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Spieth joins elite company
Jordan Spieth coughed up six shots in three holes to destroy his hopes of back-to-back titles.
PT1M2S 620 349Jordan Spieth's rivals had spoken admiringly of how well the Augusta National golf course suited his eye. It was a telling insider tip, because this is a golf course full of illusions and optical tricks, false fronts, foreshortenings and vanishing points that, when a golfer is under extreme pressure, cause him to lose his certainty somewhere between taking his club back and bringing it down through the ball.
On the 12th hole on Sunday, after he had been leading the tournament for the best part of eight rounds spread over two years, Spieth's eye failed him.
Tough day: Jordan Spieth on the 18th green at Augusta. Photo: Chris Carlson
Framed by the Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson bridges, Rae's Creek in front, and a rising flowerbed behind, the dainty 140-metre par three named 'Golden Bell' tolled for the defending champion as he stood on the tee. Half an hour earlier, his seemingly permanent lead over the field had ballooned to five shots. Now it was one, after his bogeys on 10 and 11 and Englishman Danny Willett's birdies on 13 and 14. But Spieth's lead had concertina'd in and out all tournament. It still felt as naturally ordained as the blooming azaleas. His front-running procession to victory, surely one of the greatest of all Masters feats under the strain of a gusting wind, still seemed inevitable.
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Amen Corner, with the 12th hole at its heart, is a rare sanctuary for the golfers. There is a large spectator area behind the 12th tee, but once the players have hit, they move away from the crowd. Only players and caddies cross the creek to the 12th green and 13th tee, which beckons as a temporary refuge.
Bunkers pincer the middle of the 12th green but do not guard the right-hand side, where the pin is usually placed on Masters Sunday. With a baseballer's arm, Spieth could have thrown his ball onto that unprotected right-hand platform.
The professional, percentage wisdom said to draw the ball into the middle of the green, between the bunkers. Spieth knew this from hard experience. On this hole two years ago, he had given into temptation and played a fade for the pin. Ending up in Rae's Creek, he lost his chance to win the Masters on debut.
This time, the stress must have been enormous. Jason Day had spoken of how hard it is to lead, day after day, in these conditions - it would be comparable to a Tour de France cyclist breaking away at the bottom of a mountain stage and hanging on for a four-hour climb. Spieth had, in fact, cracked twice already, very late in his Friday and Saturday rounds. But everyone was cracking, at some stage, and aside from Spieth they had mostly shattered. Day's own half-hour of horror had come on Thursday, when he lost four shots on the 15th, 16th and 17th that, over the next 56 holes, he never got back.
Still, Spieth's Masters tournament, like his magnificent young career, had been characterised by its resilience. Whenever he played a bad shot, a good one followed. When he bogeyed, he then birdied.
He set himself to hit a nine-iron between the bunkers. It would be a comfortable draw. But then, that right-hand platform sang its siren song. Almost every vista at this course is framed - by sand, by wood, by flowers or by water. To the eye, that right-hand section of the 12th target is an unframed lushness - a dark bank in front, a rising emerald pathway to the 13th tee to the rear. It looks naked. Certainly vulnerable. And so, Spieth's mind changed. His caddie, Michael Greller, encouraged him to 'bleed' a fade towards the pin. He gave into temptation, hit the fade, and fell short. He had been losing control of his left-to-right shots all week, and here was another, he said, that his mind flinched from committing to. His ball landed virtually in Greg Norman's 20-year-old pitch-mark and rolled into a corner of underwater sludge that will be forever Shark-infested.
The size of Spieth's achievement, that phantom win, can perhaps be measured by the mental collapse he suffered on the 12th. Perhaps failure was the only way to gauge the size of the would-be success. Spieth could have escaped the 12th with a five, or even a four, but instead of going to the drop zone he walked back almost to the tee and tried again. The strictly programmed processes - and the instinctive genius of his eye - again broke down. His unconscious again refused to obey orders. He dumped another shot in the water, then finally hit, as if for safe haven, into the back bunker.
