AUGUSTA, Ga.
(AP) -- Danny Willett in a green jacket was hard to believe
considering he wasn't even sure he could play the Masters two weeks ago.
No one was more stunned than Jordan Spieth.
Nine
holes away from another wire-to-wire victory, the defending Masters
champion threw it away Sunday with a collapse around Amen Corner that
was shocking even by Augusta National standards. With a five-shot lead
heading to the 10th tee, he dropped six shots in three holes and could
never catch up.
Even more painful for Spieth?
He had to go to Butler Cabin and to the 18th green ceremony to present the green jacket to Willett.
"It was a really tough 30 minutes for me that hopefully I never experience again," Spieth said.
And it was a comeback that ranks among the most surprising at the Masters.
Willett
always had this Sunday circled on his calendar - the due date of his
first child. He wasn't planning to be at Augusta National until his wife
gave birth to their son, Zachariah James, on March 30 and sent the
28-year-old English on an improbable path to becoming a major champion.
Five
shots behind with six holes to play, Willett birdied three of his last
six holes to polish off a round that might not get its due because of
the unforgettable images of Spieth's meltdown. Willett closed with a
5-under 67, with no bogeys on his card, to match the best score of the
weekend.
When he slipped on the green jacket, it already was early Monday in England - his wife Nicole's 28th birthday.
"We talk about fate, talk about everything else that goes with it," Willett said. "It's just a crazy, crazy week."
Willett
ended Europe's 17-year drought at Augusta National, and he became the
first player from England in a green jacket since Nick Faldo in 1996.
How fitting.
Twenty
years ago, Faldo also shot a bogey-free 67 in a final round remembered
just as much for Greg
Norman throwing away a six-shot lead.
Spieth
was trying to become only the fourth back-to-back winner of the
Masters, and the first player in 156 years of championship golf to go
wire-to-wire in successive years in a major. And it looked inevitable
when he ran off four straight birdies to end the front nine and build a
five-shot lead.
This didn't look like one of those Masters that would start on the back nine Sunday.
But it did - quickly.
Spieth
made bogey from the bunker on No. 10. A tee shot into the trees on the
11th, missing an 8-foot par putt. He still had a two-shot lead and only
needed to get past the dangerous par-3 12th to settle himself,
especially with two par 5s in front of him.
His
9-iron sailed to the right, bounded off the slope and into the water.
His wedge from the drop area was fat, and Spieth turned his head as the
ball plopped into the water again. He had to get up-and-down from a
bunker just to make a quadruple-bogey 7.
"It
was a lack of discipline to hit it over the bunker coming off two
bogeys, instead of recognizing I was still leading the Masters," Spieth
said.
The turnaround left him dazed. Spieth
was five shots ahead on the 10th tee and three shots behind when he
walked to the 13th tee.
Willett poured it on
with a shot into the 14th to about 4 feet, and a tee shot on the par-3
16th to 7 feet for a birdie that stretched his lead. Spieth still had a
chance when he birdied both par 5s to get within two shots, and then hit
his tee shot to 8 feet behind the hole on the 16th. But he missed the
birdie putt, and when he hit into a bunker and failed to save par on the
17th, it was over.
Spieth had led after seven
straight rounds at the Masters, a streak that ended in a most cruel
fashion. He shot 41 on the back nine for a 73, and was runner-up for the
second time in three years.
Lee Westwood,
playing with Willett, closed with a 69. He made eagle on the 15th hole
to get within one shot of the lead, and then three-putted the 16th hole
to fall away. Westwood has played in 72 majors without winning.
Dustin
Johnson also had an outside chance, even after four putts for a double
bogey on the fifth hole. He missed eagle putts from 15 feet and 20 feet
on the par 5s on the back nine, and then took double bogey on the 17th.
Johnson closed with a 71 and tied for fourth with Paul Casey (67) and
J.B. Holmes (68).
Smylie Kaufman, one shot out of the lead in his Masters debut, closed with an 81.
Willett
moves to No. 9 in the world. He once was the leading amateur in the
world, only for his professional career to be slowed by back injuries.
But he began to show his form on a big stage last year in the Match
Play, and by winning in Dubai this year.
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