Jordan Spieth's Masters Meltdown

AUGUSTA, GA -- It was an excrutiating 30 minutes of golf -- a brutal back nine all the more hard to watch because it happened so suddenly, and unexpectedly.

Beneath the warm spring sun of Augusta, Jordan Spieth on Sunday appeared all but guaranteed to pull on his second green jacket in as many years at The Masters Tournament.

The defending champion stormed to a five-stroke lead, birdying the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth holes.

But then, it happened. A slump. A downturn. A run of hard-luck golf destined for the Masters history books as a warning to any future pro tempted to underestimate the combination of mental and physical mastery needed to take down golf's greatest prize.

The 22-year-old Texan's score card for the 10th, 11th and 12th holes at Augusta reads bogey-bogey-quadruple bogey. Just like that Spieth, who had looked in control the entire weekend, went from leading by five strokes to trailing by three.

But the raw data doesn't capture the heartbreak which, it must be said, Spieth handled with aplomb, even as he was placing the champion's jacket on Englishman Danny Willett's shoulders.

The 12th hole, Golden Bell, Augusta's shortest hole at just 155 yards, would be Spieth's Waterloo.

His tee shot splashed into Rae's Creek.

A penalty stroke brought him back onto the fairway, from which he simply duffed a second attempt that splashed awkwardly into the water again.

Another penalty, another stroke, this one curving long, soaring over the green and landing in a sand trap.

Up from the sand, two putts to finish and Amen Corner had claimed another soul, reminding another contender that, at Augusta, almost-home can still be a long, long way from home.

Willett, to his credit, took charge. He birdied three out of four holes, even as Spieth was collapsing.

But the far more compelling story, the one on the lips of everyone who watched, was the stunning fall of the man who, just last year, set the Augusta National course record for birdies.

“Big picture, this one will hurt,” Spieth said to a bank of cameras after his round came to a merciful end. "It will take a while."

(Photo by Erik Charlton, via Wikimedia Commons)