In the eyes of hysterical observers, it was the biggest collapse since Jack chopped down the beanstalk.
Jordan Spieth’s giant howler at the Masters, when he racked up an eye-watering quadruple-bogey on the 12th and watched his commanding lead fritter away, worked the golfing world into an almighty fankle.
Spieth has not been seen on a golf course since – he will return at next week’s Players’ Championship – but while he has moved on from that Augusta anguish, there are still plenty of folk reminding him of it. He’ll never be allowed to forget it, of course.
“The 2016 Masters will always come back up and it will keep coming back up, even if I were to go onto next week and win and to go onto Oakmont (for the US Open) and win,” said Spieth as he made his first appearance in front of the golfing press since that mind-mangling Masters Sunday. “I'm not taking it very hard. I've got ladies at the grocery stores putting their hand on me and going, ‘really praying for you, how are you doing?’. I'm like, my dog didn't die. I'll be okay. I'll survive. It happens. It was, again, unfortunate timing. But actually I laugh about it now, I really do. But it will keep coming up. I understand that. And it's tough every time it comes up. It was very tough to go through.”
As far as Spieth is concerned, it’s very much a case of onwards and upwards. “If you're in contention at a major, hopefully 50 plus times in your career, something like that is bound to happen, you just don't let it happen again,” he added. “I think the biggest impact for me came from personal messages that I received from some of the world's greatest athletes. I'm not going to give names out because I don't want to, this is confidential. But I received notes immediately following that night, pretty much saying, 'this happens everywhere and no doubt you'll be back’. It happens to everyone in all sports at different levels so don’t draw on it. We’ll be back, no problem.”
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