Every first full weekend in April, the Masters Tournament (aka The Masters) takes place at August National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. It is the first of the four major championships in professional golf each year. The tournament has numerous traditions, the biggest being the green jacket that is awarded to the champion, who must then return it to the club the very next year to be stored in a special cloakroom designed to hold all the champions jackets.
This year, the Masters was chockfull of interesting stories. Two-time champion Tom Watson played his 43rd and final round in Augusta, while 22-year-old amateur Bryson DeChambeau played his first. Watson failed to make the cut however, and was given an emotional walk-up on the 18th. Even Lil’ Wayne understood the magnitude of the moment, tweeting Watson a supportive message after the round. What, you don’t know is that Lil Wayne and Watson are Twitter pals? DeChambeau did make the cut, and held his own through 17 holes on Friday, but there is a reason no amateur has ever won the Masters, and DeChambeau stumbled with a 77. He finished the tournament 5 over par. Not bad for a first-timer.
On Saturday, it was the super pairing of 22-year-old defending champ Jordan Spieth, and Rory McIlroy, that had everyone excited. But McIlroy’s bid to become only the sixth man to win all four majors suffered in the windy and chilly temps, and after starting the day one stroke behind Spieth, he finished five back. There would be no battle between these two phenoms on Sunday. Instead, it was the leader Spieth paired with another young pro, Smylie Kaufman,
Smylie Kaufman, (best name ever!) playing in his first Masters, started Sunday one stroke off Spieth. The pressure soon caught up to the former LSU golf star, and he quickly fell out of contention. The pressure caught up to Jordan Spieth too, as he had a complete Masters meltdown on the back nine.
With a 5 shot lead after 9 holes, and seemingly on his way to a second green jacket, Spieth bogeyed the 10th and 11th, before hitting two balls in the water on the 12th giving him a quadruple bogey for the hole. OUCH. Spieth said afterwords about holes 10-12, “It was a very tough 30 minutes for me that hopefully I never experience again.”
This left the door wide open for Englishman Danny Willet to make his move.
A virtual unknown golfer here in the US, Willet didn’t cave to the pressure, and closed the day with a 67 for a 5-under 283, beating Spieth and Lee Westwood by three strokes. In Masters tradition, Spieth, as defending champ, had to place the green jacket on the winner. Couldn’t have been easy, and I think he handled it with class. Willet, the 12th ranked player in the world, and only the second Brit to win the Masters, will wear his green jacket for the next year, and then turn it over to be stored in the champions cloakroom. He’s not an unknown golfer anymore.
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