The biggest story at the Masters this year was how Jordan Spieth would rebound from the disaster in the final round a year ago when he hit two straight shots into the water on No. 12 and lost the lead. We got our answer in the first round and it isn't good.
While Spieth survived the Par-3 12th hole in the opening round of this year's Masters, things took a turn for the worse with a bogey on hole 14 and then he completely fell apart on the par-5 15th where Spieth carded a quadruple-bogey nine.
Things started innocently enough. After a drive in the middle of the fairway, Spieth laid up on his second shot, leaving about 75 yards to the hole. However, Spieth was facing a tough downhill lie and he was hitting into the stiff wind.
The ball hit the green and immediately rolled back and into the water.
That was mishit No. 1.
Mishit No. 2 came after the drop when he misread the hole. Spieth could be heard telling his caddie that the distance was "78 [yards, but] it's playing low-88 [yards]."
In other words, Spieth was saying he needed to hit the ball as if the hole was ten yards father than the actual distance.
Spieth did that, and sure enough the ball landed about ten yards too far and sailed past the green. Spieth ended up with a tough shot back towards the hole.
Spieth tried to play a bump-and-run up the hill and onto the green, but he hit the ball way too hard. He hit the ball so hard he almost ended up back in the water.
Mishit No. 3.
Spieth had already taken six shots on the Par 5 and he was still 30 feet from the hole.
Augusta National then reared its ugly head and added insult to Spieth's injured mindset.
When Spieth hit his putt, you could tell immediately that he did not like the stroke as he started walking after the ball. To make matters worse, the ball struck something on the green, possibly something that had fallen from a tree. The ball popped up in the air and ended up five feet short of the hole.
Mishit No. 4.
Spieth would go on to two-putt from five feet.
The shot tracker is a complete mess.
Combined with the bogey on No. 14 — he bogeyed the hole before the meltdown last year also — Spieth went from 1-under to 4-over in the span of two holes. And one of those holes was a Par 5, one of the holes players need to dominate if they want to win at the Masters.
Spieth did rebound to birdie No. 16, but he finished the round 3-over and six behind the leaders.
