Exactly a month from today (July 19th) and Jordan Spieth will step onto the first tee at Carnoustie in the defence of his Open Championship title.

Twelve months ago, Spieth arrived at Royal Birkdale in the best form possible having won his last event ahead of The Open and that being his stunning play-off success at the Travelers Championship.

Spieth teed-up near Southport in England in only his fourth showing in golf’s oldest Major and his 19th appearance competing at the game’s highest level.

Spieth, Matt Kuchar and reigning U.S. Open winning Brooks Koepka shared the first round lead with 65s while at the end of day two it was Spieth leading by five shots.

Jordan Speith clutching the famed Claret Jug after his memorable victory at Royal Birkdale. (Image – www.golfbytourmiss.con)

The Texan then went into the final round three ahead of Kuchar.

Spieth proceeded to bogey Birkdale’s opening three holes to fall back into a tie with Kuchar.

The duo were still tied when Spieth sent his tee shot way right off the 13th tee and onto the practice area from where he was forced to take an unplayable lie and drop from the practice area before brilliantly managing to get up-and-down to save bogey while Kuchar parred the hole to take the lead.

Spieth brillianlty regained the lead in eagling the par-5 15th and then birdied both 16 and 17 to eventually win by three strokes from Kuchar.

Spieth had now won The Masters, the U.S. Open and The Open to join ‘Golden Bear’ Jack Nicklaus as the only golfers to win three legs of the career Grand Slam before the age of 24.

‘The Man in the Arena‘ quote is from a President Teddy Rosevelt speech, Citizen of the Republic, given in April 2010 at the Sorbonne (University of Paris) in Paris, that was at the heart of Spieth’s Royal Birkdale triumph.

Roosevelt’s quote appears on page seven of the 35-speech.

Nelson Mandela gave a copy of this speech to Springbok catain, Francois Pienaar, before the start of the 1995 Rugby World Cup and with South Africa eventually defeating the heavily favoured New Zealand All Blacks in the final.

Roosevelt’s ‘Man in the Arena‘ speech reads:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

And according to a feature article appearing in this month’s Golf Monthly, it was this ‘Man in the Arena‘ reference that Spieth says he drew upon at Royal Birkdale.

“You get yourself in position enough times, it will go your way, like it did a the U.S. Open, in an unorthodox manner for me at Chambers Bay,” said Spieth in the article.

“And sometimes it will go the other way, like it did at the 2016 Masters.  I wasn’t prepared for the other way.  The rest of the year, that inhibited some success and inhibited confidence in my own game and my ability, which it shouldn’t have.

“I think The Open did wonders for me individually.  Not only my view of myself, but my view on being the man in the arena, being the one that’s out there putting it on the line every single week.

“I’m going to fail and learn and I’m going to succeed, but I’m the only in the arena.

“I feel like I’m in a great place of who I am and what I’m doing going forward.  I’m ready for anything.

“I’m ready for failure, for success, and everything in between.”