It was easily the Collapse Of 2016.
It was also, easily, the most shocking single moment in golf for 2016.
We’re talking about the 12th hole, final round, Sunday at The Masters.
This one is without a doubt, etched in the memory banks of everyone who follows and enjoys major championship golf.
The 12th hole at Augusta National may be the shortest tough par three in the game.
Our expert, Jack Nicklaus, confirms that:
“The most dangerous par three in the game,” is how Nicklaus describes the 155-yard hole guarded in front by Rae’s Creek. Even Nicklaus made bogey there in 1986 when he shot that spectacular 30 on the back nine to win his sixth Green Jacket.
If that’s not good enough, Tiger Woods once said of 12:
“You hope a lot on that hole.”
Now let’s set the stage.
Defending champion Jordan Spieth after rounds of 66-74-73 entered the final day at three-under par, two shots better than Hideki Matsuyama. The 22-year-old defending champion was even par on the day through the first six holes then made an explosive move with four straight birdies, starting at No. 6.
By the time he walked off the ninth hole, Spieth had gotten himself to seven-under par for the championship and was in total command of the day. Danny Willett was closest to him at two-under par while Lee Westwood, Justin Johnson and Soren Kjeldsen were all six back of Spieth at one-under at the halfway mark.
Matsuyama faded badly on the front nine, shooting 39 and falling back to two-over, pretty much out of it.
Things then got a little rocky for Spieth. Bogeys at the 10th and 11th shook him a bit but he was still five-under and had both hands on the wheel. He was three clear of Willett, four clear of D.J., five clear of Lee Westwood.
“I knew that those two bogeys weren’t going to hurt me — 10 and 11 — you can take bogeys there,” Spieth thought at the time.
But then he made a terrible mistake on the tee at 12.
“I remember getting over the ball thinking I’m going to go ahead and hit a little cut to the hole and that’s what I did in 2014 and it cost me the tournament then too,” Spieth testified.
Spieth’s nine-iron was weak, a total miss and it didn’t even reach land.
He wandered off the tee in a state of shock. His mind was racing because he dropped then laid the sod over the next shot, dunking two balls total into Rae’s Creek. He would end up with a quadruple-bogey seven.
It was a moment of disbelief by all those at Amen Corner.
The 12th is a small piece of real estate but it is the land of broken dreams for many.
Arnold Palmer lost the 1959 Masters there. The 12th was a small part of Greg Norman’s day-long collapse in 1996.
Tom Weiskopf once made a 13 there in 1980, the highest score ever on that dastardly little hole.
It ripped Spieth’s heart out in 2016.
“It was a lack of discipline to hit it over the bunker coming off two bogeys instead of recognizing I was still leading the Masters,” Spieth would lament afterward. “I was really a tough 30 minutes for me that hopefully I will never experience again.”
Danny Willett went on to shoot three-under par on the back nine that got him to five-under and his closing 67 earned him his first major championship.
Spieth’s 41 and final day 73 will go down as his worst back nine in a major championship.
But it is the haunting memory of those two balls in Rae’s Creek that will live on for a long time, making that day easily the biggest collapse of 2016.
