Danny Willett: A worthy champion (x-post)

Most of the post-Masters discussion will focus on Jordan's choke on the back nine. While I agree that Spieth did choke, I also have a profound respect this morning for Willett's game. I would like to take a few minutes to discuss why I believe Willett's play is worthy of being compared to other Masters legends, such as Jack's win in '86 or Tiger's comeback in '05, rather than Faldo in '96. I believe the last three holes Willett played were the best I've seen in years. Let us consider for a moment, the situation Willett found himself in standing on the 16th tee. I believe there were three possible scenarios to describe Danny's mental state at the time:

• 1. He believed he held a 1-shot lead over Westwood
• 1. He believed he was 1 shot behind Spieth
• 1. He believed he might have a one shot lead over Westwood, or worse.

Walking off the 15th green, it was unclear whether or not Willett knew about what Spieth had done on 12. Let's assume they had updated the leaderboard by the time he walked over to 16. Willett would have believed that he was now in the lead alone, one ahead of Westwood. The first time he had been in the lead all week. Hitting a solid shot in to 16 and then sinking the putt under those circumstances is boss as fuck. Now let us consider the other possibilities.

The commentators had remarked that Willett was unaware of Spieth's quad as He putted out on 15 green. It's possible the scoreboard was not updated as they teed off on 16. If that was the case, then Willett must have believed that he was still 1 shot behind Spieth, since Spieth had stood at -5 after 11. That makes Willett's shot and putt even more impressive because he may have believed he needed to gain one more stroke to catch Spieth. Add to that consideration that Willett would have been aware of the fact that Spieth still had the two par-5s to play and it makes it even more important to birdie 16, the easiest remaining scoring opportunity. Once again, boss as fuck.

Now, some may say that knowing what had happened to Spieth is irrelevant to Willett on 16. They might say that he was only concerned with "the next shot" or perhaps he doesn't even look at the scoreboards. While I believe this was unlikely, it's at least possible, however it does not detract from how clutch Willett was over the last three holes. Even if we assume that he didn't look at the scoreboard all afternoon, there are still a few conclusions we can draw about his mental state on the 16th tee. Having started the day at EVEN for the tournament, and given the conditions of the course on Sunday, Willett had to have believed that a good round was necessary to win. Even par was never going to get it done on that day. As he is making his way around the course, we can safely assume that Willett knew he was playing well. Walking off the 15th green, he was -4 for the day and bogey free. Even if he hadn't looked at a scoreboard all day, he knows that at best he had a one stroke lead over Westwood, which just happened to be true at the time. We know this because they were paired together and Willett is responsible for keeping Lee's score so he had to have an idea of where they stood in relation to each other. So, standing on 16, even if all He cared about was his own pairing, Willett had to believe that he might have a one stroke lead with three holes to play. He couldn't afford a mistake coming home and, given that his pairing was under-par, he probably believed he needed to make another birdie to win.

The way I see it, no matter Willett did or did not know standing on 16th tee, the pressure on him was highest at that moment. The way he executed was legendary. The shot in to 16 to set up the birdie and draining the putt, was ballsy. The chip shot to save par on 17 was as clutch as I have ever seen. Backing off twice on 18 tee and then collecting himself before ripping hit down the fairway showed the poise of a champion. Danny played solid all week and put himself in position to grab the lead after 69 holes, but it was how performed once he found himself with the lead that impressed me more than anything. A worthy champion indeed.

Submitted April 11, 2016 at 01:50PM by For_myDayJob http://ift.tt/1qEdjb2