Danny Willett wins the 2016 Masters

A month ago, Danny Willett was not sure he’d play the Masters. His wife, Nicole, was pregnant with their first child and the due date was the Sunday final round of the Masters, April 10. He was not planning to play at Augusta, saying “There’s plenty more Masters.”

The Willetts’ son, Zachariah, came early on March 30 and Danny decided he’d make it to Augusta after all. Now he’s a new dad and a Masters champion, taking advantage of a second nine Jordan Spieth meltdown and posting the round of the day with a 5-under 67.

Willett made the trip over from England relatively late, flying on Monday when most of the field had been set up for a day or two and played a practice round. It turns out he didn’t need much extra work, holding steady through the three rounds of brutal windy conditions and then rocketing up the leaderboard on Sunday to take the green jacket.

Willett is a world-class pro, an Englishman that many who follow golf closely expect big things from down the road. He’s probably the next Euro to crush American hopes and dreams at the Ryder Cup and he pushed Rory McIlroy to the wire on the Euro Tour’s playoffs last year.

So it’s not surprising to see Willett in contention at a major championship. He’s an immense talent and was a trendy darkhorse pick. But the way he won it is how this Masters will be remembered. Willett was incredible on Sunday with the 67, stuffing it close all day and avoiding a bogey on his final round tour through Augusta.

But he still needed some help from Spieth, the 54-hole leader and heavy favorite to go wire-to-wire for the second straight year. Spieth made the turn at Augusta with a five-shot lead over Willett, cruising and on his way to a second straight green jacket. Willett’s 5-under 67 would not had been enough if Spieth could have just held the line on the second nine.

Spieth did the opposite and came completely undone on the back nine, starting with bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes to make it interesting again. It went from interesting to completely wide open when Spieth dunked two in the water at No. 12, the most famous par-3 in the world. It’s a short par-3 but the tee shot can be extremely intimidating and Spieth just flared it out to the right.

He took a drop and then flubbed one right into Rae’s Creek again.

In less than a hour, Spieth went from five shots up to three shots down to Willett. It was a monumental collapse.

The Spieth sequence at the 12th will be most remembered from this Masters, but Willett was nails all day and ready to benefit from the defending champ coming back to the pack. He’s now he first Englishman to win since Nick Faldo in 1996 and the first European since Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999. Not a bad couple weeks for the Willett family.

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