Channeling Greg Norman’s epic 1996 Masters collapse, young Texan Jordan Spieth surrendered a five-stroke lead with nine holes remaining in the final round of the 2016 Masters. Norman’s lead was six strokes, if anyone wants to quibble about the comparison.
Another similarity betwixt the two events was that Danny Willet became the first Englishman to win the tournament since Nick Faldo was the beneficiary of Norman’s troubles in 1996.
Spieth finished off the outward half with four consecutive birdies and looked unstoppable until bogeys at 10 and 11 put a chink in his armour. It was the disaster on the 12th hole, however, that saw him go from being one shot in the lead to being four behind in a span of less than 10 minutes.
After splashing his tee shot on the par three 12th with a swing that resembled a typical weekend hacker’s worst nightmare, Spieth proceeded to hit an even poorer third shot that also found Ray’s Creek. He wound up taking a quadruple bogey seven on the hole, where if he could have limited the damage to no worse than a five, would have resulted in his winning when he was able to recover and birdie the 13th and 15th holes.
Spieth managed to lead the first three rounds this year after having led all four rounds last year. He was all over the course all week, but managed to produce some wizardry from unexplored parts of Augusta National until he got to the 12th, where errant shots find water and eliminate any chance for recovery.
