It was over ... and then it wasn't: How Jordan Spieth lost the 2016 Masters

Jordan Spieth lost the 2016 Masters in three holes as Danny Willett wins his first major championship. Here's how it all went down.

The scene was surreal but not in the way you would expect. It wasn't deathly quiet like it should have been. The heartbreaking chatter usually associated with such moments was not present. You know the chatter that rises by the octave as something awful is unfolding then drops off immediately? Yeah, it wasn't there. Everyone carried on with normal conversation as if they refused to believe what they were watching, as if there was no way Boy Wonder could actually be falling apart in front of them.

Spieth hit his next drop into the sand and got up and down for a quadruple-bogey. His five-stroke lead three holes earlier had just turned into a three-stroke deficit. The sound that stunned me most was the groan that echoed throughout the back side of the course when scoreboard operators put that red "1" next to Spieth's name after the quad.

It was the loudest noise I've ever heard at Augusta that wasn't a live golf shot. If Spieth heard it, too, it will haunt him. I overheard one patron say that it was the moment of the tournament.

"That moment when the board changed will go down in everybody's memories," said the patron. "It was [expletive] unbelievable." 

Willett couldn't believe it either. 

"I thought someone was having some fun and would put the 7 back up there," said Willett of his reaction to seeing the leaderboard change.

You can close your eyes and tell when Spieth stops playing well. When he stops jawing to Greller and to his ball and to his bag and to anyone who will even pretend like they're listening, you know things have gone poorly. Spieth didn't talk the entire 12th hole. He sprinted to every tee box the whole way home, barely waiting for playing partner Smylie Kaufman to pick his ball out of the cup.

Jordan Spieth falls apart. (USATSI)

At four back with six to go, Spieth still had a chance with plenty of holes in front of him including two par 5s where he should make birdie. He made birdie at both. So he came to No. 16, a hole with three aces already on the day, needing another birdie to get within one with two to play.

Spieth gunned one right at the flag. The crowd buzzed when it was in the air. Augusta National hadn't been selling beer for 90 minutes, but every patron watching was drunk on hope when that ball was in the air. It hit a few feet in front of the pin and narrowly rolled past. He badly needed two and almost got one.

"It was very, very cool what the patrons here did for me," said Spieth. "They almost brought me back into it. I can't imagine that was fun for anyone to experience, other than maybe Danny's team."

Spieth lined up the putt to try and get to 4 under, one back of Willett. It was outrageously still. I was afraid to click my pen. You could hear a grain of gravel move. Spieth missed the putt and didn't get his two. The Masters was pretty much over. 

"At one point I told Mike, 'Buddy, it seems like we're collapsing,'" said Spieth. "I wanted to be brutally honest with the way I felt towards him so that he could respond with what was necessary to get us to rebound. And we did. I rebounded. I made two birdies coming in and almost made a couple more."

It wasn't enough.

"Boy, you wonder about not only just the tee shot on 12, but why can't you just control the second shot, you know, and make bogey at worst, and you're still tied for the lead," Spieth asked rhetorically. "Big picture, this one will hurt. It will take a while."

For good measure, Spieth bogeyed No. 17. Willett was crowned. The 18th fairway remained crowded as patrons witnessed the end of the carnage. A second nine of 41. The historic quad at No. 12. Spieth led by five at the turn and lost by three. The whole thing was as surreal as the scene of a setting sun at Augusta National. Just not as enjoyable.

I passed an elderly Scotsman who stopped me. He was heading the other way. Maybe he couldn't handle the destruction. "Did he par or bogey?" he asked. "Bogey," I said, surely to his dismay.

"Good god," said the patron. "So we know who won."

"Yep," I told him. "It's over."