Heading into the back nine at Augusta last night, Jordan Spieth's quest to retain the Green Jacket resembled less a competition and more a procession.
Spieth was five shots clear of the pack as he stepped up to tee off on the tenth only to hit consecutive bogeys before finding the water twice as part of a stunning, quadruple-bogey collapse on the twelfth that saw him drop out of contention. Spieth's torment at the twelfth will go down as one of the great Masters' collapse, a failure accentuated further by the fact that Spieth looked unflappable previously, having spent seven consecutive rounds at the top of the Augusta leaderboard.
So fancied was Spieth to reel off the back nine and win the title, that an astonishing amount of money was wagered on Spieth before his collapse:
More than £1m was wagered on Spieth on Betfair at odds of 1-8 or shorter before the 12th ....
— Nick Harris (@sportingintel) April 10, 2016
With odds that short, the wager would have had to have been massive to yield a substantial return.
Somewhere there’s a gambler who saw Speith running away with it, backed him heavily, and went to bed expecting a modest return #Master2016
— NewsThump (@newsthump) April 10, 2016
On the flip side, some people did in fact back Danny Willett. Going into the final day, he was available at a generous 25/1:
Fancy Danny Willett tomorrow. The 25-1 with Ladbrokes is silly
— James Corrigan (@jcorrigangolf) April 10, 2016
Backing Willett at 25-1 on the final day is one thing, but if you were to back Willett before start of play on Thursday, you would have had a much bigger payday, with odds ranging from 60/1 to 85s:
Danny Willett 60/1 and Matt Fitzpatrick 250/1. A full €2ew and €1ew on them. If anybody needs me, I'll be in the Caribbean.
— Neil Treacy (@neil_treacy) April 10, 2016
We are perfectly happy to allow those who backed Willett for a maiden Green Jacket on Thursday bask in smugness this morning, as this Balls.ie scribe was ready to do the same as Spieth drifted from 1/10 on to 10/1 after the quadruple bogey on 12. Spieth followed up with two birdies to put himself back in contention:
I backed Spieth after he quadrupled bogeyed and I'm beginning to feel very smug.
— Gavin Cooney (@gcooney93) April 10, 2016
It ultimately didn't happen for Spieth, and he will join Greg Norman in the perverse pantheon of Masters chokers. Sometimes sport can make fools of us all. Some of us, however, are simply fools to begin with.
