Danny Willett ended 20 years of hurt for Englishmen at Augusta following the most extraordinary final day’s play in 82 years of Masters’ history.
The Masters lived up to its reputation of only coming alive on the back nine on Sunday, with one of the most thrilling, and at times, shocking, final two hours of play in the history of the tournament.
The record books will show that Yorkshireman Danny Willett shot a final round 67 to become the first Englishman to capture the green jacket since Nick Faldo in 1996 – but that doesn’t quite come closing to telling the whole story.
And while the ultimate margin of victory may have looked comfortable on paper, it was anything but plain sailing for the 28-year-old from Sheffield, who started the final round three shots behind defending champion Jordan Spieth, and was as much as five shorts adrift with just four holes to play, and looking set for little more than place money.
But while a succession of players, including an out-of-sorts Rory McIlroy, back-pedalled through the pack, Willett kept his momentum moving forward, reeling off a steady stream of pars, interspersed with the odd birdie, ready to capitalise should the seemingly unstoppable leader falter.
And falter Spieth did – in the most spectacular of fashion. After producing four consecutive birdies from the sixth to the ninth, the 22-year-old Texan was five shots clear of the field as he entered Amen Corner, and looked to all the world like coasting to his second green jacket.
But then the wheels came off. Firstly, he dropped a shot at the 10th, where he missed the green with another errant approach; and then he did likewise at the par-five 11th, reducing his lead to three. But then arguably one of the most memorable meltdowns in Masters’ history came at the par-three 12th, where the world number one put not one, but two balls into the water at the shortest hole on the course, en route to a soul-destroying quadruple-bogey seven.
The groans from the gallery on the 12th tee could be heard around the whole course, and filtered up to Willett and his player partner, Lee Westwood, who were both standing on the tee at the 16th, another testing short hole that has sealed the fate of many of Masters champion. Seeing the scoreboard change, and not quite believing his eyes, Willett stepped up and hit his tee shot to seven feet, before calmly stroking in the putt into the centre of the hole to move to five-under and take a two-shot lead.
Westwood, having eagled the 15th to move to two under par, and one shot off the lead, perhaps sensed his own chance of gaining a longed-for major victory might be at hand, but those hopes were almost instantly snuffed out when the 42 year old three-putted the 16th – his shortcomings with the putter coming back to haunt him once more.
But the war wasn’t over yet. Spieth, like the true champion he is, battled back with birdies at the par-five 13th and 15th, to throw himself the thinnest of lifelines.
Willett, the bit firmly between his teeth by now, thundered a drive down the 17th fairway, but over-hit his approach to leave himself a testing 50-foot chip to the pin. Nervelessly, he rolled it to three feet, and holed the putt for par. He then smashed another driver up the 18th, and then enjoyed a fortuitous bounce off the right collar of the green to set up a 20-foot birdie. Not surprisingly, given the pressure of the situation, it came up two feet short, but as he rolled in the par putt, Willett reacted in a way that he sensed that it might just be enough to secure victory.
Spieth, needing two birdies from the last three holes to force a play-off, squandered a makeable 10-foot birdie putt on 16, and then bogeyed 17 to allow Willett and his supporters to start celebrating in earnest.
For Willett, whose very appearance at Augusta was in doubt right up until his wife gave birth to their first child on March 30, this was a lifetime’s dream come true, and just reward for all the hard work he has put into the game since he first picked up a club as a young lad.
With just four wins on the European Tour since he turned professional in 2008, including February’s Dubai Desert Classic, critics questioned whether Willett had it in him to get his head in front at one of the four biggest tournaments, but he silenced those doubters in no uncertain fashion over four gruelling days at Augusta, and there’s every reason to believe that there’s a lot more to come from this steely competitor.
MASTERS TOURNAMENT