PART FOUR: Collapses and controversies
How did you handle Jordan Spieth’s collapse in 2016?
Doug Ferguson: It was surreal to watch, and when the second shot went into the water, you wondered at first if it was a replay. No one saw that coming. I have to do a 9-hole story for the Internet and wrote something to the effect that this Masters might have been decided on the front nine because he had birdied a few holes going into the turn and built a five-shot lead. At the end, it’s the hardest story to write. You have a guy in a green jacket — Danny Willett, but it could have been anyone. But you have to appreciate what your audience — the public — will be talking about, which was Spieth. It’s a fine line to give history its due (the winner) and still tell the story. I think for our breaking lead at the Masters, I went with, “Danny Willett in a green jacket was hard to believe, and no one was more stunned than Jordan Spieth.”
Scott Michaux: I remember standing there in Amen Corner. You heard this audible gasp from everybody. The second that ball came off his club face on the 12th hole and missed the thing entirely. It was just a cold shank. At that point on, it was dead silent. We’re talking thousands of people down there just thousands. It was almost as if everyone was holding their breath. You can hear the water trickling in Raised Creek over the dam which you never do because there is normally always a little murmur among people. With each successive poor shot, you know it just seemed to get quieter and quieter. It was almost like a funeral for the rest of the round. At that point, I had to race up and see who was in the lead.
So yeah, then Jordan handled it beautifully. He came and he spoke to us afterward. He was clearly in shellshock. You could just see it on his face. You know he didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to be talking to us but he handled it like a pro and stood up there and answered the questions and moved on and that’s really what we appreciate most. Most golfers will do that, they’ll stand up there and take it when they’ve done something. Jordan was really trying to do something special.
Only three guys have ever repeated as Masters champions. He looked like he was going to be the fourth man, joining Tiger, Jack and Nick Faldo. That’s pretty incredible company right there. That’s just something that he’s had to live with since. He always had a shot at winning there every year as he’s always been in contention at some point on Sunday but he still hasn’t won one since that first time.
Jason Sobel: We covered what the story was. As far as the aftermath of it, it’s hard on us because it’s hard on Jordan. Jordan doesn’t want to sit and talk about it. I was in interviews with Jordan for the next year after that. He was asked the same questions and it’s hard for him. It’s hard for us because we get grouped into why you keep asking these questions. Jordan gets frustrated and annoyed. I had to do a story about one year after. I went up to him during a practice round and we started walking and I said, “Hey, can I get you on the record and ask a couple of questions?” He said, “yeah, but I don’t want to do any Masters stuff.” I said, “well, that’s why I came out here. I wanted to get you alone.” Then again, for a journalist, that’s the story. That’s what people want to read about.
Dave Shedloski: As a writer, once you get over the shock of someone that good doing that, you just write what happened. Everybody has tough moments in this sport. You really almost just had to take yourself out of the equation of what you saw and just say, “Okay, this poor guy.”
Lorne Rubenstein: As a writer I might have thought about, did he get caught up in a moment that he makes the right decision.
Melanie Hauser: Just the way that we handle anything else. Those things happen all the time, and you report it the way you report it. You talk to him, you’re sensitive. But at the same time, he’s a big boy. There’s a lot of expectations on a guy like Jordan. Those things have been happening for a lot of years, so we’re kind of used to handling it.
Geoff Shackelford: It’s part of covering the Masters. Many of the greats have had less than perfect moments in majors.
Steve DiMeglio: Jordan had a five-shot lead going into the back nine and he was in a position to win back-to-back Masters. There was something really off for him that day because he had a five-shot lead but he bogeyed 10 and he bogeyed 11. You said ‘hey, this is still a tournament,’ but nobody expected him to do what he did on 12. What made it easier to write about it was the quality of the men that were involved. He stood there and answered questions afterward.
Rick Henry: Masters misery is a big part of the Augusta National lore. Spieth’s collapse was the big story on that particular Masters Sunday. You give the champion credit but you can’t ignore the fact he benefited from Speith’s misfortune.
Can you recall covering a collapse similar to Spieth’s that maybe isn’t mentioned as much?
Shackelford: Well, none that I covered, but I know from history nothing compares to the awfulness of 1968 when Robert de Vicenzo lost the Masters on an incorrect scorecard signing.
Shedloski: I’ve never seen one as shocking as Spieth’s, but I was at the Jean Van de Velde meltdown in 1999 at the British Open in Carnoustie. That was pretty shocking in a fast sense.
Henry: The 1996 collapse by Greg Norman is even more heartbreaking than what happened to Spieth. Norman blew a six-shot lead on the final round.
