JERSEY CITY — Four rows of young golfers, all active in local chapters of the First Tee, a youth development group, fidgeted in their seats in the midday sun. Filling out the rows behind them were grown-ups wearing belts and shirts bearing the names of some of the country’s most prestigious courses. On the dais, Paul Fireman — a founder, with his son, Dan, of one such place, Liberty National — was answering a question about personal legacies.
“You can’t prescribe what they’re going to be,” Fireman said. “They just turn out.”
As Fireman spoke, a cart quietly pulled up and came to a stop out of view of the audience, which was there expressly to hear how the young man behind the wheel, Jordan Spieth, had come to inherit the mantle of men’s golf in America.