US Masters 2016: Spieth meltdown conjures up memories of Norman

Jordan Spieth’s epic Masters meltdown comes 20 years after Greg Norman’s famous collapse handed another Englishman the title.

England's Nick Faldo, right, and Australia's Greg Norman walk off the 18th hole after Faldo won his third Masters golf tournament back in 1996. Picture: AP

Twenty years ago, Nick Faldo shot a bogey-free 67 in a final round remembered just as much for Greg Norman throwing away a six-shot lead.

Today, at Augusta, Jordan Spieth’s epic Masters meltdown was as remarkable as Danny Willett’s charge to ensure a first English winner since 1996.

Spieth was trying to become only the fourth back-to-back winner of the Masters, and the first player in 156 years of championship golf to go wire-to-wire in successive years in a major. And it looked inevitable when he ran off four straight birdies to end the front nine and build a five-shot lead.

Spieth made bogey on the tenth and the 11th but still had a two-shot lead and only needed to get past the dangerous par-3 12th to settle himself, especially with two par 5s in front of him.

However, his 9-iron sailed to the right, bounded off the slope and into the water. His wedge from the drop area was fat, and Spieth turned his head as the ball plopped into the water again. He had to get up-and-down from a bunker just to make a quadruple-bogey 7.

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Five shots behind with six holes to play, Willett birdied three of his last six holes and closed with a 5-under 67 with no bogeys, just like Faldo, to finish two ahead of Spieth. Like Faldo, he may also fail to get the credit he serves because of Spieth’s remarkable collapse.

“I feel very fortunate to be standing here, and you not putting the jacket on yourself again,” Willett told Spieth at the green jacket presentation, as an Augusta tradition piled on the pain for the American.

“It was a really tough 30 minutes for me that hopefully I never experience again,” Spieth said.

Today was always meant to be special for Willett — it was the day his wife, Nicole, was due to give birth. But the baby arrived early and the son of a vicar celebrated in style at Augusta.

Willett now moves to No. 9 in the world. He once was the leading amateur in the world, only for his professional career to be slowed by back injuries. There is no stopping him now.

England's Nick Faldo, right, and Australia's Greg Norman walk off the 18th hole after Faldo won his third Masters golf tournament back in 1996. Picture: AP

FAMOUS MASTERS MELTDOWNS

• Greg Norman: The most infamous came 20 years ago in what remains the greatest collapse in major championship history over the final 18 holes. Greg Norman shot a 78 to blow a six-shot lead in 1996. Three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo did his part with a clutch 67.

Norman three-putted from about 12 feet on the 11th, sent his next shot into the water for a double bogey and had another double on 16 when his tee shot got wet again.

• Ed Sneed bogeyed the last three holes in 1979 and lost in the Masters’ first sudden-death playoff. Fuzzy Zoeller won in his Masters debut.

• Ken Venturi then an amateur, had a four-shot lead in 1956, shot 80 in the final round and lost by one to Jack Burke Jr. It happened on TV, too, since that marked the first time CBS televised the third and fourth round of the tournament.

It all gets a bit too much for Rory McIlroy, back in 2011.

• Rory McIlroy, in 2011, squandered a four-shot lead going into the final round. He shot 43 on the back nine and wound up 10 shots out of the lead. Charl Schwartzel won his first major championship.

With agencies