FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Jordan Spieth opened the dictionary and frantically started studying. It’d been a while since his last cram session, and he was starting to get nervous.

“I only went to a year and a half of college,” he said to Jairam Hathwar, who was crowned co-champion of this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee. “You have to cut me a break.”

Jairam grinned and then look down, slightly embarrassed, but gave no sign that any break was forthcoming.

Jairam saw Spieth on television for the first time two years ago, and he’s been his favorite athlete ever since.

“I liked watching him play golf,” he said.

Once word got out AT&T, one of Spieth’s sponsors, had the bright idea of “connecting” these two people together to make a video: Jairam, the best 13 year-old speller in the country who followed in the footsteps of his brother by winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee this year, and Spieth, the Dallas born-and-raised professional golfer whose talent might well surpass any other golfer of his generation.

I was lucky enough to be on site for all if it, which meant I got to witness Jairam’s destruction of Jordan first hand.

It started when he misspelled “zoysia”, a type of grass that is often found on golf courses.

“I should’ve gotten that one,” Spieth said, shaking his head. “That was my chance.”

Things quickly got worse.

Jairam rattled-off correct answer after correct answer of words so complicated that I can’t even tell you want they were, because that would require me spelling them correctly-enough for Google to understand what word I’m trying to say.

The competition effectively ended with Spieth’s butchering of the word “logorrhea”, a word that means, basically, somebody (like a golfer) who compulsively talks to things(like their golf balls). A coincidental choice, I’m sure.

Spieth’s loss was official a few moments later when he failed to drain an uphill, 30 foot putt — his punishment for misspelling all those words — to tie Jairam’s tap-in putt.

Nevertheless, he remained in good spirits.

“I’m naturally very competitive, it’s in my DNA,” Spieth said, “but even though I lost it was fun. I’m glad AT&T brought us together.”

It was at that point Spieth took a bit of a deeper dive into his spelling career. He describes himself as a “below average speller,” and when he asked Jairam for tips, he was told to read the dictionary cover-to-cover — which Jairam has done twice.

What’s next for Jairam? Back to school then, hopefully, onto medical school one day. Spieth told him to enjoy the process, and that even though picking colleges can be scary, it’s also fun if you allow it to be.

“If professional golf never happened I think I’d be on the business development side of a start up, kind of like my dad does,” Spieth said.

“It’s a good thing I can hit a golf ball well though,” he added, “don’t need to spell well to do that.”