The Open: Jordan Spieth aims to clean up

Jordan Spieth became the first teenager to win on the PGA Tour for 82 years on Sunday, taking his earnings for the year to more than $2 million and securing the last place available in the Open Championship.

Now all the 19-year-old has to worry about is getting some clean clothes in time for tomorrow’s opening round at Muirfield.

“I only packed for one week,” explained Spieth, who holed a bunker shot on the 72nd hole of the John Deere Classic to get into a play-off with defending champion Zach Johnson and David Hearn, which he won on the fifth extra hole. “I packed for one week and the Congressional heat [venue for the AT&T National]. Then I got in the Greenbrier Classic and then the John Deere and then got here. These are the pants I wore on Sunday, haven’t been washed. Starting tomorrow everything will be fine.”

Spieth arrived in Scotland at 10:30am on Monday after an overnight flight and could only manage nine holes of practice yesterday, but already has experience of links golf. He won two and a half points out of three as the United States lost 14-12 to Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen in 2011, while he is the only other player besides Tiger Woods to have won more than one US Junior Amateur title.

“I’d heard that Muirfield was one of the best links courses in the world. I can see why, it’s fantastic,” said Spieth, who turned professional last December and expected to spend the year on the second-tier Web.com Tour. “I’ll play 18 holes tomorrow, I just couldn’t do it today. My legs were still trying to recover. This is the tournament that I watch every year. It’s really cool to watch. I enjoy links courses. I’ve been over to Scotland a couple of times and played St Andrews, Kingsbarns, Aberdeen, and had success.”