It was not so long ago that three-time major winner Jordan Spieth, 24, was trying to make his way into a PGA Tour event.
The tour this week released the letter Spieth wrote as a 16-year-old in 2010, seeking an exemption from organisers of his hometown tournament in Dallas, which was then known as the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
"I have dreamed of playing in this event ever since my dad took me to watch when I was eight," Spieth wrote to tournament director George Conant, going on to recall seeing Phil Mickelson up close at the event.
Only three amateurs had ever received exemptions, Tiger Woods in 1993 among them, but Spieth was beginning to make a name for himself as an amateur.
His game and his letter apparently made an impression. He was given the exemption and proved that decision correct by not only making the cut but also moving into the top 10 through 54 holes before finishing in a tie for 16th.
On Thursday, Spieth read some of his letter aloud in a video on the PGA Tour's official Twitter feed and reflected on what that letter and week meant to him then — and now.
“It was unreal. I learned so much that week," Spieth says. "I also learned that the path that I was on was a path to be able to be out here if I kept working at it.”
Spieth is back in Dallas this week with the Byron Nelson being played for the first time at Trinity Forest Golf Club. He has won 11 times on the PGA Tour, but that 2010 Byron Nelson has to rank among his treasured memories.
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