Jordan Spieth will not be gracing Waikoloa Kings’ Course this week. However, the next Jordan Spieth might be.
Playing for Texas at the 2012 Amer Ari Invitational, Spieth lost in a playoff on the Kohala Coast, but UH-Hilo golf coach Earl Tamiya remembers thinking that his talent was unmistakable.
“I thought he was a can’t-miss player,” Tamiya said.
Spieth, who claimed the Masters and U.S. Open last season in rising to become the world’s No. 1 player, is golf’s biggest star and Tiger Woods, another tourney alum, has long been its biggest name, but when pressed to name which golfers have impressed him the most the past 24 years at the tournament, Tamiya named two other PGA Tour veterans, Matt Kuchar and Nick Watney.