Spieth’s struggles come on 15th hole at Masters
Jordan Spieth had no trouble with the par-3 12th hole Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club.
The par-5 15th, however, was a different story.
Spieth had a par on the 12th, which bit him for a quadruple-bogey 7 last year and derailed his chances of winning a second straight Masters title. But on No. 15 on Thursday, Spieth had another quadruple-bogey — with a nine — to slow any momentum in this round. He finished with a 3-over-par 75.
“Yeah, very difficult,” Spieth said. “You think of it as a birdie hole, obviously being a par-5. And unfortunately I still thought of it as a birdie hole (Thursday), and it really isn’t, when you lay up. So I didn’t take my medicine and hit it about 15 feet right with a club that takes the spin off. Instead, I was stuck in the 15-is-a-birdie-hole mentality, and it kind of bit me a little bit. I struck the shot well; I just hit the wrong club. I struck it very solid; I used a club that would spin instead of one that would maybe take the spin off.
“I moved up a few — 10, 15 yards on the next one — and I clubbed down, and that one just didn’t hit the same wind. But you don’t have much depth there, and I obviously wasn’t going to hit it in the water again. So just went over, and from there it’s very difficult.”
Spieth started strong with a birdie on No. 2, and he was still even after he had the par on No. 12. He got back to 1 under after a birdie on No. 13, but a bogey on No. 14 and then the disastrous 15th dropped him back in the field.
“I was a bit surprised at how loud the cheer was when my ball landed about 35 feet away from the hole,” Spieth said of his return to the 12th hole. “But I was relieved to see it down and on the green. And I guess everybody else felt maybe more than I did on it. But it was nice to make a 3 there and then capture 4 at the next. And I really thought we had it going there. And just made a club choice mistake, but we’re still in the tournament.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Spieth’s struggles come on 15th hole at Masters."