Jordan Spieth walked off the tee at 17, took a swig of water, and fired off a withering glare at the nearby 16th green.
He’d just bogeyed the fabled par-3, taking another chunk out of what was once an impressive six-stroke second-day lead at the Masters. So you can understand why he scowled at the 16th like it was an old friend who’d let him down.
Truth is, Spieth – the defending champion at Augusta and still the only man ever to lead six straight rounds outright at the Masters – learned on Friday what so many did before him: the house always wins in the end.
Oh, sure, at Augusta National the house is a genteel white, a black-shuttered debutante of a building, tucked modestly among the pines and oaks. But it’ll bring you to your knees just the same.
Spieth entered the day at 6-under, and played the first three holes of his Friday round like he had a second green jacket to lock down and a plane to catch. But before long, time and the elements conspired to haul him back down to the manicured green turf.
“We were trying to adjust with ever‑gusting and changing winds,” he said. “It just was a really difficult day to score, and when we look back, if we approach it that way, [Saturday] could be just as challenging if not more.”
First it was a double-bogey at 5, a hole where the ball did exactly the opposite of what Spieth was expecting. Then came 10, where he gave away another stroke to the high winds. On 11, Augusta officials put his group on the clock for playing too slowly, a move that came without warning and irritated Spieth:
“I wouldn't say it was unfair,” he said after the round, measuring his words carefully. “I would say that, have fun getting put on the clock at 11 of Augusta, and then play 11 and 12 rushing with gusting winds. It's not fun. It's not fun at all.”
Finally, there were the closing holes, where Spieth bogeyed that 16th and the 17th, then escaped a third-straight bogey only by holing out a wicked 14-foot putt. Final tally: a two-over round, a lead shrunk from four strokes to one, and a Saturday pairing with Rory McIlroy to set up another Masters Sunday.
Time and time again after the round, Spieth returned to the discussion of forces outside his control … and how hard it was to control himself in the face of them.
“It was very tough to stay cool,” he said. “I mean, it's a lot easier said than done. You could say, 'Looked like you got emotional out there.’ I mean, you guys try it. That was a hard golf course.”
He seemed a bit shocked, a bit surprised that the course still had tricks it hadn’t revealed to him. When a green jacket winner still calls a round at Augusta “a learning experience,” you know something’s up.
On Thursday morning, just a few feet from where Spieth drained that long finishing putt, a frail Arnold Palmer had watched Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player hit ceremonial tee shots to begin the 2016 Masters. Palmer, the man who’d owned these grounds and the galleries that walked them, was now unable to even stand for long.
"Everything shall pass," Player had said, and in no sport is that more apparent than golf – you can watch your replacements arrive even before you’ve hit your prime. Spieth played his first two rounds with amateur Bryson DeChambeau, who’s only 51 days younger than Spieth but already of a new generation.
If Spieth is lucky enough to stick around as long as Palmer has, Spieth will be teeing off to the 2061 Masters. The announcer on that day might well announce Spieth as the winner of the 2016 tournament, but Spieth has a lot of work ahead to make that happen. Nothing’s easy at Augusta, not even for Jordan Spieth.
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