Masters Talk (Spoilers Abound!)

Jordan bemoaned feeling rushed around Amen Corner. Two days in a row he's been put on the clock. If I'm Rory McIlroy tomorrow - I'm sprinting to my ball to keep him out of sync and take him out of his comfort zone.

Despite the tragedy that happened on the last hole, I think DeChambeau had one of the best rounds of the day today. In the end - could be a blessing in disguise. He stays under the radar and can maybe put together another nice round to be very much in the thick of things come Sunday. I like this kid!

Mickelson just folded like a cheap suit today. He has to be absolutely gutted, considering that he was playing some pretty good golf coming into the week. Now he gets to hop in a jet and spend the weekend with Amy and the kids.

What's the over/under on 4-under leading going into Sunday? You gotta figure that 72 will be another solid score Saturday. Jordan and Rory - should be a lot of fun there.

mcavoy

Not sure the committee had much control over the wind. Sure, they could've syringed the $hit out of the greens to keep them ultra soft, but then you're taking away the one dynamic that makes the Masters what it is. It's always been about being on the proper side of the fairway, hitting to the proper quadrant of the green, missing the green in the proper place where recovery isn't completely impossible if a player is out of position from his approach. If those greens are soft - there's no penalty for missing. Overnight rains made the greens soft as it was for Thursday's round, so it wasn't like they weren't holding long approach shots, even downwind. It was what it was... take away those winds the first three days and really there's no noticeable change in difficulty from last year to this year.

Sunday was ripe for great scoring, but only 3-4 players managed 5-under rounds. I just think the stress of playing in those high winds over the three days wore a lot of those guys out, and the numbness factor kicked in on Sunday. Jordan was leading, no one expected him to go backward, and that meant guys like McIlroy, Day, Dustin, Matsuyama, Snedeker, etc. had to take on some difficult hole locations to make some birdies and try to catch him, and even in the best conditions they still had to walk an extremely fine line on every shot, with little-to-no margin for error on several of those pins. Rory went at the pin on the par3 4th, which didn't yield a single birdie the entire round Sunday. World-class player, hits the ball higher than anyone in the game, in the calmest conditions imaginable - he damn near hits the ball off the golf course. You just don't go at that pin, from 228 yards, tucked 4 paces over that deep front bunker, Rory! Not even if you're needing a deuce to save your future offspring! LOL

But no one expected Spieth to do what he did on the 12th... sure, the kid makes bogey on 10, bogey on 11... he's still got like a 3-shot cushion and the world is his, two par5's coming up, a chance to get those shots back, has a history of bouncing back and regaining his composure.

And he just threw it all away, penthouse to the outhouse, 5 minutes later. So many stories about that little par3, how it has derailed many hopes on Sunday in the Masters, all because it's only 152 yards. That little flag, resting peacefully in the right-middle portion of the green, so pretty... so serene, so doable, so tantalizing... it's a wedge, maybe 9-iron. "Come on - step up and just knock one close, tap in a 3-footer and give the patrons a show," the devil on the right shoulder says. The player doesn't listen to the angel on his left shoulder. "Psst - hey - don't listen to him. You're leading, you've got a cushion, two par5's coming up. Don't even go at that flag - nothing wrong with middle of the green - get your par and move on."

What was thought to have been a little harmless garden snake in reality is a Black Mamba... one of the deadliest serpents on the entire planet, just half of the venom it injects through its fangs can kill a full-grown adult elephant in less than an hour.

Jordan got greedy. He listened to the guy perched on his right shoulder, a monumental lapse of judgement. Not even if you've been knocking down pins through 11 holes - you don't take that hole location on with the lead. The deadly serpent struck, and after the shellshock sank in, the complete and utter numbness of everything moving much too soon - Jordan still had an opportunity to minimize the damage but just got ahead of himself. The same greed led to another dose of Black Mamba venom, and that, as they say, was all she wrote.

Kuddos to him for being mature enough to take it like a grown man, to sit there in front of the camera 10 minutes after the round to let the world know how bad it sucked. Not sure anyone else would've taken that on, that soon.

He'll have more chances. He'll be back. And hopefully he'll be back without the Keegan Bradley-like twitches, the Jim Furyk-like back off routine, and stop analyzing every little thing to the nth degree. Work on tightening up that swing and go play golf and have fun, young man! Who in their right mind wouldn't want to be you?!

The buried story Sunday evening, unfortunately, is Danny Willett playing some fabulous golf over the four days and accomplishing one of the greatest feats in all of golf. It will be overshadowed by the main headline of Spieth losing his mind on the 12th.

I remember watching Norman in '96, thought that was bad. Then in '99 - along came Jean Van de Velde at Carnoustie and I said wow - it doesn't get any worse than this. Then in '06 at Winged Foot, Mickelson completely rewrote the definition of a choke job.

And now, 10 years later... Jordan - sorry buddy. Maybe not enough time has passed and the shock factor is still kicking, but I think you might've topped that notorious list.

Wow. Still can't believe it.

Congrats to Danny Willett!