Danny Willett insists his golfing world ‘is not over’ as he copies Jack Nicklaus by hanging round to put Green Jacket on Masters winner
Yorkshireman must stay in America so he can partake in time-honoured tradition of presenting jacket
DANNY WILLETT will still be at Augusta tonight, but not as a part of the serious action.
The Englishman is the ninth Masters champion to miss the cut a year after pulling on the Green Jacket.
In every other tournament, a weekend off means you get to go home early.
But the defending champion has to stick around at Augusta to slip the jacket on to his successor on Sunday night.
It will not be much comfort to Willett, but he is in exalted company.
No one has ever played Augusta better than Jack Nicklaus who has six Masters among his 18 Major victories.
But Nicklaus was the first member of the early exit club in 1967 when he missed the cut while aiming for a third Green Jacket in a row.
His hat-trick bid came unstuck with a nine-bogey 79 — a shot worse than the second-round 78 that meant Willett missed out by one shot.
It also happened to Nick Faldo the year after he took advantage of Greg Norman’s incredible final-round collapse in 1996 in one of the most dramatic Masters ever.
In fact, three-time Masters champion Faldo had plenty of time to reflect on how the Australian must have felt because he went on to miss the cut three years in a row.
Seve Ballesteros also flopped after both of his Masters victories in 1980 and 1983.
So there is no real disgrace in Willett’s performance.
The crying shame was the 29-year-old could so easily have avoided joining the club.
For large chunks of the first 36 holes we saw the Danny Willett who shot a brilliant, bogey-free 67 in the final round last year to kick down the door left open by Jordan Spieth’s meltdown.
That has not happened much since Willett pulled on that Green Jacket. At times it seemed to be weighing him down like a suit of armour instead.
The Sheffield golfer took some comfort from playing plenty of good golf amid the gut-wrenching blowouts — like the crazy quadruple bogey eight on the first hole on Friday which ultimately sealed his fate.
Despite that train wreck, Willett still had a four-footer on the final green to make the cut.
But he watched in agony as it caught a good chunk of the hole... and stayed out.
That was the second day running he had bogeyed the last, which ranks as only the eighth toughest hole on the course.
But it was nowhere near as damaging as the first hole where Willett played it in six over par after double-bogeying on day one.
And he was only seven-over when he missed the cut.
Two pars to start would have left him in a share of 13th place, just five off the halfway lead.
On the plus side Willett birdied the tenth on both days. And just ask Rory McIlroy how hard that hole is!
McIlroy’s triple-bogey there was the start of his 2011 collapse when he shot 80.
Historically, only the 11th plays tougher than that 495-yard beast.
Willett also recaptured his 2016 mojo briefly when two stunning shots set up a first-round eagle at the 13th.
But, otherwise, he played the par fives in one over — another costly statistic.
So it really was down to fine margins, as Willett pointed out. He said: “It was a disappointing couple of days but at times I played some pretty good golf there. I just couldn’t hole a bean.
“It was like that on the last hole. I had a chance to salvage something from a tricky day — and that putt refused to drop.
“I was asked if any part of me felt a weight lifted after a tricky year, but it’s not like that.
“My only regret is that I’d like to take back a couple of shots from this week and play them differently.
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But I hit a lot of good golf shots, and that goes for the rest of the year. I’ve just not got on top of anything. We play a results-based game and the results haven’t been there.
“It would have been nice if we could have caught a break with the cut moving to seven over, just to give myself a little bit more golf.
“It wasn’t to be. But you’re still a Masters Champion and if you look at my career, I’ve had two fabulous years followed by a bit of a downturn where I haven’t played well for 12 months, and it feels like the golfing world is coming to an end.
“It’s not. I’ll come again.”