Moments later, groans broke out at the leaderboards around the course when Spieth's red number went from 5 to 1. Willett was preparing for a birdie putt on 15, which he missed. He said later that he thought it was a mistake, and the Spieth 1 under par tile would be replaced by a 7.
Meanwhile, Spieth retreated further from the crowd, up into the solitude of the 13th tee. The '30 minutes that hopefully I'll never experience again' were over, but so was his tournament. He will experience those minutes again in memory, which will be the real test of his resilience. 'Big picture, this one will hurt,' he said. 'This will take a while.'
Two hours afterwards, the bleachers were empty and the only watcher left in Amen Corner was a security guard. In the gloaming, a spotlight shone down on the 12th green. It was now a stage with no audience and no performers. It was beautiful.
Final leaderboard
283: Danny Willett (ENG) 70 74 72 67
286: Lee Westwood (ENG) 71 75 71 69, Jordan Spieth (USA) 66 74 73 73
287: Dustin Johnson (USA) 73 71 72 71, Paul Casey (ENG) 69 77 74 67, J.B. Holmes (USA) 72 73 74 68
288: Soren Kjeldsen (DEN) 69 74 74 71, Hideki Matsuyama (JPN) 71 72 72 73, Matthew Fitzpatrick (ENG) 71 76 74 67
289: Daniel Berger (USA) 73 71 74 71, Justin Rose (ENG) 69 77 73 70, Brandt Snedeker (USA) 71 72 74 72, Jason Day (AUS) 72 73 71 73, Rory McIlroy (NIR) 70 71 77 71
291: Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA) 72 72 77 70, Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 72 77 71 71
292: Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 71 75 74 72, Rafael Cabrera (ESP) 74 73 75 70, Danny Lee (NZL) 68 74 79 71, Billy Horschel (USA) 70 77 73 72
293: Brooks Koepka (USA) 73 72 76 72, Jamie Donaldson (WAL) 74 72 75 72, Bryson DeChambeau (USA) 72 72 77 72
294: Henrik Stenson (SWE) 72 75 78 69, Bill Haas (USA) 75 74 72 73, Bernhard Langer (GER) 72 73 70 79, Matt Kuchar (USA) 75 73 72 74, Angel Cabrera (ARG) 73 73 73 75
295: Jimmy Walker (USA) 71 75 74 75, Scott Piercy (USA) 70 72 79 74, Smylie Kaufman (USA) 73 72 69 81, Webb Simpson (USA) 77 72 74 72, Charley Hoffman (USA) 71 77 73 74
296: Bernd Wiesberger (AUT) 73 72 79 72, Kevin Streelman (USA) 71 75 79 71, Sergio Garcia (ESP) 69 75 81 71
297: Bubba Watson (USA) 75 75 76 71, Kevin Kisner (USA) 77 72 76 72
298: Romain Langasque (FRA) 74 73 83 68, Justin Thomas (USA) 76 73 78 71, Shane Lowry (IRL) 68 76 79 75
299: Anirban Lahiri (IND) 76 73 75 75, Harris English (USA) 74 73 76 76, Victor Dubuisson (FRA) 73 76 76 74, Chris Wood (ENG) 72 73 75 79, Davis Love III (USA) 73 73 76 77, Adam Scott (AUS) 76 72 75 76, Troy Merritt (USA) 74 71 79 75
300: Ian Poulter (ENG) 69 78 82 71, Patrick Reed (USA) 76 73 75 76, Martin Kaymer (GER) 74 75 79 72
301: Larry Mize (USA) 76 73 78 74, Keegan Bradley (USA) 74 73 77 77
302: Hunter Mahan (USA) 73 75 78 76
303: Cameron Smith (AUS) 74 73 82 74, Kevin Na (USA) 72 74 85 72
307: Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 72 76 81 78