Few scenes in sports are like the first tee at the Ryder Cup on Friday morning. Somebody asked two-time major champion and U.S. team member Jordan Spieth to "paint a picture" of what it felt and sounded and smelled like his first time in Scotland two years ago.
"It's funny," he said. "I actually asked for a painted picture of that, and I have it in my kitchen/living room."
He commissioned the painting that captures the moment just after he hit his first tee shot at Gleneagles, with the Scottish countryside as the backdrop.
"It's the main piece of artwork in my house," said Spieth, who turned 23 in July and has won nearly $26 million already in his career. "It's a beautiful painting. I don't have anything around the house of myself except for that, and it's special to me."
He called that tee shot and standing on the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club when he won the 2015 Masters the most exciting moments of his golf life.
"We didn't win the Ryder Cup, I didn't make a putt to win the match there," Spieth said. "It was just that feeling. You hear the echoes of the chants through the Scottish hill country back to the range and you know you're about to walk into an away game, which we don't ever really experience.
"You put the tee in the ground, your hand is shaking, you're trying to get the ball on to the tee. Hopefully this time, having done it before, comes a little easier. But I hit a great shot, probably the best 3-wood I ever hit.
"You asked me to paint a picture. I asked for the same thing, and I try and look at it every day."
