[Posted early Wednesday a.m.]
Golf Quiz: How many in the post-Masters Top Ten World Golf Ranking can you name? Answer below.
Jordan Spieth…postmortem
Ian O’Connor / ESPN
“Head down and hands in his pockets, looking like he had just seen a ghost, Jordan Spieth trudged from the Augusta National cabins toward the wide circle of men, women and children surrounding the site of Danny Willett’s championship ceremony. Spieth was wearing a green jacket, and trust me on this: You have never seen someone look so unhappy wearing a green jacket on a Masters Sunday.
“This is always a difficult exercise for a reigning champ who had failed to defend his title, this ritual that starts with a Butler Cabin passing of the jacket to the new winner on CBS, and then more of the same for the fans and cameramen waiting near the putting green. But there never has been a more brutal exchange than this Spieth-Willett handoff, and there might never be again….
“Nothing on this golf course, or any golf course, has been harder on the eyes in the history of the sport than Spieth’s quadruple-bogey seven at the 12th. (Greg) Norman had started bleeding away his 6-stroke lead before the turn (20 years ago), and he was playing with a terminator, (Nick) Faldo. Norman was already known to grip the club too tightly when the stakes were high….
“Willett, a 28-year-old Englishman, is a talented player and deserving champ, not to mention the proud father of a newborn son; his wife’s pregnancy nearly kept him out of the Masters. He was the last man in the field and the last man standing, earning his breakthrough victory with a 67 on his wife’s birthday.
“But this was Jordan Spieth’s Masters to lose, and lose it he did in a staggering way. He closed out the front nine with four straight birdies to wipe out (Smylie) Kaufman and, it appeared, the rest of the field. ‘A dream-come-true front nine,’ Spieth called it. And this is what awaited him as he stood on the 10th tee with a 5-shot lead and the whole world expecting that the back nine would amount to a tap-in putt for the leader:
“Spieth was going to become the youngest player in the Masters era to have claimed three majors. He was going to become the game’s first back-to-back, wire-to-wire major winner. He was going to win a second Masters in his third appearance after it took Tiger Woods seven appearances to win his second, and after it took Jack Nicklaus and Palmer six appearances to win their second. At 22, Spieth was going to match the number of green jackets won by Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson….
“You know what people would’ve said about Jordan Spieth if he did all that, don’t you? They would’ve said Spieth could someday surpass Nicklaus’ six Masters titles and become the greatest Augusta National player of all time….
“(But) what he did to the 12th hole on Sunday was more than what Ernie Els did to the first hole on Thursday, and Faldo estimated that Spieth went from commanding leader to zombie film victim in 12 minutes that no witness will ever forget.
“Let’s face it: There’s losing the way the Seattle Seahawks lost to the New England Patriots on the Super Bowl goal line, and then there’s losing like this. I’ve been writing about sports for 30 years, and this is the most shocking event I’ve ever covered, with the 2004 American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and supposedly haunted Boston Red Sox running a close second.”
Dave Shedlocki / Golf World
“Credit Willett for taking advantage of a great situation. The four-time winner on the European Tour never gave Spieth an opening down the stretch. Neither did he buckle when (Lee) Westwood, playing alongside, eagled the 15th with a miraculous chip-in to climb within a stroke.
“Willett instead responded with a 7-iron to five feet at the par-3 16th and calmly sank the birdie while Westwood three-putted for bogey….
“ ‘I actually heard everyone, you know, grunting and moaning or whatever they do when the scores go up,’ Willett said. ‘[Spieth] obviously had a terrible run, 10, 11, 12, which basically put it right back in anyone’s hands. I just feel fortunate that I was in the position that I was to pounce on the opportunity to accomplish it.’”
Christine Brennan / USA TODAY Sports
“The collapse was breathtaking in its suddenness. There was 22-year-old golf wunderkind Jordan Spieth marching into history as a back-to-back, wire-to-wire Masters champion, holding a commanding five-shot lead as the shadows grew long Sunday evening in the first men’s major tournament of the year.
“Then, when not one but two of his shots disappeared into iconic Rae’s Creek, resulting in a quadruple bogey 7 on Augusta National’s famous par-3 12th, there was the previously unflappable Spieth falling apart, historically melting down before our very eyes….
