Jordan Spieth won't forget this Masters, and that's OK

ByJASON SOBEL
April 13, 2016, 4:43 PM

— -- Two days before the start of last week's Masters Tournament, six-time champion Jack Nicklaus lamented a single shot from his storied career at Augusta National.

It was a 6-iron, he vividly recalled. From 164 yards. On the final hole. And it took place 39 years ago.

Nicklaus always had a strategy for this specific shot. Hit the ball onto the middle of the green, just right of the hole, and let it feed to about 15 or 20 feet.

"I got there and I changed my mind over the ball," he explained last week. "I tried to put the ball on the green, make a chance for birdie and, at worst, make [ Tom Watson] at least have to par the hole. And I hit it fat and put it in the bunker. It's the only time it ever happened to me."

Jordan Spieth will always remember what happened to him on the 12th hole during Sunday's final round.

Following back-to-back bogeys, his lead having dwindled from 5 strokes to just 1, Spieth changed his mind at the 155-yard head-scratcher, choosing to hit a holding fade rather than a draw. The result was a shot that found Rae's Creek, a mistake compounded by his next one that also found the same watery grave.

"You wonder about not only just the tee shot on 12, but why can't you just control the second shot and make 5 at worse, and you're still tied for the lead," said Spieth, sounding eerily like Nicklaus. "Big picture, this one will hurt. It will take a while."

As a 22-year-old past Masters champion, Spieth will likely compete in about 40 more editions of this tournament. That's a potential of 160 trips to that very same 12th hole, where thoughts about the quadruple-bogey will range from consuming to being inconspicuously buried in his subconscious.

One reason the Masters has pulled ahead of its major championship brethren in terms of prestige is that it's played on the same course every year. The sights, the sounds, even the rhythm and tempo of the tournament, take on an all-too-familiar cadence.

Unlike Jean van de Velde, who never played another Open Championship at Carnoustie after making triple-bogey on the final hole in 1999, or Phil Mickelson, who hasn't been back to Winged Foot in competition after dramatically losing the U.S. Open in 2006, Spieth will return to the scene of his greatest stumble, year after year.

It will always haunt him to some degree. If he never wins another Masters title, he'll forever remember the one that got away. If he wins two more, he'll regret the one that kept him from joining Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods with four. If he wins five more, he'll think about the one that kept him from passing Nicklaus.

The game's legends often recall their failure more than their success. And there's nothing wrong with that.

In the immediate aftermath of his defeat, Spieth's collapse was compared with that of Greg Norman, who two decades earlier parlayed a 6-shot third-round lead into a 5-shot loss. Norman, though, was 41 at the time, possibly past the age of resiliency from such a heartbreaker.

Perhaps the better analogy is to that of Rory McIlroy, who five years ago led the Masters entering Sunday's back nine, only to falter in spectacular fashion, finishing in a share of 15th place. While he's still searching for that elusive green jacket, McIlroy responded by securing an 8-stroke victory in the very next major, the U.S. Open, just two months later.

Developing this scar tissue could similarly help Spieth moving forward. If there's anything we've learned about him during his first few years as a professional, it's that he often plays his best golf when the pressure is highest and adversity is apparent.

Case in point: At last year's U.S. Open, he carded double-bogey on the penultimate hole of the final round. Spieth huffed toward the final tee, steaming mad and spitting words under his breath. He then hit a terrific drive and second shot on the par-5 closing hole, setting up a birdie that would eventually give him the title.

Too often, failures in golf -- especially in majors -- are viewed only through a prism of what we've witnessed, rather than what we've learned. Those who play the game, though, have a keen understanding that it's more advantageous to contend for a title and lose than to never have been under that spotlight.

Nicklaus is the all-time leading major champion with 18 wins, but he's also the all-time leader in close calls, with 19 runner-up finishes.

That includes the one at Augusta National back in 1977. The one where a mistake on the final hole might have cost him a seventh green jacket. The one he was still talking about last week.

Spieth will never forget his mistake, either.