ago — one of two players (Ben Hogan in 1953) to capture three majors in a year. He finished fifth in the Masters.
Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open, tied for fourth in the British and finished second in the PGA.
In 20 tournaments this year, Spieth has:
- Four wins
- Nine top threes
- 11 top fives
- 14 top 10s
- Two missed cuts
Spieth's quartet of top-four finishes in majors is matched only by Tiger and Jack Nicklaus.
Jordan Spieth joins Jack Nicklaus (1973) and Tiger Woods (2005) as only players to finish in the top 4 in all 4 majors in the Masters Era
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 17, 2015 Aided by the favorable conditions at Whistling Straits last weekend, Spieth had the lowest 288-hole score in major history at 54 under. Tiger shot 53 under in 2000.
With a 2-putt par at last, @JordanSpieth will finish 2015 a combined -54 in majors, the best single-season score all-time. #PGAChamp
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) August 16, 2015 Most Rounds of 5-Under or Better in Majors Single Season Last 20 Years 2000 Tiger Woods 7 2015 Jordan Spieth 6 (via @eliassports )
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 16, 2015 Spieth was bested only by Day, Louis Oosthuizen, Zach Johnson and Marc Leishman on golf's biggest stage this year.
Jordan Spieth teed it up against 561 players in this year's major championships. He was beaten by four of them. pic.twitter.com/9FQVCg3FPc
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 16, 2015 Last week, fivethirtyeight.com put the best seasons in golf on a standard scale through z-scores — how many standard deviations from the mean a given score was — to give us a better idea of a player's dominance over his competition that season.
Spieth's 2015 was 12th all time before the PGA, and the first name on the list other than Woods or Nicklaus.
Woods won nine tournaments and didn't miss a cut or finish outside the top 25 in 2000. Spieth would have to sweep the FedEx Cup's four tournaments to challenge that.
But this year's majors all had their own intrigue, and Spieth was the common thread.
He dominated wire-to-wire at Augusta, outlasted a tight field thanks to a birdie putt on 18 at Chambers Bay and sank a 50-footer on 16 at St. Andrews before nearly holing out on 18 to join the three-way playoff.
At Whistling Straits, Day was just better. Spieth was better than everyone else at 17 under.
"Major championships are what we're remembered for in this sport," Spieth said.
"That's why we play the sport. We don't play to take a week and just sneak by the cut and just get up early and tie for 35th."
The next 10-plus years of golf should be pretty fun.