Greg Allen: Willett's win will live long in the memory

The 2016 Masters will live long in the memory, but not for reasons of rewriting Masters records as we thought Jordan Speith might do.

This tournament will be remembered for the comparisons with the events at Augusta 20 years ago, when Nick Faldo famously came from six shots behind Greg Norman with 18 holes to play to go on and win.

This time around it was a five-shot deficit but there were only nine holes to play. That was the margin Danny Willett trailed Speith by when the American teed up on the 10^th hole, holding a five shot lead over the chasing pack.

However the back nine at Augusta has given us so many stories in the past of great comebacks and spirit-crushing collapses. This would be a tale of both.

Spieth bogeyed the par four 10^th and the 11^th. At the same time that was going on, Willett birdied the 13^th and 14^th and in that half hour Spieth’s lead was down to a single shot.

Then came the jolt no one expected, least of all Spieth as his tee shot on the famous par-3 12th rolled back off the slope that fronts the green and into the water. After taking a penalty shot he dumped the next one in the pond as well. He wound up with four dropped shots on that one hole leaving him three shots behind.

Spieth managed to produce a rally of sorts but Willett didn’t falter, birdieing the 16^th to turn the screw and then claiming par at the 17^th and 18^th to post the total of 5 under.

The 2015 Masters Champion birdied 13 and 15 but missed a good birdie chance on the 16^th he then bogeyed at 17 and that was that.

Willett was the Masters champion and like Faldo 20 years ago he did it with a final round of 67. Even more importantly for the Englishman, the win came just 12 days after the birth of his first child.

“It’s just been the most ridiculously awesome 12 days,” he said afterwards. “Words can’t describe how I’m feeling right now but words definitely can’t describe how I was feeling last Tuesday.

“It’s just been incredibly surreal and now I’m just looking forward to getting back home and spending some time with them.”

For Speith meanwhile, there was no easy way of explaining just what happened. “You wonder just not about the tee-shot on 12, but why can’t you just control the second shot and make 5 and worse and you’re still tied for the lead," he said.

“Big picture, this one will hurt. It will take a while.”

Meanwhile, Ireland’s Shane Lowry had one great moment in his final round of 75 as he claimed a hole-in-one on the 16^th.

“It felt like that little bit of luck I deserved,” said the Offaly man. “It’s a pity I wasn’t doing better in the tournament but I’ll stick that picture up in my house and it’ll be a nice memento to have.”