mazing grace under pressure, British sport has seen little like it.So, yes, she was as good as gold yet the funny thing was how

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- Jordan Spieth walked with purpose down the long corridor toward his locker, not stopping to look at the photos and scorecards that cover more than a century of golf history at Baltusrol.Maybe that was just as well.History has proven to be his toughest opponent this year, and it was bound to be a losing battle.Dating to 1934 when the Masters began, Spieth is among 14 players who have won two majors in one year. Only five of those players ever won a single major the following year, and its an elite group -- Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods.Woods is the only player to win two majors in consecutive seasons.Spieth is not trying to salvage his season at the PGA Championship. All but four players would love to have his year of two victories and a close call at the Masters. The exceptions are the three major champions and Jason Day, the only three-time winner on the PGA Tour this year.It only seems like a struggle for Spieth because of endless comparisons with last year.Thats what led Spieth to try to reason with the media, and perhaps to remind himself, of the reality he is facing.I think its been a solid year, and I think had last year not happened Id be having a lot of positive questions, Spieth said after the British Open. Instead, most of the questions I get are comparing to last year and, therefore, negative because its not to the same standard. So thats almost tough to then convince myself that youre having a good year ... when the questions I get make me feel like its not.Trouble is, last year did happen. Comparisons were inevitable.Graeme McDowell recalls his magical season in 2010 when he won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and delivered the winning point from the final match at the Ryder Cup. He ended the year by taking down Woods at his own tournament in California. It was tough to back up a year like that.It feels like a disappointment, like a certain young American whos having the same issue, McDowell said, smiling because it was clear he was speaking about Spieth. Its the same way when you shoot 62. Its very hard to come out on the golf course and back up a 62. Thats the micro version. The macro version is coming off a year like that trying to replicate it. Obviously, theres a lot of traps.Are the expectations too high? Is the scrutiny too much?The kid is not having a bad year, McDowell said. But hes in a different stratosphere now. Hes in the Tiger stratosphere, where every shot he hits is going to be questioned, every move he makes is going to be questioned. Its something he has to get used to.And theres another sobering reality that Spieth will have to consider: History suggests he might never have another season like last year.Spieth didnt just win two majors. He came as close as anyone to being the first to capture the calendar Grand Slam. He missed the British Open playoff by one shot and was runner-up to Jason Day in the PGA Championship.Nicklaus had that chance one time in 1972, finishing one shot behind at the British Open. Palmer created the modern Grand Slam in 1960 when he won the Masters and U.S. Open. He never got shot the rest of his career. Woods lone opportunity ended in the rain and wind of Muirfield in 2002.There are aspirations and goals and beliefs and knowledge that you can achieve such incredible things that Jordan did, Adam Scott said. But then theres reality balanced in there. History shows it doesnt repeat. One guy (Woods) repeated it a few times. So whats successful after that is what Jordan or any player having that kind of year will have to figure out. I dont know the answer.Spieth doesnt believe that last year was as good as it will get, nor should he. He doesnt turn 23 until Wednesday. His career is just getting started, and the last thing any young player wants to hear is that his best -- results, not necessarily performance -- is behind him.If thats a valley, Spieth said of his season to date, then thats going to be a lot of fun when we get back up to a peak.Then again, he alluded to how special last year was even before the U.S. Open.One swing on the 12th tee at Augusta National cost Spieth another green jacket, though he was able to step back and see the bigger picture. It was his fifth straight major that he had a serious chance to win.Weve been spoiled the last five of them, he said in June. We recognize thats not necessarily normal to have a chance of that many in a row. But why do whats normal? Randy White Jersey . At a Manhattan federal court hearing, attorney Jordan Siev said his law office has gotten more evidence nearly every day to support its lawsuit accusing MLB and Selig of going on a "witch hunt" to ruin Rodriguezs reputation and career. 