The part of Jordan Spieth's Masters collapse everyone forgot about
AUGUSTA, Ga. — A year ago this Sunday, Jordan Spieth had the most brutal moment of his career.
A young stud his entire life, Spieth burst on the PGA Tour scene as a teenager, winning in a playoff against a Masters champion, and turning that first win into a career that has been nothing short of prodigal. A disappointing 2014 final round at the Masters was a coming-of-age moment for Spieth, who would go on to blitz the field in 2015 for his first green jacket and arrived at Augusta National in 2016 the favorite for good reason.
For 62 holes last year, it was another career moment for Spieth, looking to be just the fourth person to win back-to-back Masters and in doing so conjuring up comparisons to Jack and Arnie and Tiger and Phil. That was, of course, until the 11th and then the 12th, a moment that will forever be in Spieth’s major championship bio no matter how many big ones he goes on to win.
This week people have focused on those two holes. A bogey on the 11th followed by a water ball on the 12th, a tight golf swing at the worst moment followed by a mental lapse that led to a quadruple-bogey 7 and virtually the end to the rare opportunity that a chairman, not a player, awards the green jacket.
Spieth spent the rest of the year answering questions that surrounded the Masters. Some even wondered, "What is wrong with Spieth?” — an insane question when you look at his year overall, but that is the standard Spieth has set for himself. When you win back-to-back majors the year before and spend most of the final round at the Open Championship looking like it might be three in a row, majors are how you’re going to be measured.
What happened on the 12th has been documented, but it was what happened after that so many people tend to forget. While Danny Willett was putting the finishing touches on a flawless final round that gave him his first major and a spot in the Champions locker room, Spieth and his caddie, Michael Greller, were figuring out just what the heck they needed to do as they made the most lonely walk on the property, to the 13th tee.
Of all the places at Augusta, none are as quiet for a player as that 13th tee. No patrons, no real marshals, just four people and a standard bearer and the scorer, back on a tee that sets you up for two closing par-5s that have given the game of golf some of the most electric moments in its history. It was here where Jack Nicklaus bounced back after a bogey on the 12th back in 1986. It was here where Phil Mickelson pulled a tee shot into the pine straw that would set Lefty up for the defining golf shot of his career. And it was here where Jordan Spieth, all 22 years, 8 months and 14 days, showed the world exactly what he is made of.
*****
The back nine at Augusta National on Sunday is where golf peaks for the year. There isn’t a stretch in professional golf that allows for so much drama in such a short amount of time. The 10th and 11th are brutally tough par-4s, followed by a par-3 that still befuddles the greatest golf minds in the world. And then you walk the 40 yards back to that tee at the 13th, with Augusta Country Club just a bump and run away from the pines and azaleas.
Spieth stood back on the 13th knowing that his green jacket was starting to fall into Rae’s Creek. And if he wanted to recover it, he had to forget what just happened and refocus. For anyone that has ever played golf, forgetting is the hardest. It’s nearly impossible in moments like these. Tiger did it in 1997 after a first-round, front-nine 40, going 22-under over the final 63 holes to win by 12. Nicklaus did it so many times it’s hard to focus on just one. And on that Sunday, it was Spieth’s turn. To hell with those swings, Spieth had to tell himself — it’s time to gear back up.
"We went to the 13th hole and at that point, you know, you go from leading to now you’re trying to come from behind in a tournament," Spieth said on Tuesday. "I may have been leading by one and I made a bogey and (someone) made a birdie and all of a sudden I’m 1-down and I’ve been in a lot of those scenarios in my life. So I went to 13 thinking, I’ve got two par-5s and a bowl pin on 16 and a bowl pin on 18 and 14 ... and I just said, give yourself as many chances as possible; you’re now coming from behind. Just create a new scenario and I was very proud of the way we went through it."
Of the entire 2016 season, what Spieth did over those final six holes were the most impressive. He made a birdie on the par-5 13th, a must if he was going to make a run. Spieth would hit a great second on the 14th that refused to take the hill, and a bomb of a birdie nearly dropped for two in a row. He could have used that one, but he knew the golf course. The 15th was there for the taking and the 16th on Sunday is one of the best birdie opportunities on the golf course. Spieth took care of business on 15, making birdie and giving himself a real chance at the comeback. Around the same time, Willett was finishing his tournament at 5-under. The birdie at 15 put Spieth at 3-under. He needed two birdies in the last three holes to force a playoff.
And then came the tee shot at 16.
If you don’t remember where it landed, please give it another look. Spieth’s ball nearly flew in the hole for an ace, and the crowd, knowing they were witnessing something special, started to believe that this young man was about to do something we’ve never really seen.
"It was one of the coolest moments I’ve ever had at the Masters walking to the 16th tee and watching the crowd one by one, each row, rise up and really believe it with me," Spieth said.
Balls have rolled back from that position that Spieth’s ball landed on the par-3, but even the most talented of players gets a bad break here and there. As we’ve seen over the years, the golf gods play no favorites.
Spieth knew he had to make the ensuing putt to get one of those needed birdies, but he also knew how hard that putt was.
"I just had a really tough putt there (on 16)," Spieth said this week. "And when that one missed, it kind of took a bit of air out of me."
Spieth didn't get the break on the putt he was expecting, made par, then bogeyed 17. He finished tied for second, three shots back of Willett.
*****
So many times we see guys fall apart and disappear. They let the gravity of the moment take over on Sunday at the Masters and make a bad swing or a bad decision and it’s game over. As exhausting as 72 holes can be, it’s 20 times that feeling when it comes to an Augusta National charge. So much comes with a Masters victory. Even more comes with two. Spieth was looking to win two of his first three starts and do it with authority.
He had a bad hole. But what he did after is exactly why Jordan Spieth is Jordan Spieth. Adversity in golf comes to the best in the world. The difference between good and great, and great and legendary is how easy you forget and how fast you bounce back.
"I can assure you, Jordan will be fine," Rory McIlroy said on Tuesday when asked about Spieth and the 12th-hole storylines. "He’ll step up on Thursday on that 12th tee box and he’ll just be playing to play the best shot he possibly can."
It took Spieth 120 feet from the 12th green to the 13th tee a year ago to refocus, reset and realize he still had a chance when everyone else outside of two guys on that lonely tee box believed it was over. Maybe he didn’t pull it off, but he showed us just as much there as he did with his victory in '15.
One hole, two swings, and a thousand questions about it. Spieth is done thinking about it. He knows as well as anyone that Thursday brings a whole new challenge on a golf course he can play unlike anyone. Some will look at last year as a brutal loss. For a lot of us, it was the fight that showed why Spieth will be in this tournament come Sunday for decades to come.
