Willett Wins the 2016 Masters Tournament After Spieth Loses It

For 65 holes of the 2016 Masters Tournament, it appeared that Jordan Spieth would win his second Green Jacket in a row, becoming just the fourth back-to-back champ in Masters history.

Spieth During the 2016 Masters Tournament

With nine holes to go, in fact, it looked like a virtual lock for Spieth.

But then a combination of Danny Willett's excellent play down the stretch and one disastrous hole by Spieth instead made Willett the winner.

Willett ranked 12th in the world rankings going into the tournament, became just the second English golfer to win at Augusta National. (Nick Faldo was the first, and Faldo won three times.)

Spieth broke and challenged all kinds of records in winning the 2015 Masters wire-to-wire. At the 2016 tournament, he appeared on his way to doing the same thing.

Spieth opened with a 66 to take the lead. A second-round 74 left Spieth with a 1-stroke lead over Rory McIlroy, setting up a much-anticipated Spieth-McIlroy pairing in the final group of Round 3.

That pairing didn't live up to the hype, alas, as McIlroy struggled to a third-round 77.

Spieth shot 73 in Round 3, but a double bogey on the 18th hole left him with a one-stroke edge over Smylie Kaufman. Fifty-eight-year-old, 2-time Masters champ Bernhard Langer was tied for third, two behind Spieth. Jason Day and Dustin Johnson were three back, tied for fifth place with Willett.

At that point, Spieth was the first golfer in Masters history to have the outright lead in seven consecutive rounds.

And he kept and expanded that lead over the front nine of Round 4, birdying Holes 6 through 9. When Spieth made the turn, he led by five strokes. Another victory seemed almost a foregone conclusion.

Almost. But Spieth bogeyed No. 10 and again on No. 11. Then, disaster: He caught his tee shot on the par-3 12th hole fat; it hit the bank in front of the green and bounced back into Rae's Creek.

Spieth dropped another ball, then badly chunked that shot into the water, too. His third attempt (his fifth stroke with the penalties) was over the green into a bunker. He got up-and-down for a quadruple bogey 7.

Spieth dropped from 7-under to 1-under over the 10th through 12th holes.

How Willett Won the 2016 Masters Tournament

Willett, meanwhile, was going in the opposite direction. Playing a couple groups ahead of Spieth, Willett birdied the 13th and 14th holes and was in the lead at 4-under. He added another birdie at the 16th to reach 5-under.

Lee Westwood and Dustin Johnson were briefly in the mix, but couldn't stay there. Kaufman and Langer had long ago collapsed; Day never mounted a charge.

Spieth tried to recover and birdied the 13th and 15th holes, but a birdie miss on 16 and bogey on 17 sealed his fate.

Willett closed out with two pars and donned the Green Jacket as 2016 Masters champ.

This was the final Masters played by 1991 Masters winner Ian Woosnam, and also by Tom Watson, winner of the 1977 Masters and 1981 Masters.

There were three holes-in-one made on the 16th hole during the final round, tying the record for most aces in a single Masters. One of them was by Louis Oosthuizen, joining the double eagle he scored in 2012.

2016 Masters Tournament Scores

Results from the 2016 Masters golf tournament played April 7-10 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.:

2015 Masters | 2017 Masters

Return to the list of Masters winners