Willett triumphs as Spieth collapses
Print Edition
ENGLAND’S Danny Willett was the shock winner of the 80th Masters on Sunday after a bogey-free final round and an epic back-nine collapse by defending champion Jordan Spieth.
Willett fired a five-under par 67 for a three-shot victory that brought the 28-year-old Englishman the green jacket symbolic of victory at Augusta National as well as a US$1.8 million top prize from the US$10 million purse.
“It’s crazy. It’s surreal,” Willett said. “Words can’t describe the emotions and feelings. You do something special and it still doesn’t quite sink in what you have achieved.”
Willett, five down to Spieth with six holes to play, birdied the par-5 13th, par-4 14th and par-3 16th to charge into the clubhouse while the 22-year-old American endured a nightmare meltdown with bogeys at 10 and 11 and a quadruple bogey at the par-3 12th.
“I just put a couple of weak swings on it and suddenly I’m not leading anymore,” said Spieth. “I’ll be disappointed with that one.
“It was a very tough 30 minutes for me. I hope I never experience it again.”
Willett finished 72 holes at five-under 283, with Spieth and English playing partner Lee Westwood sharing second on 286. Westwood, trying to win his first major title at age 42, shot 69 while Spieth, who defends his US Open title in June at Oakmont, fired a 73.
Spieth, as defending champion, presented Willett with the green jacket that he looked to make his own for most of the week, leading after all three prior rounds.
“It was a very surreal day when I look back at the ebbs and flows,” Willett said. “I was able to make a couple of good putts and here I am.”
Willett was not even going to play the Masters because his wife was due to give birth on Sunday, but she gave birth on March 30 and he was able to come down Magnolia Lane for his date with destiny.
“You talk about fate and everything else that goes with it — it has been a crazy week,” Willett said.
World No. 12 Willett took his first major crown in only his 12th major start, becoming only the second England golfer to win the Masters after Nick Faldo, the champion in 1989, 1990 and 1996.
Spieth, a wire-to-wire winner last year, had a last gasp with birdies and 13 and 15, but he missed a eight-foot birdie putt at 16 and a bogey at 17 sealed his fate.
Germany’s 58-year-old Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters winner trying to become golf’s oldest major champion, fired a 79 to finish on 294.
Third-ranked Rory McIlroy, trying to become the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam, fired a 71 to finish on 289.
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