Augusta National giveth but it also taketh away. Just ask Jordan Spieth, the 2015 champion, whose reputation as a Masters specialist took a few huge blows on Friday when he recorded a nine at the 15th on his way to an 79.
This is not the first time that Spieth – who has recorded four top-five finishes at the season’s first major since becoming its second youngest winner nine years ago – has come a cropper on the par-five, which is usually considered a birdie hole. In 2017, he also took a quadruple-bogey on the 550-yarder and this reprise has seen him make a bit of Masters history.
Justin Ray, the arch statistician from the Twenty First Group, reported that he is the only player in the last 20 years to post multiple scores of nine or worse on a hole at Augusta. The graphic charting of his nonagonal woe is some journey.
His drive was slightly tugged, but nothing disastrous and he hit his second to lay up distance. Spieth flew the green, but with his short-game, no dramas. Except his chipped fourth rolled past the hole and kept going… and going… and going… all the way into the lake in front of the green. After taking a penalty drop he again flew the green with his sixth and rather understandably he left his chip short on this occasion, before two-putting.
It could have been worse. Seven years ago, another former winner in Sergio Garcia took a 13 on the 15th, having visited the water five times. The Spaniard actually holed a 12-footer to ensure that he only had the ignominy of recording the joint-worse score on any hole in the Masters apart from the worst.
Spieth did not look in the mood to take any consolation, however, and also bogeyed the 17th but made a spectacular par – courtesy of an audacious chip – on the 18th to break 80.
Still, only five players in the 89-man shot higher in the first round, including reigning Open champion Brian Harmon with an 82. And Spieth was staring at his second missed Augusta cut in three years.
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