Danny Willett said he felt a lot of sympathy for Jordan Spieth, who had to hand over his Masters jacket to the Englishman after his own spectacular collapse.
Willett’s Masters victory in 2016 came only after defending champion Spieth suffered a disastrous back-nine collapse just as he seemed destined to claim back-to-back green jackets.
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Spieth dropped four shots in the space of three holes between the 10th and 12th before Willett made three birdies in a four-hole stretch from the 13th to secure the biggest win of his career.
The American had to put his personal disappointment aside, however, to take part in the traditional Masters ceremony and hand over of the green jacket to the new winner, and Willett said Spieth showed plenty of class in the way in which he handled the situation.
“I personally think that would have been incredibly hard for anyone to do because of how it happened,” Willett told the Sky Sports Golf podcast. “Everything was just so impressive.
“For a guy who has done so much in the game at such a young age, that one would have stung a little bit. For the ceremony to be eight minutes after he walked off the last is not a great amount of time for someone to get into their own space and be all joyful about it.
“I think that he (Spieth) handled it amazing, he was brilliant with me. I think it’s an incredibly tricky one to do for the past champion to give over the jacket to the new champion if that scenario happens like it did.”
– TEAMtalk media
