Golfer Willett described his 12-day ride as “crazy” – his wife Nicole gave birth to their first child Zachariah last Tuesday and he won his first major title. “It’s true that at the halfway stage on Friday evening Jordan Spieth was leading by one stroke from Rory McIlroy and Jason Day was still in the hunt for a green jacket near the top of the chasing pack”.
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“I am looking forward to being part of that illustrious group of major winners, which still sounds a bit odd to be honest, but I want to keep moving forward with my career and seeing what else I can achieve”, Willett said.
“He had a brilliant piece of advice”.
“It was just a very surreal day, it ebbed and flowed. The next morning we wake up and try to work hard to win the next trophy”.
“It was just one bad swing”, Spieth said.
“It’s still a bit insane, everything’s still up in the air but I think it’ll start slowly sinking in”, he said.
Willett won £1.25m and moved up to world No 9 and is now set to play in the Olympics and Ryder Cup this year.
But he admitted he was in a state of disbelief yesterday as he looked back on when he realised a first Major was going to be his.
Spieth looked destined to win back-to-back green jackets, but the world No. 2 imploded with a quadruple-bogey seven at the 12th and Willett cashed in by carding a sublime 67 to win by three shots. He had two par fives left at 13 and 15 and a favorable pin location at 16 that had already yielded three hole in ones on Sunday. “It was a really timely birdie”. More painful than a place in golf history was how he abandoned the very traits that made him so tough in the majors – discipline, patience, smarts.
“She had an operation to deliver Zach, so I was just at home making sure she was all right, changing nappies, making bottles, doing everything normal that a dad with a new son does, making sure that everything at home was fine so that I could come here with a clear mind”. If I’d have shot 72 and Jordan did what he did it would have been a different story. “I think we’ll be all right”. More money was bet on Spieth to win the Masters than any other golfer at the SuperBook.
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Spieth, the world’s second ranked player, appeared to be in command and enroute to his second straight Masters title after he carded four consecutive birdies to complete the front nine holes in the final round. “He’s a class act to be able to hold face like that, hurting like I imagine he would be”. He got to the 10th tee and the wheels just came off. This is either one of the things that is going to make him tougher or it is going to be a hard thing to get over. “So he’s thinking ‘here we go again, ‘ often athletes will default back to what’s happening to them in either previous rounds or previous tournaments, and so he’s probably thinking ‘am I having another meltdown like I had at the end of the third round on Saturday, ‘ or ‘am I going to blow my chances like I did in 2014?'”
