Golf Blog: The rise and rise of Jordan Spieth

Golf Blog: The rise and rise of Jordan Spieth

As the Presidents Cup nears, Captains Nick Price and Fred Couples are deliberating over who they will pick to join the automatic qualifiers at Muirfield Village Golf Club at the beginning of October.

Whilst most of the expert's predictions are not that surprising, there is one who has cropped up that may turn heads on the American side, young gun Jordan Spieth.

Actually though, we shouldn't be all that surprised.

Once the number one ranked amateur in the world, Spieth was one of two players to ever win the US Amateur more than once, the other being a certain Eldrick Woods.

Also, before turning pro, he finished low amateur at the 2012 US Open, after joining the field as an alternate.

After a mixed bag of a start to his 2013 professional season, the 20-year-old Texan began to find his feet, notching up a couple of top tens in the spring.

Then came the breakthrough.

In July, Spieth showed a glimpse of superstar potential when he holed out from a greenside bunker on the 72nd hole of the John Deere Classic, to play himself into a three-way play-off.

Even more impressive, he went on to win the play-off, becoming the fourth youngest winner in PGA history and the first teenager to win on tour in 82 years.

More recently he came second at the Wyndham Championship, losing out to a birdie on the second extra hole of another playoff.

So don't be surprised if Captain Couples, picks this wonderkind ahead of a number of more experienced pros. He has been one of the best on tour this summer.

It is not a pick based on some possible return further down the line either, it is the pick of an in form professional.

Jason Sobel from the Golf Channel said it best "this would be less a choice for the future and more a choice for the present"'.

Follow Nicholas Gamble on Twitter @NMGamble