“Could this really be happening on the back nine Sunday at the Masters? Spieth had become a real-life, sadly sympathetic Tin Cup. His caddie, Michael Greller, reached into the golf bag for another ball….
“ ‘Buddy, it seems like we’re collapsing,’ Spieth said to Greller.”
Jamie Diaz / Golf World
“(What) Spieth did on the temptress that is the short 12th hole Sunday, making a quadruple-bogey 7 that took him from two strokes ahead to three strokes behind, is as big a one-hole collapse at the wrong moment as the Masters has ever seen. For a disaster hole from a final-round leader in a major championship, it ranks up there with Jean Van de Velde’s closing triple-bogey at Carnoustie [see below]….
“It was difficult to watch, in part because it was so unexpected, but more because it was a moment in which the seemingly bulletproof Spieth was forced to confront, in the kind of publically humiliating circumstances that make up the scariest side of big-time sports, the stark reality of human fragility….
“What really happened? Spieth, as he so admirably does, took the time afterwards to explain, even though it was with red eyes, flushed cheeks and a thick voice. He gave a window into the mental blur that competitive golf can become under the greatest pressure. And in the end, for all the talk of technique, ultimately the bad swing (on 12) was a mental error….
“Spieth has now learned, surely sooner than he would have wanted to, that even he is susceptible to losing control in the cauldron of a major championship.
“ ‘Big picture, this one will hurt,’ he said in his closing comment. ‘It will take a while.’”
Nick Faldo said: “It went from an incredible performance to a mixture of disaster and torture.”
When Spieth’s friend Stephen Curry learned of the collapse before a game in San Antonio, Curry reportedly dropped to the floor in agony.
“We’re all in disbelief,” said Faldo.
Matthew Futterman / Wall Street Journal
“It’s possible that Danny Willett will go on to become one of history’s greatest golfers, and we will all look back on the 2016 Masters as the moment where his wondrous career began.
“No offense to Willett, I’m going to bet against that for now. I think that years from now we will all still be talking about how even the great Jordan Spieth put two consecutive shots in the drink in the guts of Amen Corner, and blew a five shot lead on the back nine, capping off the ultimate hacker’s Masters….
“(Willett) shot a bogey-free round of 67, and was in the right place at the right time when Spieth went all Greg Norman-Jean Van de Velde on us.
“Sitting on a couch inside Augusta National, he cackled like a child when Spieth’s bogey on 17 clinched the tournament for him after some of the wackiest 90 minutes here ever. You would have, too."
From the BBC…Who is Danny Willett?
The son of a vicar, he was born on Oct. 3, 1987 in Sheffield, England
Left school at 16 but later attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama on a golf scholarship.
Won the 2007 English Amateur Championship and in early 2008 became the world’s top-ranked amateur.
Turned professional in 2008 and clinched his first European Tour victory at the 2012 BMW International Open in Germany.
Won twice on the European Tour in the 2015 season and made his Masters debut where he finished tied for 38th.
Captured his fourth European Tour victory at the Dubai Desert Classic in February.
–Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post had a list of five chokes in the sport of golf he considers being worse than Spieth’s.
1. Greg Norman, 1996 Masters…Norman blowing a six-shot final round lead and losing to Nick Faldo by five after a 78.
2. Scott Hoch, 1987 PGA Championship and 1989 Masters. In ’87, Hoch three-putted from inside 10 feet on the 18th hole when two putts would have put him into a playoff. In ’89, well, you all remember that one. It’s why we said forever after, “Hoch as in choke.” The Demon Deacon missed a two-footer on the first playoff hole, which would have won him a green jacket, with Faldo again the beneficiary.
3. Jean Van de Velde, 1999 British Open. This is my favorite to this day, when the Frenchman blew a three stroke lead on 18, ending up in a playoff and losing to Paul Lawrie (and Justin Leonard), with some of the most indescribable shots of all time.
4. Arnold Palmer, 1966 U.S. Open. Palmer led Billy Casper by seven strokes at the turn of the final round, but it went downhill from there and Palmer needed a terrific up-and-down par from the rough on 18 just to force a playoff, which he lost after another choke. He led by two shots after nine holes but went bogey-bogey-double on holes 13-15 and lost by four to Casper.
5. Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie, 2006 U.S. Open. Phil, with his infamous drive on the 18th hole at Winged Foot, hitting the roof of a hospitality tent when he needed par for the win; Monty for missing the 18th green from the fairway. He just needed a par as well. Instead both double-bogeyed, handing the title to Geoff Ogilvy.
–For Lee Westwood, his tie for second was his 18th top-10 finish in major championship play, and his third time as runner-up. The 42-year-old is clearly on the backside of his career and he had played competitively just once in the previous two months.
–You can expect Jordan Spieth to get more and more criticism for his pace of play. Opponents like Rory McIlroy who play fast must hate to be teamed up with the guy. I can’t imagine how Lanny Wadkins would have handled being paired with Jordan back in the day. Lanny would have blown a gasket.
And I have to add to something I said last time about Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller. I mean it. I wouldn’t be surprised, depending on how well the rest of the year goes, if Greller moved on. I read a ton on the golf tour and the two have definitely had their moments the last few months. So if, say, Jordan’s play is kind of mediocre the next few months, watch the dynamic between the two.
–Martin Kaufman of Golf Week criticized CBS’ coverage.
“For the better part of four days, CBS’ cameras lingered excessively on Jordan Spieth, to the exclusion of the vast majority of the field.
“Think of all the players who got little or no airtime: J.B. Holmes, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Daniel Berger and Brandt Snedeker all finished T-10 or better but were all but frozen out by CBS. I could go one, but you get my drift….
“Rather than covering the tournament and showing as much golf and as many golfers as possible, CBS put all of its chips on Spieth. That was the story that CBS wanted to tell: the popular young American star marching to his second consecutive Masters title. But then Spieth faltered, and Willett swooped in, seized the green jacket and spoiled the CBS narrative.
“Officials at Augusta National and CBS can talk all they want about showing only four minutes of commercials each hour. But if you’re not going to show the vast majority of the field, then the production itself is not much different than a regular Tour event.”
Kaufman also had this to say:
“Eight months ago, CBS Sports president Sean McManus touted his network’s use of technology after the PGA Championship…
“(But) the Masters was noteworthy for its lack of even the most basic technology, such as Protracer. And for all of the talk about the hills and slopes and wild undulations on Augusta National’s greens, we never saw any 3-D hole graphics. Similarly, for all of the talk of high winds on Saturday, did we ever see a wind gauge?
“Here’s something odd: Sky Sports and the BBC use Protracer and 3-D graphics in their Masters coverage for U.K. viewers. Why is the coverage overseas more sophisticated than what we see in the U.S.”
That is odd, and incredibly stupid.
MLB
–Thru Tuesday, Baltimore is the only undefeated team at 7-0. Atlanta is the only winless club, 0-7.
—Mets fans are panicking. We wasted a 7-inning, one run, 12 strikeout performance by Thor, Noah Syndergaard, on Tuesday, losing 2-1 to the Marlins and falling to 2-5. Ughh. Zero hitting. Sucks. It doesn’t help that the Nationals are 5-1 as former Met Daniel Murphy is off to a 10-for-20 start with 7 RBIs.
–On Monday, MLB umpires wore patches with the initials “EA” in honor of Emmett Ashford, who, 50 years ago, became the first African-American to umpire a regular season MLB game. He manned third base during the Senators’ Opening Day loss to the Indians in Washington.
—Hank Aaron started his career in the big leagues on April 13, 1954, going 0-for-5 in Milwaukee’s 9-8 loss to Cincinnati. Future Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews hit two homers for the Braves.
Aaron batted fifth and wore No. 5, not the No. 44 he would wear for most of his career. He would hit .280 with 13 home runs and 69 RBIs for the season, finishing fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting. [Wally Moon was first, Ernie Banks second. Pitcher Gene Conley was third.]
Aaron was only 20, but the next year, 1955, he was off and running, .314, 27-106, and his first of 13 straight seasons with 100 runs scored.
–I watched the documentary on Jackie Robinson on PBS and it was truly outstanding. Another awesome effort by Ken Burns and his team. If you missed it, you need to see it.
And it gives me another reason to extol the virtues of the amazing, indefatigable Rachel Robinson. The classiest woman in America.