Ferguson: Greg Norman’s was bigger because while it was more of a slow bleed, it was Norman finally having a chance to exorcise demons. One that probably doesn’t get enough attention is Ed Sneed, who had a three-shot lead with three to play in 1979 and bogeyed coming in and then lost in a playoff to Fuzzy Zoeller.
Rubenstein: Greg Norman collapsed, lost a six-shot lead. You could see him over the ball there back in 1996. Where he was instead of having a consistent amount of time over the ball, it was taking various amounts of time. I was walking with a swing coach and David Ledbetter at the time. He was also pointing out “Wow, he just looks really nervous out there.”
Sobel: Greg Norman’s collapse was pretty similar, but it didn’t happen all on one hole as it did for Jordan.
DiMeglio: The first collapse I covered was Rory. He had a four-shot lead going into the final round, played with Angel Cabrera. Rory stood there and answered every question after he had just basically given the Masters away. It was an all-day thing. He had a two-shot lead going into the 10th hole but he hit that shot over by the cottages. We talked to veteran reporters, and they had never seen or heard of anyone that far left at 10. Then he bogeyed 11. Then he four-putted 12. Then he knocked into the woods at 13. Basically, on that world stage, he collapsed. But at the end of the day, he stood there and talked.
How did the negative publicity about Patrick Reed pose a challenge to your 2018 Masters content?
Shackelford: Not at all. Just part of his story and it had to be covered. The audiences are tricky. They want to know but they also wanted to criticize the press for bringing it up in his press conference. There are so few chances to interview the winner after that it had to be asked.
Sobel: These days you have to write a story behind it, the story I thought was a legitimate story. Just like Jordan, I understand Patrick not wanting to answer those questions, but I also understand as a journalist why we have to ask those questions. That’s all anybody is talking about. The question I get all the time is, “is so and so a good guy or a jerk?”
That story is one that will spark a lot of interest when people are watching Patrick and they hear about his parents being right down the road and not being able to go to the tournament. That pops the question of why? What’s going on there? As a journalist, we try to tell those stories but it’s really hard to tell that story if it’s one-sided. It’s similar to the Jordan Spieth situation where the player doesn’t want to talk about it, but it’s what everyone else is talking about.
Shedloski: Fortunately, it didn’t affect anything I had to do because I wasn’t assigned that story, but there was plenty of negativity surrounding his win.
Ferguson: You have to understand where the negativity comes from — social media, which demands care. There were reports from anonymous sources about a troubled college career, including cheating, and there were stories about his family. We mentioned it in our story but did not reach out to his parents. I’m glad we avoided it because it was never going to be fair. Family matters are messy and, in this case, when only one side is doing the talking (Reed’s parents), you’re never going to get an accurate account. It was worth a mention in the context of the story, but it should not have been the story.
Michaux: It’s difficult to cover Patrick Reed when he’s not the most forthcoming golfer out there. But in terms of covering the tournament and him winning it, it was not really a challenge at all. It’s just another golfer winning the Masters and he stepped it up when he had to in the face of a lot more popular people making a run that day. I mean, he’s playing with Rory McIlroy, who is one of the most popular guys in golf. It made it a little awkward on 18 when Patrick tapped in for par and he kind of got the sort of polite golfer’s applause.
I don’t recall seeing that even when the other guys who aren’t the name players, like Danny Willett or Trevor Immelman or guys like that, when they won still got the same you know the enthusiastic response from the crowd on 18. It was very muted when Patrick won it but it got also a little more awkward in the interview room afterward when he was asked about his family in Augusta.
DiMeglio: It broke out. We knew about it. It’s always been delicate because Patrick denies what happened at Georgia and what happened at Augusta State. His personal relationship with his parents, in my opinion, is his business. I am not going to give one side to the story. It was interesting when he walked to the first tee and he was paired with Rory. Rory got much louder applause.
Rubenstein: It’s always good that there’s often a difference between public and private. People know what they show publicly and what they show privately. I don’t know what’s going on in a person’s private place or maybe they come up with a bad head cold or something. There’s probably another side to Patrick Reed that we don’t know.
Hauser: You cover it as you always would. How Patrick handles things going into this tournament will be part of the story if there’s negativity. It’ll be interesting to see how Patrick handles this coming into here because Augusta loves to love their defending champions and their green jackets. I think the bottom line is, last year, Patrick Reed won a green jacket. He had to overcome the golf course, the fans, a lot of other things, but he won it.
PART ONE: First tournaments and the Masters’ popularity.
PART TWO: What is it like to cover the Masters in person?
PART THREE: Favorite players to cover and memorable great moments.
PART FOUR: Collapses and controversies.
PART FIVE: Tiger Woods’ impact on the Masters