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Golf is unlike any other male sport. It’s man against nature, and during insecure times, man against himself.
On Amen Corner Sunday afternoon at the Masters, Jordan Spieth found himself in a warfare that even he couldn’t bear.
He knew the ball-striking ability that allowed him to cruise to a record breaking 19-under par performance and a green jacket a year ago had not been with him all week long.
Instead, he was going to war on golf’s most profound stage with bubblegum and rubber-bands, making due with a mapped out strategy and wisely placed miss-hits. Yet, he carried on his dominance, and maintained a five shot lead going into Sunday’s back nine (just think about that for a second).
Over 20 minutes later, his lead was down to one when he draped over his ball on the No. 12 tee-box, and the devilish insecure thoughts that had cost him a green jacket in 2014 crept into his mind.
Taking bogey’s on No. 10 and No. 11 were acceptable, at least in Spieth’s mind.
But what happened on the ensuing hole was unbearable. Spieth loomed over his ball, knowing a firm draw into the back bunker on evil No. 12 would have just been good enough. Instead, insecure mind games and Danny Willet won the day. Not Jordan Spieth.
“It was really one swing,” Spieth said. “10 and 11, you can take bogeys there. … Michael (Greller) said, ‘Hit it right here, hit it right here,’ and I remember getting over the ball thinking I’m just going to hit a little cut to the hole and that’s what I did in 2014, and it cost me the tournament then too.”
That cut shot was miss-hit off the heel, and all Spieth could do was watch it bounce short off the slope, and roll into Rae’s Creek.
“It’s a 150 yard shot and I feel like I can bleed it next to the hole, and it’s a stock nine iron for me,” Spieth said. “But that hole for whatever reason has peoples numbers.”
It baffled millions of viewers.
As for me, I turned the tournament off once Spieth pushed his lead to five shots after hole nine so I could go to my regular youth church service, like I do every Sunday evening.
I click open my Masters app to check for an update in church, and as soon as it loads up, I couldn’t believe what was transpiring on my phone screen. Literally, as I open the app to stream live coverage, the improbable had happened.
SB Nation on Twitter
Jordan Spieth made a mistake at The Masters he never makes … he panicked. https://t.co/LXM0PELwTM https://t.co/fNUmS4rPFn
One in the water. Drop two, three in the water. Drop four, fifth in the back bunker. Sixth five feet from the hole, and on the seventh, he finally ended it — a quadruple bogey.
The fourth shot he hit on 12 was a shot I had hit way too many times before in my golfing career that prompted me to be an aspiring journalist — a shot chunkier than Nabisco’s Chips Ahoy Choco Chunky Chocolate Chunk Cookie (that’s a real cookie by the way).
“Buddy,” Spieth told his caddie after the 12th hole, “It seems like we’re collapsing.”
Poor kid.
I even wrote a column on how I came across Spieth three years ago at the then-AT&T National in Bethesda, Md — it was an autograph that read “Jordo Sput.” If you don’t believe me, then click on the link right here.
In there, I mentioned that he was an “unflappable super-kid”. On Sunday, he was flapped, maybe not by the gusting winds, but from his insecure tee-to-green game.
“I had my B-minus game tee-to-green and I made up for it around the greens and with my putter,” Spieth said. “Ultimately, you just have to have your A-game with every single part (at Augusta National). I just didn’t have those iron swings as it showed on the back nine.”
At least Spieth knows what he needs to work on, and knows how to lose, unlike another athlete that has risen to stardom *cough* Cam Newton *cough*.
Spieth may have air-pushed a camera away right after he walked off the 18th green. But that was it. He needed a few seconds of space.
Instead of throwing a towel over his head and walking away from his press conference, he stood tall for a complete eight minute and 19 second interview.
He even had to present the 2016 Masters Champion, Willet, with the green jacket twice on national television — in Butler’s Cabin and then for the ceremony on the 18th green.
Imagine if Cam Newton had to present the Lombardi Trophy to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos with the whole world watching — I’ll leave that up for you to picture.
In 2014, Spieth wasn’t ready for the moment. Heading into this past Sunday, he had already proven his mark. The final round of the 2016 Masters will forever haunt Spieth, no matter how many majors he wins. He could easily have four majors at the slender age of 22.
But Jack Nicklaus, who holds the record with 18 majors, could have easily had 48 — he finished second more times than he had won, 19 times, and in third place nine times.
In majors, Spieth has two wins, three second place finishes, and a fourth place finish. Spieth shut his eyes on Sunday night, hurting that fate didn’t fall his way — but he’ll soon realize that one bad swing will not define a career that is primed to be dominant for at least another 20 more years.
“In the big picture, this one will hurt,” Spieth said. “It will take a while.”
Respectively, Willett didn’t win the Masters on Sunday. Spieth lost it.
Still, he managed to hold a faint smile and slip the green jacket on another man, twice. He even fixed Willet’s collar, too.
Golf is the cruelest game on God’s green earth. Everyone will take their punishing doles in the sport, whether you like it or not.
Jordan Spieth just happened to have his with the whole world watching.
