View of the 16th hole at Augusta National Golf Club

The Masters 2016 Wrap Up

It’s twenty four hours and recovering from the shock, lets look at The Masters 2016 wrap up. There is no doubt about one thing, the Masters truly does start on the back nine Sunday. Let us look at some of the highlights from the last day:

Danny Willett

Attendance at the The Masters was fully dependent upon the birth of the Willetts first child, expected on the 10th April 2016, the final day of the tournament. The child was born two weeks early, allowing Danny to accept his invitation to the tournament. Unexpectedly for him it also brought another gift, that of his first major victory.

 

The Yorkshiremen quitely slid up the leader board with a three shot advantage during the back nine. The Speith collapse should not take away from the impressive round Willett played, shooting a 67 during the final day. This is comparable to the only other Englishman to win the Masters, three time champ Sir Nick Faldo. With his last victory against Greg Norman in 1996, the Shark had a six shot lead disappear over the eighteen holes, whilst Faldo also shot a 67. Hopefully the victory will be fully appreciated and not remembered as the tournament that Speith lost. Great effort by Willett. Looking forward to him playing the Ryder Cup later in the year.

Jordan Speith

What was looking like a formality, with Speith taking the lead by five strokes with nine holes to go, it was going to be a case of Billy Payne warming up his hands having to present the green jacket in Butler Cabin. But with the Masters, nothing is ever that simple. Speith went through what can only be called a meltdown moment starting at the tenth, losing six shots in three holes. In particular the twelfth hole was were it all fell apart.

 

After not closing the deal in 2014, I thought Speith would certainly win, having taken the championship the previous year. How wrong I was. Now being compared to other major collapses, like Greg Norman in 1996, who never won a green jacket, or Jean Van de Velde at the 1999 Open Championship. However Speith is young, at only 22, and already has two majors under his belt. He should quickly bounce back.

The Aussies

Great hopes were put on two of the Australians entered into this years Masters, Jason Day and Adam Scott. After having great starts to the year with two victories each, Scott failed to make a mark, whilst Day after chasing down the leader on the first Day, had his own difficult period, losing five shots over three holes. From there he struggled to claw back the difference.

This was considered one of the best chances for another Australian victory, since the countries first win by Scott in 2013. However this did not materialise. There is further hope at the remaining three majors though. I fully expect Jason Day to eventually win four to five before the end of his career.

The Sixteenth

In what was a first, the sixteenth saw three holes in one during the final rounds play. Admittedly the pin is setup to allow a birdie fest, but it still is a remarkable feat. Those lucky enough were Shane Lowry, Davis Love III and Louis Oosthuizen, who managed to ricochet off his playing partners ball, before find the hole.

 

Conclusion

Wrapping up, this was a great Masters, especially the final day. With windy conditions for the first three days beating the players up, this helped to keep the scores down dramatically since the previous year. Potential challengers, came and went, but in the end, course architecture came through influencing the outcome on the final day. Especially evident in Amen corner, where the players do struggle with selecting the correct club, whilst dealing with the increasing pressure of potentially winning a major tournament.

Bryson DeChambeau, the leading amateur by the end of the tournament, looked hopeful to be the first amateur to win the Master going into Saturday. The weekend was not kind however, seeing him fall back outside the top 12, which ensure an invite the following year. He has now decided to turn professional. Hopefully he manages to win his way onto the PGA Tour.

TV coverage however was probably the worst I have experienced in the years of watching the tournament. In Australia only pay TV offered viewing, having setup a 24 hour channel for seven days. In the end, too many adverts were shown, whilst the feed from CBS was nothing short of poor quality. Failure to show potential challenges to the leader live, if at all, left the viewer feeling very frustrated. The use of technologies also needs to be addressed, like shot tracker, 3D fly overs or graphics showing elevation changes on the course are critical to the viewing experience. This is partly due to Augusta National Golf Club and their control on how the tournament is presented, but this has to change. They have opened up quite a few other areas, especially social media and digital presentation, also been leaders in innovation for golf, but they have now fallen behind for traditional television coverage. Hopefully this improves in the next few years.

We also saw Arnold Palmer having to pass on the opportunity of hitting in the honourary tee off, a great shame. although he did attend.

 

Lastly we saw the exit of Tom Watson, playing his last Masters tournament. With two green jackets of his own, along with six other majors, it will be sorely missed. Yes he was struggling to make the cut and perform, but it still is great to see some of yesterdays heroes still in action. I was lucky enough to see the great man practicing during my 2011 visit to The Masters, something I will never forget.

Looking forward to the rest of the years majors, but also the return to Augusta in 2017.

 

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