AUGUSTA, Ga. — A big deficit. A collapse that was painful to watch. An Englishman in a green jacket who might not get his due.
Nick Faldo has seen this all before.
Sunday, it was Danny Willett who hit all the right shots to win the Masters.
“We all go out there and try to play good golf, and at the end of the day, someone has to win the golf tournament,” Willett said in Butler Cabin as Jordan Spieth, his face still awash in shock, looked on. “And, fortunately enough, today was my day.”
Just like 20 years ago, when Faldo won at Greg Norman’s expense, this Masters might be remembered more for the way it was lost than for how it was won.
Even as Willett stood on the 18th green in his green jacket, he couldn’t help but say to Spieth, “I feel very fortunate to be standing here, and you not putting the jacket on yourself again.”
Masters 2016:
This was Spieth’s to lose, and he did just that in a matter of three holes.
Staked to a five-shot lead going to the back nine, Spieth found a bunker at No. 10 and made bogey. He hit into the trees right of the 11th fairway that led to another bogey. And then one swing changed everything. Spieth chose to fade a 9-iron toward the right pin on the par-3 12th and came up short and into the water. Going to the drop zone for an awkward distance, he hit his wedge so fat that it found the water again.
The quadruple-bogey 7 put him three shots behind.
Those are the shots for which the 80th Masters will be remembered, at least in the immediate future. The images are not Willett clenching his fist when he made three birdies on the last six holes, but Spieth hanging his head as a five-shot lead turned into a three-shot deficit.
“It was a really tough 30 minutes for me,” Spieth said, “that hopefully I never experience again.”
Two weeks ago, Faldo was reminiscing about his six-shot comeback to beat Norman in 1996. Everyone remembers the short putts the Shark missed, the tee shot into the water on No. 12 that cost him the lead, and the 78 on his card. Faldo thinks more about the fact he shot 67 — the same score as Willett on Sunday — that was the lowest on the weekend.
Willett had a bogey-free 67 that matched the lowest score on the weekend this year.
He started the final round only three shots behind, tied with Jason Day, the No. 1 player in the world, and Dustin Johnson. The other three players ahead of him, and even those behind him, couldn’t sustain the round of golf that Willett put together.
Yes, Spieth lost it. But someone had to win it.
“I just feel fortunate that I was in the position that I was able to pounce on the opportunity,” Willett said. “If I had been 5-over-par, it wouldn’t have mattered what Jordan had done. Fortunately, I was in a position where we were in second place, playing quite nicely, and as a result of him doing what he did, we were able to stay at the lead.”