NBA
–Tonight, Golden State, 72-9, goes for the all-time record at home against Memphis. What a scene that will be.
–Lots to be decided on this last night of the regular season. Including sorting out the playoff slots among the following.
Easter Conference
3. Miami 48-33
4. Atlanta 48-33
5. Boston 47-34…plays Miami
6. Charlotte 47-34
NHL
–I found this shocking, but the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane, a Buffalo native, is the first American to win the Art Ross Trophy as the top scorer in the NHL with 106 points (46 goals, 60 assists).
He is also the first Blackhawk to lead the league since Stan Mikita way back in 1967-68. Mikita won the scoring title four of five years between 1963 and 1968, with Bobby Hull taking the honors in 1965-66.
–All about Rangers-Pittsburgh, Wednesday. Be there.
College Basketball
–I’m not even attempting to keep up on those who have declared early for the NBA draft, especially since players can pull their name if they don’t hear they’ll be a first-rounder, for example, but I can’t help but note Maryland freshman center Diamond Stone, who declared for the draft, along with teammate Melo Trimble, a sophomore guard.
Trimble, who I don’t think is a first-rounder, could easily decide to return to the Terps, but Stone hired an agent, meaning he’s in and, boy, if ever there was a guy who could use one more year, it’s him. He is still probably a first-rounder, but I’ll be surprised if he does anything at the next level in 2016-17.
That said, a friend argues, ‘Why wouldn’t Stone leave? He’s not going to gain much more by playing at the college level another year. Take the money.’
–After I posted last time, for the record I saw that Duke freshman guard Derryck Thornton announced he was transferring, saying he wanted to play closer to his California home.
Thornton averaged 7 points and nearly 3 assists, but they’ll easily replace him.
—Two Stony Brook University basketball players who played in the NCAA Tournament last month were busted for allegedly throwing a stone through the window of a fellow student’s car and stealing his $5,000 tax refund. One of the players was the third-leading scorer, though a senior, the other didn’t play much as a sophomore. [No need to give their names.]
I wouldn’t bring the situation up except I’m amazed at what the victim did. He had just cashed his IRS check before going to class and left the money in his rental car, which is bad enough.
But now, according to the New York Daily News, he’s not being told by the police how he can get his cash back and he’s been unable to get a copy of the police report.
The guy said, “I feel like I’m being left out to dry because I’m out of $5,000 in cash and the people who robbed me are back on campus. I’m the victim here and no one’s defending me.”
–Last chat I brought up the topic of the ratings for the Final Four and championship game and then on Tuesday, CBS and Turner Sports announced that they had extended their rights agreement to televise the men’s basketball tournament through 2032.
Coverage will remain the same, with CBS returning to the Final Four and title games next year.
CBS also admitted their two-hour Selection Sunday show was a failure and that it behooved them to release the brackets in a more timely manner.
NFL
–A study that will be presented at next week’s American Academy of Neurology (AAN) will offer one of the most conclusive pieces of evidence yet of a definitive link between brain injury and playing football, as reported by the Washington Post.
The report shows that “more than 40 percent of retired National Football League players…had signs of traumatic brain injury based on sensitive MRI scans called diffusion tensor imaging,” according to a press release from the AAN.
Last year Frontline reported that researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University found chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in 96 percent of the NFL players they examined and in 79 percent of football players at various levels of play.
But whereas that research studied 165 deceased people who had played the sport in high school, college or professionally, this newest study is “one of the largest to date in living retired NFL players,” according to Dr. Francis X. Conidi of the Florida Center for Headache and Sports Neurology.
–The murder of former Saints lineman Will Smith is yet another classic example of my adage “wait 24 hours.” A video that emerged appears to show Smith’s vehicle hitting the vehicle of Cardell Hayes, first, not the other way around. Hayes then followed Smith after Smith passed him when Hayes pulled over.
A number of weapons were recovered in both vehicles, in addition to the gun fired by Hayes
–Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon, who was suspended for the entire 2015 season, reportedly failed another drug test in March, as first reported by FOX Sports.
Gordon was suspended for a third violation of the league’s substance abuse policy and he applied for reinstatement, but on Tuesday the league announced his request was denied. Gordon can reapply for reinstatement Aug. 1.
