PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Jordan Spieth was a bit surprised when he got word Tom Brady was hanging up his cleats.
“Just because of the level that he’s still playing at,” the three-time major winner said this week of the seven-time Super Bowl winner and future inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Brady led the NFL in passing yards (5,316), completions (485), passing TDs (43), passing yards per game (312.7), and completions per game (28.5) this season.
“Just the competitiveness that he has, like I feel like he’s got to find a hobby or something because he’ll go nuts sitting still,” Spieth said. “But obviously as I’ve seen he’s voiced that his priorities are going to be with his family and obviously he’s given so much to the game.
“So I think his perspective has changed. I think he was quoted as saying his preparation wasn’t going to be as competitive or something, he didn’t see himself going through the amount that he would want to go to leading into each week.”
More: Golf world reacts to Tom Brady’s retirement
The two met years ago, both representatives of Under Armour. The 2015 Masters champion said he’s played a couple rounds with Brady at Augusta National.
And they’ve stayed in touch over many phone calls.
“He’s not only somebody who has helped when things have been going really well for me, helped kind of boost that and give advice on how to continue to kind of push yourself forward when things are going really well,” Spieth said. “But he’s also one of a few phone calls I’ve gotten when things are really bad to be able to be somebody that can relate to the ups and downs of a career and kind of what he went through and giving his perspective.”
Spieth, who begins play in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Thursday, a tournament he won in 2017, said he’s re-reading Brady’s first book, “The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance.”
“I’m in the middle of it right now reading it each night, just kind of going through it again mainly just to kind of look into what he’s done,” Spieth said. “I think he changed the way that athletes should not only prepare but also recover. And I think looking at a sport that was just so rooted in your go lift heavy weights, that’s how you get stronger, that’s how you perform better, I mean he’s totally reshaped the game of football.
“But I think in a sport like golf where longevity is key there’s a lot to learn from him as well.”
