WE know one of them will win it.
Patrick Reed was just three shots ahead of Rory McIlroy even after the Texan had produced two back nine eagles in Round 3. Before yesterday, Reed’s best finish was 22nd in his last five Masters appearances.
But McIlroy is a three-time majors winner. A win would complete the Slam achieved only by five men before him. In golf, a three-shot lead is never safe, especially in the final of any major. But McIlroy collapsed yet again with a 74 to Reed’s 71, sending the Irish down the final standings. Rickie Fowler, 29, just five shots behind, was likewise a likely winner going into the last 18 holes. He’s had a streak of Top 5 finishes not too long ago. Even his final-day 67 wasn’t enough, losing it by one shot.
We’ve seen spectacular rallies in the Masters happen a lot of times already. Indeed, this is the Masters, where the gods of the game quite require excellence at the highest level all the time. Legends are never exempted, including Tiger Woods himself. No preferential treatment here. Woods made 69 yesterday, good for a tie for 40th among 54 survivors in golf’s most prestigious event.
Didn’t Sergio Garcia, the 2017 champion, receive a 13-stroke spanking on the par-5 15 for his multiple indiscretions in the 2018 Masters?
Now how about Jordan Spieth, the 2015 winner? Wasn’t he also seemingly out of it after trailing Reed by nine shots after Round 3 with his five-under 66-74-71? But Spieth suddenly was a bulldozer, howitzer and chainsaw rolled into one.
Spectacularly, Spieth climbed into a tie for the lead after 14 holes on seven birdies. Then he went nine-under with two more birdies on 15 and 16, missing an 18-footer for birdie on 17.
Playing four flights ahead of Reed and McIlroy, Spieth faced the luxury of establishing multiple Masters records before he hit his 72nd tee shot.
But a noncommittal drive—or a bad break, maybe?—saw him hit a twig of a tree left of the fairway, the ball ricocheting back and resting 177 yards from the box. From 267 yards, Spieth was short by 88 yards. Had he holed his wedge, it could have sent him to a sudden-death playoff. Instead, he was short 8 feet below the cup. If he made it, he would have tied the Masters record 63 by Nick Price. But Spieth missed it low and left, giving him his lone bogey for the day. Still, his 64 put him at 275, just two shots behind Reed and one off Fowler.
McIlroy’s 74 was a far cry from his 65 the day before, somehow recalling his 2011 meltdown that saw him diving into a final-round 80 to toss the Masters crown out the window. Had he won, Spieth, who birdied seven of his first 13 holes, would have erased Jackie Burke Jr.’s record win by rallying from eight shots down 62 years ago in 1956.
In winning it, Reed flicked off a bogey on 10 by playing his final eight holes in one-under.
Fowler, four-under in his last seven holes yesterday, was hoping Reed would bogey 18. But after Reed’s putt from some 18 feet above sped four feet past the cup, the barrel-chested Texan nailed it coming back for the breakthrough one-shot victory.
In the Masters, the winner merely survives. Usually.