Gordon led the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards in 2013 but has played in just five games since then. Monday, ESPN reported he was sharing an apartment in Los Angeles with Johnny Manziel. Oh brother.
Stuff
—Last year there were a record 41 postseason college bowl games, with there not being bowl-eligible teams to fill all the slots, resulting in a record three teams with losing records earning berths. Totally absurd.
So the NCAA has approved a three-year moratorium on new bowl games. Three cities – Austin, Texas; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina – were in the process of seeking NCAA certification to add bowls in 2016.
But the NCAA also issued a three-year moratorium back in 2011, after which six new bowls, not including the College Football Playoff, were added.
Last year 63 percent of the 128 FBS teams earned bowl berths, including the three with 5-7 records.
—Clemson gave head coach Dabo Swinney a new contract, running through 2021, that will make him one of college football’s top 10 highest-paid coaches at $5.125 million per year.
Swinney has led the Tigers to a 56-12 record over the past five seasons.
–In Champions League play, Real Madrid used a hat-trick from Cristiano Ronaldo to overcome a first-leg deficit against German club Wolfsburg to advance to its sixth consecutive trip to the Champions League semifinals. Ronaldo has now scored 34 times in 36 Champions League knockout matches for Real, according to Opta Sports.
In Tuesday’s other quarterfinal, Manchester City beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 at home, advancing 3-2 on aggregate, for its first trip to the semifinals. City’s Kevin de Bruyne (my favorite non-Tottenham player) made the difference in the 76th minute.
–Brad K. passed along this bizarre tail from Ann Arbor, Mich. As reported by Ed White of the AP:
“A Canadian man who repeatedly entered Michigan to buy and ship thousands of turtles to his native China only to be caught with 51 of them strapped to his legs was sentenced Tuesday to nearly five years in federal prison for smuggling.”
Kai Xu “shipped turtles to China from Canada and the U.S., or hired people to fly with turtles in their luggage to China, where they are coveted as pets. He was apprehended with 51 of them on his legs at the Ontario, Canada, border in 2014.”
Xu’s crime was shipping them overseas without a federal permit.
So let this be a lesson to all you turtle runners out there, as Brad observed.
–According to the BBC, construction workers in Malaysia spotted a 26-foot-long python under a fallen tree. A few days later the snake died giving birth. Malaysia’s Civil Defense Department captured the snake and planned to take it to the Department of Wildlife before it expired.
It is probably the longest snake found in captivity, as recorded in the Guinness World Records; the previous mark held by Medusa, a reticulated python measuring 25-feet, 2-inches, who feeds on hogs and deer and is kept at a haunted house in Kansas City, Mo. Remind me not to go to this place.
–Good news! The World Wildlife Fund and Global Tiger Forum said 3,890 tigers had been counted in the latest global census, compared with just 3,200 tigers in the wild in 2010. In 1900, there were 100,000. Too bad Bar Chat wasn’t around then.
The increase might just be a result of better data gathering, but whatever the reason, it’s a positive.
Top 3 songs for the week 4/15/72: #1 “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Roberta Flack) #2 “A Horse With No Name” (America) #3 “I Gotcha” (Joe Tex)…and…#4 “Rockin’ Robin” (Michael Jackson…awful…) #5 “Heart Of Gold” (Neil Young) #6 “In The Rain” (Dramatics… great tune…) #7 “Puppy Love” (Donny Osmond) #8 “Betcha By Golly, Wow” (The Stylistics… this will sound good a 100 years from now…) #9 “Day Dreaming” (Aretha Franklin…my favorite of hers…) #10 “A Cowboys Work Is Never Done” (Sonny & Cher)
Golf Quiz Answer: Top Ten World Golf Ranking….
1. Jason Day 12.52
2. Jordan Spieth 11.78
3. Rory McIlroy 9.41
4. Bubba Watson 8.48
5. Rickie Fowler 7.75
6. Henrik Stenson 7.70
7. Adam Scott 7.15
8. Dustin Johnson 6.89
9. Danny Willett 6.46
10. Justin Rose 6.06
11. Patrick Reed
12. Louis Oosthuizen
13. Hideki Matsuyama
14. Brandon Grace
15. Brandt Snedeker
19. Phil Mickelson
27. Bill Haas…Go Deacs!
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
