Can Jordan Spieth Come All The Way Back to the Top of the Golf World?

It was in 2015 when Jordan Spieth dazzled the golf world by winning the Masters Golf Tournament. The Dallas native had left the University of Texas after leading the Longhorns to a national collegiate golf championship. He also became only the second player after Tiger Woods to win two national amateur championships.

The wunderkind went on to win the U.S. Open in 2015 before winning the British Open in 2017. He was ranked the number one golfer in the world.

Then he stopped winning. What happened?

While Spieth didn't win a tournament in 2018, he still had a year average golfers would love to have. It's just that Spieth created such high expectations coming out of the University of Texas that anything less than winning a couple of majors every year caused raised eyebrows.

"What's wrong with Jordan Spieth?" That murmur was heard among many golf observers.

When Spieth roared back to a second place tie at the PGA Championship last week, people realized the old Spieth who seemed to challenge for every tournament was back. Yesterday he garnered his second straight top 10 finish at Colonial Country Club Golf Course with an eighth place finish. He was actually in contention for winning the tournament until the fourth round when his blazing putter cooled off.

He was within two shots of the lead late in the third round and remained in contention into the fourth round. Several times his putts flirted with the hole only to rim out. Had those putts fallen in rather jumped out, Spieth might've won the tournament on Ben Hogan's golf course.

The charismatic Spieth is already ahead of the pace the legendary Arnold Palmer was setting when he was twenty-five years of age. Palmer didn't even begin playing the PGA Tour until he was that age. Spieth has already won what many consider the three most prestigious tournaments in the world at this age.

Even with the down year of 2018, Spieth still has accumulated a net worth of $100 million. According to Forbes he made a combined earnings in 2017-18 of $41.2 million in winnings and sponsorship deals.

Ben Hogan made what is considered the greatest comeback in golfing history. During Hogan's years of 1938 through 1959, he won 63 professional golf tournaments despite the interruption of his career by World War II and and near-fatal car acccident.

Hogan and wife Valerie survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus on a fog-shrouded bridge, early in the morning, east of Van Horn, Texas on February 2, 1949. The brave golfer through himself across Valerie in order to protect her. He probably would've been killed had he not done so, because the steering column punctured the driver's seat.

The accident left Hogan, age 36, with a double fracture of the pelvis, a fractured collar bone, a left ankle fracture, a chipped rib, and blood clots which almost killed him.

Doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf. The determined Hogan departed the hospital doors 59 days after the accident.

He regained his strength by extensive walking and resumed his golfing in November of 1949.

Hogan carved out one of the greatest season's in golfing history in 1953. He won five of the six tournaments he entered, including three major championships, known as the Triple Crown of Golf, in those days. Hogan won the British Open, the Masters and the U.S. Open that magnificent year. He was the only golfer to win three major professional championships in a year until Tiger Woods pulled it off in 2000.

Hogan might've won the PGA Championship to complete a Grand Slam, but he was unable to enter that tournamenet. The PGA was played July1-7 that year which overlapped the play of the British Open at Carnoustie (July 6-10).

Spieth was recognized early in his career as a special talent when he tied the record of Tiger Woods with a 270 over 72 holes and became the second youngest golfer to ever win the most prestigious tournament in the world. He was also handed a check for $1.8 million. He then won the U.S. Open in 2015 with a score of five under par. That made him the second youngest U.S. Open champion since Bobby Jones in 1923. In that same year he won the 2015 Tour Championship, which clinched the 2015 FedEx Cup. Two years later he won his third major at the 2017 Open Championship, by three shots at 12 under par.

With his putter red hot once again, Spieth is now focusing on a driver change ahead of the U.S. Open. "On Tuesday, Jordan's instructor Cameron McCormick and Titleist's PGA staff, together decided on adding more stability to the tip of Jordan's driver shaft," J.J. Van Weezenbeeck said. "Jordan had gained speed as a result of some swing changes they were working on."

Jordan met Annie Verrret in high school at Dallas Jesuit. They went their separate geographical ways in college as he starred on the links at the University of Texas. Annie excelled in her scholastics at Texas Tech in Lubbock. Despite the distance, they later became engaged.

They were married over the Christmas Holidays in 2018.

Annie is an event co-ordinator with the First Tee of Dallas, an orgnization which uses golf to mentor young people. They live in a stunning Texas mansion in the Dallas area which the three-time major winner purchased from Hunter Mahan.

Jordan's Spieth's trajectory as a golfer is now definitely up again as he did well in the Byron Nelson in Dallas, the PGA Championship and the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. There's no doubt the comeback is on. The only question is whether or not he can eclipse the historic comeback of Ben Hogan. The only thing which stopped Hogan from a Grand Slam was incompetent scheduling by the people who allowed the PGA and the British Open to overlap. Can Spieth win the Grand Slam? If he returns to the form of 2015 he definitely can.

Lloyd Mangrum saw brutal combat in World War II. He participated in two of the most famous battles of the entire war including the Normandy Invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. He was shot in the knees in the latter and also had a bullet bounce of his helmet.

Upon returning home he won the 1946 U.S. Open ater winning a playoff over Byron Nelson.

Ken Venturi also navigated a comeback following a serious automobile injury in 1961. He came back in 1964 to win the U.S. Open in searing heat at Congressional.

J.B. Holmes underwent brain surgery in 2011 to repair balance issues. The 32-year old Kentucky native came back to win the Wells Fargo Open following the surgery. He suffered yet another setback while rollerblading. After undergoing ankle surgery, he also came back from that adversity. He then finished in the top five of six starts that season.