Jordan Spieth misses first Masters cut in heartbreaking fashion
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AUGUSTA, Ga. — It commenced as a hilarious push conference trade.
“Sorry to take you back again to the past,” the interviewer began.
Jordan Spieth gave him a glimpse. “That could be a great or undesirable factor, but you’re apparently heading the terrible route,” he explained, deadpan, drawing laughter from the group.
This was Masters Tuesday at Spieth’s pre-tournament push meeting. He sounded self-assured. He sounded energized. He didn’t appear to be set off by the concern that followed, an enquiry into the lengthy-expression problems wrought by Spieth’s infamous double-bogey 7 on the 12th hole Sunday of the 2016 Masters.
“Since I have received, I do not feel any problems from it at this point,” he mentioned. “Ideally I get in that problem all over again, and it helps make me enjoy the ideal shot, and I win the golfing tournament because of it. For a couple of yrs I certainly thought about it, was questioned about it a good deal, but that only lasted a pair of years.”
Spieth additional that he’d exorcised his demons at No. 12 in 2018, when he produced a back again-9 charge in the direction of the lead that highlighted some 12th-gap heroics.
“I created birdie on the hole on Sunday [in 2018] to get to maybe 6 below or some thing via 12 and finished up obtaining to nine less than through 16, and it was just kind of that like second wherever I was like, ‘All ideal, I acquired this gap again.’ So I really don’t assume a total whole lot of it.”
Spieth’s history at the Masters, he stated, assisted relieve the heartbreak. He presently owns a eco-friendly jacket. He entered this week with a preposterous 5 top-three finishes in eight vocation begins. There wasn’t substantially purpose to permit No. 12 haunt him. Augusta Nationwide was in which he carried out greater than any other training course on the earth.
“It doesn’t even appear into my head anymore,” he said.
How Spieth need to extended for Masters Tuesday.
On Friday, our hero was in wonderful placement as he headed to Augusta National’s back again nine. He sat at one in excess of par, just a handful of strokes off the guide and perfectly apparent of the slice line. The wind was swirling but Spieth was battling — and he’d previously manufactured it by means of No. 11, the hardest examination on the system.
Then he stepped to the 12th tee. In Spieth’s presser he suggested that he may well facial area this same shot once again and win the match for the reason that of what he’d uncovered. You can’t get the Masters on the 12th hole on Friday. But you can undoubtedly lose it.
At influence, Spieth understood a thing was completely wrong.
“Go,” he begged. “Go, go, go!”
It did not go. Spieth’s ball didn’t even make the entrance bunker. Rather it strike the bank and rolled again into Rae’s Creek. He turned to caddie Michael Greller, dismayed.
“I just got straight — absolutely gusted,” he reported.
He took a fall quick and left of the inexperienced, picking his most well-liked yardage. It did not function. Spieth’s up coming shot landed small and appropriate, hardly threatening the eco-friendly, and spun back again into the h2o. The stakes were decreased, the situations have been tougher, but the consequence was the exact as in 2016: Spieth experienced deposited two balls in Rae’s Creek, torpedoing his event hopes.
The reality that Spieth obtained up and down from there was some tiny consolation. 6 is decidedly much better than 7, following all. Continue to, instantly he was 4 more than for the match and squarely on the lower line.
Spieth held continual from there. He deposited his technique at No. 13 in the h2o but bought up and down for par. He created pars at 14, 15, 16 and 17, way too. He reached the 18th tee in want of a last par four over was guaranteed to make the slice when five above experienced an outside the house prospect.
What happened next took place quickly: Spieth identified the remaining fairway bunker, chopped it out, skipped the green, raced a chip previous the gap and skipped the comebacker. Double-bogey 6. Next-spherical 76. Missed reduce.
Now what? It would not be rather proper to solitary out Spieth as No. 12’s only sufferer six gamers built double bogey or worse on Friday by itself. Plenty of professionals have fallen target to the intricacies of Amen Corner, which includes Tiger Woods, who made a 10 at No. 12 the previous time he performed the tournament. If you’re offering Spieth the benefit of the question, he played the course’s most confounding hole at arguably the most confounding time of the day, with winds swirling and balls splashing.
Spieth did not converse to reporters immediately after his round. But it was apparent that his hole served as a cautionary tale to those people all-around him.
“I was fortunate adequate to hit 3rd on that hole today. I observed Jordan spin a single up in the air and strike it in the water,” said Viktor Hovland, Spieth’s playing companion.
“In entrance of us, Jordan hit two in the water, so that wasn’t a good visible,” included Rory McIlroy.
In other phrases, as substantially as Spieth’s competitors felt for him, they ended up mostly happy his faults weren’t theirs. On the completely wrong side of the slice line, that is how it goes.
He’ll be back again.