Augusta’s most famous hole destroys Jordan Spieth at the 2016 Masters

It was time for the most famous par-3 in the world to leave its mark on a golf generation.

The 12th hole at Augusta National is the most instantly recognizable hole in golf. The tee shot in front of grandstands rising into the pines in the deepest, farthest corner of the course. The sliver of a green with bunkers in front and back and a small simple creek that can intimidate the most talented, fearless, and cocksure golfers in history. “You hope a lot on that hole,” is the feeble admission of Tiger Woods.

It’s just a 150-yard hole that is just a pitching wedge or “stock 9-iron” as Spieth called it. When it decided the Masters, there was a rush of people holding up its timelessness in an era when technology is making so many holes obsolete and forcing architects to design 250-yard par-3s.

It’s hard to argue over a signature hole at Augusta National, where the second nine has been committed to memory by so many. If forced to choose, however, the scene at No. 12 is the symbol.

But it had been awhile since that famous scene also become the backdrop of a historic Masters moment, deciding the fate of the tournament. For whatever reason -- chance, how early it slots in the second nine -- a recent chapter of Masters history had skipped the 12th. Tiger’s miracle chip shot at the 16th. Phil’s putt and leap at the 18th. Rory’s visit to the cabins on the 10th. Bubba’s hook shot on that same hole. Had the deciding scene of a Masters, whether it was a shot from the eventual winner or destruction of a would-be winner, happened at No. 12 since Fred Couples’ fortunate visit in 1992?

The players all know it’s difficult and intimidating, but the 12th needed to remind the audience that it was more than just Augusta’s signature scene and pound a new chapter into tournament history. It had its moment on Sunday. The 12th was just a part of Greg Norman’s slow five-hour crumble. For Jordan Spieth, it was the detonator of a sudden implosion that will be remembered and referenced forever.

Spieth’s car crash at the 12th on Sunday is what we’ll remember, obscuring what had happened just 24 hours prior at the same hole. The defending champ was playing in the anchor slot on the tee sheet again, as he always does on the weekend at Augusta, with Rory McIlroy. When this dream pairing came together, it was going to be the story of this Masters. We get the Rory vs. Jordan matchup so soon in this rivalry we’re positioning to own the game for the next 20 years. The narrative would be hammered all Saturday afternoon.

Rory, the most compelling player coming into the Masters, would be picked apart as he searched to find his place in this battle he did not anticipate just a year ago. Even when Spieth ran away with a green jacket last year, McIlroy still had what seemed like an unassailable grip on the No.1 world ranking -- he’d have it for years. That’s been gone and passed around over the last eight months. So how must he feel, just a year later, to go around with Spieth and watch the younger defending champ jog past him?

“I turned around on, after 15, I said, how the hell is he 2‑under par today?”

What happened at the 12th on Saturday was a microcosm of everything that’s quickly changed at the top over the last year. McIlroy stuffed his tee shot inside 10 feet, one of the best of the day and about as good as you could do given the pin location. Spieth followed, putting his ball on the back of the green about 17 feet away, twice as far as Rory. But then Spieth zipped on by, draining his birdie putt while Rory burned the edge from half the distance.

This was the most telling sequence of an extremely hyped two-man Saturday “match” that provided more grist for the longer-term discussion, the one about the state of the game that was to go on after the weekend had ended. It encapsulated everything that has to frustrate the hell out of Rory right now and what has made Spieth such a killer over the last 12 months. Then came Sunday.

Spieth had leaked oil on the start of his second nine, making bogeys at the 10th and 11th to at least make it a game. But the 12th changed everything we presumed to be true about Spieth and his ownership of the Masters over the last two years. The 10th and 11th were supposed to be bumps that would be a helpful refocusing for a bounce back run -- the kind he had on Saturday after a double-bogey at the 11th and countless other times last year, most notably in that unrelenting grasp to stay in contention at The Open and keep a Grand Slam alive. It’s what we have come to identify most about Spieth, the response to a blow. He’d use it to reassert himself on the way to a wire-to-wire win.

“I knew that those two bogeys weren’t going to hurt me...10 and 11 you can take bogeys there.”

Then Spieth dumped it in Rae’s Creek twice, threw away four shots, and authored some more unforgettable Masters history for the second straight year. Spieth cited the 12th with costing him two Masters now, Sunday’s and his rookie spin in 2014.

“I remember getting over the ball thinking I’m going to go ahead and hit a little cut to the hole and that’s what I did in 2014 and it cost me the tournament then, too.”

The shot from Sunday in 2014:

And the shot from Sunday in 2016:

As Spieth recalled perfectly, the shots were the same limping cut into the bank. The scar tissue is now there on that tee for him. In 2014, however, he already trailed Bubba Watson and did not hold the lead in an attempted wire-to-wire march. He also put one in the drop zone and got up and down for bogey as opposed to a ghastly chunk into the creek again.

The Spieth birdie putt in front of Rory on Saturday actually put him under-par on that hole for his Masters career. That would, of course, change drastically with a quadruple bogey a day later. The exchange with McIlroy meant little in the end. Rory went quietly and then his rival made his own “visit to the No. 10 cabins” moment.

Two days on No. 12, the most famous hole in the world. It is the emblem of the course, but it had been awhile since it came to define the tournament. It came back in a big, unforgettable way on Sunday and, unfortunately for Jordan Spieth, has left its mark on this generation.

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