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Hole-in-one heaven at 16th
Louis Oosthuizen wasn't the only golfer to make a hole-in-one at the 16th.
PT1M23S 620 349From aces highs to a 50-minute low for Jordan Spieth: the craziest moments from Masters Sunday.
The green shirt
Danny Willett wore white pants, white shoes, a white sweater and a white hat for the entire final round of the 2016 Masters. Until the final putt.
On the rise: Danny Willett celebrates his victory at Augusta. Photo: Getty Images
Sitting on top of the leaderboard at five under and two shots ahead of any other player, Willett had a straight-forward short-range par putt to finish his stellar, bogey-free round of 67 that would eventually win him the tournament.
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But before the Englishman took care of business on the 18th green, he quietly took off his white sweater to reveal … a green shirt. The significance of green at the Masters does not need to be explained. Put simply, Willett must have had a special feeling about this day from the time he woke up; that it was meant to be.
And it's hard to argue with him, when you consider these thoughts. Willett was originally not going to play in this tournament because the due date for the birth his child was April 10 – Sunday of the Masters in the US. Instead, his wife Nicole had a C-section and their son Zachariah James Willett was born on March 30. Also, today was Nicole's birthday.
Danny Willett before the green shirt was revealed. Photo: Getty Images
But it gets better. Willett's father is a Church of England vicar (a type of parish priest). So consider the irony (or maybe something more) that "the son of preacher man" would win the Masters after the best player in the world and an Augusta specialist would inexplicably fall from an unbeatable position with a bogey at the 11th hole and a quadruple bogey at 12th – which are two of three holes that make up "Amen Corner".
It seems incredible given his world ranking at No.12, but the large majority of non-golf followers would not have been able to pick Willett out of a line-up before Sunday. The 28-year-old from South Yorkshire had won four times on the European Tour and his consistency when playing anywhere in the world is what underpinned his high world ranking. But his first Major victory will go down in Masters history because of the drama attached to Spieth's collapse and the skill and mental strength he showed to make sure he was the one who benefited from it.
50 minutes of Masters mayhem
At 5.05pm, Spieth walked to the 10th tee having just rolled in his fourth consecutive birdie. He was seven under overall for the tournament and held a five-shot lead on the next-closet player - Willett at two under. On social media, fans were bemoaning the boring finish that loomed for one of the most anticipated Masters ever.
It was essentially the World No.2 vs the Augusta Back nine (and in the end that's how it played out) but no one could have guessed how much drama that would bring.
It began straight away when the 22-year-old superstar missed his approach to the 10th green right and short, leading to a bogey, and then continued when he lost his drive at the par four 11th way right, which finished in another bogey. In the blink of an eye, Spieth's buffer on the chasing pack had been shaved to just one shot, as he slipped back to five under while Willett made two crucial birdies at the same time to move to four under.
Then came the moment that changed the Masters – the quadruple bogey the par three 12th hole. The American made probably the worst swing of his short career, when his tee shot skewed 25 yards right of the hole (and probably 50 yards wide of the line he was aiming on) and dropped into the water. From there, Spieth then caught his next chip shot from the drop zone so fat that it barely made it into the front of the pond protecting the green - some 25 yards short of the pin at which he would have been aiming. On his next try from the drop zone, the world No.2 understandably over-compensated for the water at the front and flew it into the back bunker, where he would eventually chip out and make the putt for a 7 on the par 3.
By 5.55pm, Spieth had gone from seven under to one under and was suddenly three shots behind Willett, completing a stunning eight-shot swing in 50 minutes. They always say the Masters doesn't start until the back nine on Sunday and this was another example as to why they are always right.
Jordan Spieth reacts after hitting his tee shot into the water on the 12th. Photo: Getty Images
Aces are wild
The par three 16th hole at Augusta National is supposed to be hard to play. Take for example Jason Day. The No.1 player in the world scored a double bogey on day one, a bogey on day three and needed all his mastery just to make par on the other two days.
But in the final round, the back left pin location close to the water must have set up perfectly for some of the world's best players and there were three – that's right three! – who took advantage by scoring holes in one.
Ireland's Shane Lowry, former US Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III and former British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen all scored aces and all came in similar fashion, with sweeping tee shots that landed on the right side of the green before turning sharply down the hill towards the water and into the cup. Not surprisingly, this was the first time the 16th hole had ever given up three aces in one day at the Masters.
Davis Love III celebrates his hole-in-one. Photo: Getty Images
Greatest hole-in-one ever?
This is a continuation of the "aces are wild" chaos, but Oosthuizen's hole-in-one deserved closer dissection. Seasoned commentators could not recall seeing anything like it, and definitely not in a Major tournament.
Not only did the South African manage to put a golf ball into a hole the size of a cup from 170 yards away, he did it while hitting another player's ball that was on the green in the process. The ball of American JB Holmes was sitting close to the right side of the pin when Oosthuizen stepped up for his tee shot and what happened next was as close to a golfing miracle as you will get.
Oosthuizen flew his ball about 30-feet to the right of Holmes' ball when it hit the up-slope and started to funnell back towards the hole. As it turned, it quickly became apparent that the ball was on a good line and with enough pace to reach the hole. However Holmes' ball was in the way.
As Oosthuizen's ball cannoned into Holmes' – knocking it past the pin – it somehow still had enough momentum to keep rolling towards the hole and, if anything, the collision with Holmes ball must have actually put Oosthuizen's ball on a better line. As it dropped in the cup, it prompted the biggest "Oh, my God" pop from the crowd in Masters history.
Tiger circa 2005
On any other day, this shot might have led the highlight reels, given its close connection with one of the greatest moments in Masters history. In 2005, Tiger Woods famously chipped in from off the green at the 16th hole at Augusta after flipping the ball on to the up-slope and then watching it turn 90 degrees and roll into the cup, seemingly in slow motion. On Sunday, seven-time PGA Tour winner Matt Kuchar pulled off a stunning "Tiger" impression when he holed out an eerily similar chip-in – hitting an almost identical spot to Woods and letting the ball track back towards the hole and in. As it did, chant of "Kuuuuuch" spontaneously broke out in full voice from the crowd at the 16th hole. Didn't they see some golf this week?
Like Tiger: Matt Kuchar. Photo: AP