With the year that Jordan Spieth is enjoying, anything is possible

The youngest man in history to win the first two Majors heads for St Andrews on a high.

First the Masters, now the US Open. It’s developing into quite a year for Jordan Spieth, who at 21 became the youngest in history to claim the first two Majors of the season.

And we thought Rory McIlroy was setting the agenda. With The Open Championship a month away, we might have to think again. The Grand Slam is on and given what we witnessed here, the third element of the magic quartet falling to Spieth at St Andrews cannot be discounted. Well, it is the home of golf and prone to epic deeds.

Chambers Bay came in for a heap of stick over the past four days, not least from Spieth, yet it produced one of the great finishes witnessed at any Major, and at a final hole he dismissed as dumb when configured as a par four.

Restored to a par five on the final day, Spieth walked off with a closing birdie for a round of 69 to edge clear of the field by a stroke at five under par. But coming up behind, Dustin Johnson piped one up the middle and had a 20-footer for eagle to take the prize.

Johnson had been through the ringer, having reached the turn with a two-shot lead, only to disintegrate on the back nine and fall three adrift when Spieth birdied the 16th. That appeared to be that, but a double bogey coughed up by Spieth at the penultimate hole brought Johnson back into it.

He still needed a birdie at 17 to keep the dream alive, and when he doffed his cap to acknowledge the applause on his walk up the last it seemed for all the world that victory would be his. Up behind the 18th green, America’s first family of sport — clan Gretzky, led by ice hockey legend Wayne and into which Johnson is about to marry —­gathered around his fiance, Paula, and their infant son, Tatum.

Spieth was sitting in the scorer’s hut convinced his chance had gone. When Johnson stood over his putt, the best for which Spieth was hoping was a play-off over 18 holes today. Fate had other plans. The chronic putting stroke that had taken hold of Johnson at the turn returned to butcher his golden ­opportunity.

The eagle putt rolled four feet past, drawing gasps from the gallery, all 6,000 of whom were by now on their feet. Any other day of the week he would knock the return in left-handed. Taking only 48 seconds to assess the line, he sent it on its way, missing on the low side. It never looked like finding the cup and in the blink of an eye, he was engulfed by Spieth-mania, along with the rest of America.