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There are many titles that could have been bestowed on Jessica Ennis-Hill during her magnificent athletics career. The Face of 2012? Of course. The nicest athlete in Britain? Almost certainly. The most beloved? Very possibly. The toughest? Well, if you had ever watched her train at her Sheffield base, you wouldnt have had to ask twice.Yet as British sport bade farewell on Thursday to its diminutive heroine with the big heart and the even bigger smile, it was also legitimate to wonder whether our Jess was, pound for pound, the finest, most complete all-round athlete this country has seen in the new millennium.We are talking of a woman who was not just the worlds best multi-eventer but, within Britain itself, brilliant enough to be at various points the nations top high jumper, its finest long jumper, its most outstanding, world-class hurdler and one of its fastest sprinters.Standing at 5-foot-5, she could leap 30cm above her own height -- a feat only ever achieved by a handful of jumpers -- and, though only a fraction above nine stone, she turned herself into one of the countrys top 10 shot putters. At her peak, she was forced through stress fractures to effectively relearn the long jump from scratch, having to take off from her left foot instead of her right, and yet still won the Olympic title within three years.Hers was an odyssey of courage, skill and unreal determination. No one trains harder than multi-eventers and no multi-eventer prepared harder than her.I once had the privilege to spend a day watching her train at the English Institute of Sport in her home town. It was truly wince-inducing.Intense sprints, skipping, sandpit drills, 12 long jumps, 12 puts, throwing technique sessions, circuit training, conditioning. Not as bad as the hill runs and weight sessions of the previous day but a brutal morning. She then sat at lunch just dreading the afternoons killer 800m training and, after those killer 200 metres reps, I actually did hear the unthinkable from her -- dear old Jess in agony, swearing her head off.Watching this workload, I remember later thinking that, after she had taken a break following her Olympic triumph to become a mum, it would be miraculous for her to reprise the same intense daily physical and mental slog that shed need to beat the world again. Thirteen months after giving birth to son Reggie, though, she was world heptathlon champion again. Yes, the mother of all comebacks.When such a natural talent was enhanced by such extraordinary determination, only one thing more was required to create the ideal athlete; a rare spirit when in the heat of competition.Toni Minichiello, the ebullient coach who could always seem to cajole the best out of this self-confessed worrier, once scolded me for suggesting she was Daley-esque, that she had something of the peerless Daley Thompsons ability to produce her best under the most sevvere moments of pressure.dddddddddddd. No, Jessica-esque -- Daleyd learn a thing or two, he laughed.Certainly, Thompson could have taken a lesson or two in charm and how to win friends and influence people from Ennis-Hill. Its not easy having to live up to some fanciful role model notion but she never seemed to have to try; shes just a natural and it was for good reason that she was earlier this year voted ahead of Andy Murray as the sports personality that Britain was most proud of.In an era when athletics had become enveloped by doubt and cynicism, people still always felt that here as someone they could still believe in. Mick Thompson, the coach who first spotted the talent of an energetic 10-year-old schoolgirl when overseeing a summer camp in Sheffield, once told me shes never changed in all the time hes known her. Whats not to like about Jess? Still as good as gold, always friendly and open, he said.Too true. She kept that demeanour even when the pressure was at its absolute height. Like Cathy Freeman in Sydney 2000 and Michael Johnson in Atlanta 1996, she shouldered with wonderful aplomb the ultimate double -- being both the face and the hero of a home Olympic Games.What could have been more challenging than having to burst out of that London 2012 poster and into legend on that Super Saturday with anything less than gold being seen as some sort of failure? As an example of amazing grace under pressure, British sport has seen little like it.So, yes, she was as good as gold yet the funny thing was how she always sounded as if she never quite understood how brilliant she was.With her Olympic heptathlon gold and silver, her two world titles (actually, it should really have been three because she wasnt up-graded from silver in 2011 even after Russian winner Tatyana Chernova was subsequently discredited as a doping cheat), her world indoor pentathlon title and her European crown, there have been times when Ennis-Hill would have had a right to call herself the worlds best athlete. Yet, she just laughed that she couldnt bring herself to think like that because it all sounded a bit too surreal.Lets be clear, though. The woman who had a right to once feel a bit irritated by being faintly patronised as tadpole by one British rival ended up showing everyone that she was a veritable giant in the nations sporting firmament.More than that, Ennis-Hill was living proof that nice guys do finish first. She could have plumped for one final hurrah at next years world championships, back at the scene of her 2012 triumph, but she knew instinctively it was time to go.Like practically everything she did, our Jess, who radiated sunshine while she raided all those golds, got it right even at the very end of her quite glittering career. ' ' '