It was just the course getting even with him for a bit. Happens to them all. Was nothing compared to Norman's.epic collapse. Spieth rebounded nicely right after and birdied and almost made a run. Said a lot for him.
I thought about that last night. Norman, after 53-54 holes, had a six shot lead. JS, after 63, had a five shot lead. They are both epic collapses but feel so, so different to me. It's my opinion, you never, ever go for the pin on 12 on Sunday; mid-green and work from there.
Tirk and I were discussing this yesterday, as good as that kid is with the flat stick there is nowhere on the green that he can't sink it in 2. Drop that ball in there somewhere safe, 2 putt and go get your damn jacket. Easy for me to say though, I'd have went for the pin.
I caught a few replays of that shot this morning on TGC and it looked like he was lined up left of the flag, directly over the bunker, and simply pushed the ball. Everyone is pointing to 12, but to me he started coming off the tracks at 10.
He could have gotten his shit together and recovered after 10 and 11 bogeys but on 12 he knew he had lost it.
I would put Van de velde first just because it was double bogey the last hole and you're the winner. And the absolute worst part about the whole thing was that he got very lucky after pulling out driver but couldn't recognize that and elected not to just get the ball back into the fairway and get on in 3. Not sure if I put Norman or Spieth second. In Norman's case, Faldo played great on Sunday and would have forced Norman to at least stay close to par to win. So it was a combination of both guys going in totally opposite directions. Same could be said for Willett, who was -3 on the back 9, an outstanding effort under the most pressure he's ever been under in his career to date. Again, Spieth would have had to play it 1 under par starting at 12 to win it outright. So Willet did his job putting the pressure on what looked like a runaway Spieth. Rory's back 9 debacle and ultimate score of 80 would not compete with the ones being discussed as he was only 1 shot ahead going into 10. I would put the meltdown by Dustin Johnson at the US Open in 4th place. He had a 3 shot lead going into Sunday and promptly triple bogeyed the 2nd hole and shot 82.
Bogeying 10 is fairly normal. It's a tough hole. Again, I get back to that very very make-able 5 foot par putt on 11 after a remarkable approach shot. If he makes that and stays at -6, I just think he and his caddy decide to play it safe on 12.
Several of the golf website have listed their top 10-15 collapses at the Masters. It's an interesting read and a handful of those listed I recall. Scott Hoch may be the one that had the biggest impact on his career considering it earned him the nickname "choch." IIRC, when Norman collapsed in the '90's, Faldo put up the same numbers—in the same fashion—as Willett did this past weekend. How do you play it safe on a 3 par? It's tee to green; there's no lay-up to play it safe. Very evident on the third shot. The tee shot appeared to be pretty well struck. It's my opinion that's a push ... happens to the best without the pressure of Augusta. (The divot on the third shot ... geez, size of a pancake! It looked like he made contact a couple of inches behind the ball.
