Golf Year in Review #4: Danny Willett Wins the Masters

Twenty years ago, Nick Faldo chased down Greg Norman in the final round of the Masters to win his third green jacket. Faldo was down by five strokes and shot a final round 67 to take the tournament. Faldo was the only Englishman to have won the Masters.

And then Danny Willett came along this past Masters.

Danny Willett has been a fine golf player since he turned pro in 2008. The reason you don’t know him is because he plays primarily in Europe.

In his first full year on the European Tour, 2009, Willett played well without winning. He would repeat this the following two years.

In 2012, Willett secured his first win, taking the BMW International Open in a playoff.

Willett didn’t win in the 2013 or ’14 seasons, but had established himself as an excellent player on the European Tour.

He took two wins in the 2015 season, and then won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in the early part of the 2016 season.

Jordan Spieth won the Masters in 2015 and looked to be on his way to being only the fourth man to ever successfully defend his Masters title.

In the first round, Spieth shot 66 and had a two-stroke lead. Willett was four back, tied for ninth.

In difficult scoring conditions on Friday, Spieth made four bogeys and a double-bogey on his way to a 74. The field’s scoring average that day was over 75, so Spieth maintained a one-stroke lead. Willett matched Spieth’s score to stay four back.

Scoring remained difficult on Saturday, but Spieth managed to hold the lead at the end of the day which gave him seven consecutive rounds of leading the Masters, an impressive record. Willett shot even par that day to pull within three of the lead going into the final day.

Spieth birdied the final four holes of the front nine on Sunday to put Willett five strokes back, but that’s when the wheels came off for the defending champion.

Spieth went bogey, bogey, double bogey on 10, 11, and 12 (putting two balls in Rae’s Creek on 12), while Willett played those same holes even par.

Over the last six holes, Willett made three birdies and no bogeys. Spieth, on the other hand, managed only two birdies while making bogey on 17.

Willett, like Faldo 20 years before, closed a five-stroke gap between him and the lead while carding a final round 67, and became only the second Englishman to win the Masters and the first European in 17 years to win it.

And, placed fourth on our countdown list.

Cover Photo via YouTube