The kid was right about one thing.
Assessing what might happen in the final round on the night before, Jordan Spieth avered it would require a “significant under-par round” for him to win the Masters on Sunday.
Spieth could not come close to one. But Danny Willett, the vicar’s son from Sheffield, England, did, for his closing 67 that, combined with an historic meltdown by the 22-year-old defending champion, made the 80th Masters a dual tale of torment and triumph.
“Big picture: this one will hurt,” Spieth said. “It will take a while (to recover).”
Willett, who started the day three shots off the lead, didn’t birdie a hole until No. 6 and was stuck with the flotsam at five shots back when Spieth turned in 4-under 32. But he played the final six holes at 3-under that in the end converted into a three-shot victory.
“It was all a bit surreal,” Willett said.
He becomes the second-ever British Masters champion, joining three-time champion Nick Faldo.
Spieth scored his third straight 73 to tie for runner-up with another Englishman, Lee Westwood, who shot 69. A third Englishman, Paul Casey, joined J.B. Holmes and Dustin Johnson in a three-way tie for third. With Matthews Fitzgerald (tied for seventh) and Justin Rose (tied for 10th), England placed five players in the top 10.
It was a day for scoring at Augusta National. After high winds pushed the average score on Friday and Saturday to 75.29, the field averaged 72.7 on Sunday.
Spieth seemed ready to lap the field, converting four straight birdies at the turn with what seemed an iron-clad five-shot lead and suggesting he need only play even-par golf over the final nine to become the Masters fourth repeat champion. Within four holes, he was long gone. Took about 40 minutes.
“It was a dream come true front nine and I knew par was good enough and maybe that was what hurt me,” he said. “Just wasn’t aggressive enough …”
The Texan was brought down by a bogey out of a bunker at No. 10, a bogey out of the pinestraw on No. 11 and a triple-bogey on N0. 12, which will go down in Masters’ lore as one of the most thorough and unforeseen collapses in the championship’s history.
Spieth’s tee shot caught the bank on the green’s right side and rolled down the slope into Rae’s Creek. Playing a second ball from the right side, he produced perhaps his worst swing of the week, chunking that ball into the water. He sent his third ball into the trap behind the green, from where he blasted out and two-putted for his 7. In one 155-yard hole, he went from leading by one to trailing by three.
“I can imagine that was fun for anyone to experience, other than maybe Danny’s team and those who are fans of his,” Spieth said. “At one point, I told (caddie) Mike (Greller), I said, ‘Buddy, it seems like we’re collapsing.’”
Over his final two rounds, Spieth several times pushed out to three-and four-shot leads but continually handed them back. But unlike last year when he won this event by a convincing four shots, he invited trouble. He won the 2015 Masters after making nine bogeys and one double-bogey.
This year, he scored 10 bogeys, four double-bogeys and the disastrous quad on No. 12. His final nine took 41 strokes.
“That’s a lot of holes significantly over par, which is really tough for me to swallow, for me to shoot three over-par rounds in a row after opening up with a 66,” he said. “I understand conditions were tough but it’s my expectation. I should never shoot two over-par rounds in a row, no matter what the golf course is, even a U.S. Open.”
The championship marks another stage in Willett’s steady rise through the world ranks. He first won his British Amateur in 2007 at 20 and within less than a year rose to the top-ranked amateur in the world. He spent two years at Jacksonville State and turned pro in 2008. Until Sunday, his best performance in a major was a tie for sixth in last summer’s British Open.
He almost didn’t get here. With wife Nicole due to deliver the couple’s first child during Masters week, Willett said he would not come to Augusta until the baby was born. Their son Zahcariah was delivered 12 days ago by C-section but Willett was still the last member of the field to arrive in Augusta,
He was walking off the tee at No. 15 when he heard the cries of distress over at No. 12, where Spieth was falling apart. But even when the scoreboard flipped and the number next to Spieth’s name turned from a red 5 to a red 1, Willet had trouble buying it.
“I was waiting for someone to put another 7 up next to it,” he said.
They didn’t. They put up his name. Amidst all the congratulations from the British contingent afterwards, Willett was able to slip away and make an overseas call home to Nicole. Her message?
“She said, ‘Well done.’”
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