Jordan Spieth has Rory McIlroy and the world No.1 spot firmly in his sights after winning the Valspar Championship on Sunday.
Spieth won a three-way play-off with a 28-foot birdie on the third extra hole to become only the fourth player since 1940 to win twice on the PGA Tour before turning 22.
It is a feat that not even McIlroy mastered with Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and Robert Gamez the only players to have achieved that particular accolade in the past 75 years.
But it is the Northern Irishman that is within Spieth’s focus heading towards Augusta.
“I like studying the game, being a historian of the game,” Spieth told the PGA Tour website. “It’s really cool to have my name go alongside those.
“But right now currently what I’m really focused on is Rory McIlroy and the No.1 in the world. That’s who everyone is trying to chase.
“That’s our ultimate goal to eventually be the best in the world and this is a great, great stepping stone. But going into the four majors of the year, to have closed one out in this kind of fashion is going to give me a lot of confidence.”
Spieth has long been heralded as the next big thing in golf — shining in the amateur ranks with two U.S. junior titles and leading last year’s Masters after the third round before eventually finishing tied for second, three shots behind Bubba Watson.
On Sunday, he held his nerve at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, to hold on for the victory.
He first rescued par on the 16th with a 60-foot bunker shot and needed a 32-foot putt to ensure his place in the playoff, which he duly holed.
It was a putt of similar length that ensured a second Tour win to add to his John Deere Classic success in July 2013, which he also won courtesy of a playoff making him the youngest PGA Tour winner for 82 years at the time.