Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson faced a different question at the PGA

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Time is always present in all major tournaments. It sets the stage and shapes the meaning of the church. It’s a flowing force that interacts with each player differently. Those who are young and full of promise try to rush you; those at the top try to hold it; and others hope to turn it back, even if only for a little while.

At 10:50 a.m. at Aronimink Golf Club on Saturday, time and results took center stage.

11 years ago next month, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson played in a US Open match on Sunday that will be remembered long after the dust has settled in their careers. They made the final two teams on Father’s Day at the 2015 US Open and traded on the waters of Chambers Bay. They were the present and the future of golf, both undoubtedly in their place, even if they didn’t know it.

Spieth won that US Open after Johnson birdied the last hole. Johnson will win the trophy next year. More wins came. Both can add another big to the last decade, doing enough to give a small reminder of the past. But things tend to disappear quickly.

They were paired together at the PGA Championship on Saturday, meeting three-plus hours ahead of the leaders. With an integrated leaderboard and soft set-up, the Philadelphia crowd was looking for fireworks.

Spieth still looks like he did that Sunday in Washington. But he’s no longer a golf wunderkind. He is 32 years old and married with three children. He has gone four years without a win and his longest drought is close to ten years. His playing is still magnetic and consistent, the kind of addictive mix that creates electricity but fades as quickly as it ignites. Aside from a gray beard and the LIV Golf logo on his hat, everything about Johnson appears to have remained the same. He still has the same slow, wobbly swing and still sends golf balls whizzing through the air with that wrist flex. Johnson hasn’t won at LIV in two years and hasn’t won a major in nearly six years.

Time goes on and on. One day, everything is in the palm of your hand. Next, you try to stop the sand from slipping off your fingers.

Spieth and Johnson chat as they leave the first tee as their trip to Philadelphia begins. Spieth is still the same. He speaks; he talks to himself, to his friend Michael Greller, and to his teammates. The conversation rarely stops. When he made an 11-foot birdie putt past the hole on No. When they finished the hole, he sat and checked the break. “Wow,” he exclaimed. When he lost the shot left at No. 10, he walked away muttering, “Come on, Jordan.”

Johnson remains stoic. When he stuck his left tee shot on No. 6, all he gave was, “Oh,” before “Fore!” He weaved his way through the crowd, onto the green and back among them toward the tee line, the fans staring at him like a golf blur rarely seen on major weekends these days. He missed a birdie putt low at No. 7 and gave his caddy a short tip to go well – no dialogue needed.

Both are the same as usual, they just age.

Both birdied the par-5 ninth. A small cluster of rallies on the back nine came in the early afternoon, but, for the most part, Spieth and Johnson spent Saturday surrounded by waves of creative roar created by those who want to make the most of the time they have left (Justin Rose) and those who want to consolidate their place in it (Rory McIlroy).

Suddenly, Spieth and Johnson walked away as if they were walking in a car trying to catch the speeding car.

“It’s very frustrating,” Spieth, who shot an even 70, told GOLF after the round. “Tomorrow the air will be less so you won’t be able to build much soil unless it is very low. Today was the day to do it and I still can’t get these plants.”

Spieth still feels “close.” You’ve had a blast this week. He remains one of golf’s greatest artists. The shot he hit on No. 11 on Friday — a “punch-draw 60-degree low,” Spieth recalled — is a reminder that he can conjure magic few know. Almost everything There.

However, something is still missing.

“Scoring comes down to making putts,” he said. “It’s scoring inside 150 yards and making putts. I feel like I hit some really good shots from that distance and had a lot of looks, and if my Strokes Gained: Putting was like any of the top 10 in the field right now, I’d probably be in the lead.”

“Having said that, I feel like I’ve come here and said this is the best chance I’ve had in seven or eight years to step up and win a major again. If I stay that way, it should feel easy and easy. I had a rough week at Augusta, too. I’ve had some good ones. I’ll try to have a good one tomorrow and get everything right.”

Spieth stood by the steps leading to the Aronimink clubhouse. He was five shots back at the time and tied for 45th. He is one of golf’s geniuses, and when faced with the question of time and how it has changed him, he looked down.

“Yes, I’m thinking about it,” he said. “Both [on course and off] I am very different. I have changed a lot.”

Spieth then left golf and talked about his wife and children and how they made it “all better.” Different would be nice. Life’s blessings often change as we change, as priorities change. While Spieth was talking, Johnson kept quiet and walked straight to his car.

Spieth walked up the stairs to the clubhouse, toward the 18th green where, minutes earlier, he and Johnson had finished. This did not end in sadness or happiness or great meaning. Just questions about when and where it all went.