Teenager Spieth can now start prepping for St. Jude Classic

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IRVING, Texas -- With one PGA TOUR start under his belt, 16-year-old Jordan Spieth now is looking forward to his second start in next month's St. Jude Classic presented by Smith & Nephew.

Unlike the HP Byron Nelson Championship's TPC Four Seasons Resort, a course that high school junior from Dallas has played many times, Spieth has no experience at the TPC Southwind course in Memphis, Tenn.

"I've got preparation to do for that," Spieth said after his final-round 72 left him tied for 16th. "I think this will help going into that.

"The only difference is I've never seen the course out there, but I think the experience that I've had this week is only going to help me when I'm playing with the pros again."

St. Jude Classic tournament director Phil Cannon announced on Friday as Spieth was completing his second round -- en route to becoming the sixth youngest player to make a PGA TOUR cut -- that the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champ would accept a sponsor's exemption into that event.

"We've had an offer extended for a couple of months," Cannon told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. "We heard he was going to accept it in the past few weeks and we were going to hold off until next week to make the announcement, but he made the cut in Dallas and we decided to take advantage of his (sudden) popularity."

The move to offer an exemption to a junior player is not unusual for the St. Jude Classic. Since 2007, the tournament has given one of its eight sponsor's exemptions to the American Junior Golf Association's top golfer, a ranking that Spieth currently holds.

"We feel this is a wise use of one of our exemptions as an investment in the future," St. Jude Classic tournament manager Todd Garten told the Commercial-Appeal. "Jordan is quite a young man. He already has an impressive resume."