Jordan Spieth’s hole-by-hole account of how he won Masters

The Masters has a lot of traditions. One of the smaller ones is that during the champion's press conference the moderator will always ask the winner to "go through the card".

Which is an invitation for them to describe their club choices during the final round. Often as not, the players will roll their eyes. At this point, they have better things to be doing. In 2013 Adam Scott was so excited about his win that he couldn't even remember which clubs he had used to play which shots. The same with Bubba Watson in 2014.

Both rattled off a perfunctory list and left to get to the champion's dinner. Jordan Spieth, though, was so intensely enthused by his win that he delivered, off the top of his head, a 15-minute, 2,600-word monologue describing exactly how he won his "favourite tournament in the world". It was, in its way, a brilliant hole-by-hole account of how he played the final round, and what went through his mind while he was doing it.

It was also the last of the many records Spieth set this week: surely the longest answer ever given to a simple question in the history of the Masters.

Here it is, in full:

Hole 1, par 4 (445 yards)

“I hit a three wood off No1 tee-box and had a good kind of smooth nine iron into the green. Tried to bleed a little fade. Got it to land where I wanted and putt where I wanted to, which was a very straight putt coming right back up the hill. Justin obviously made his putt to start and it was really nice to drop one on top to start the round.”

Made: birdie

Hole 2, par 5 (575 yards)

“I hit three wood to stay short of the bunker. I picked a shot each day to stay just short of that bunker. I think I was driver once and three wood the other three days. I actually had a good number into the green and so I took a three wood out again. No part of me was going to lay up there. I hit a really good shot that just needed to be maybe two or three yards shorter when it landed and it may have fed close to the hole. Instead it was above the hole. Should have pitched it; decided to putt it. Didn’t get it all the way down there and then misread the second putt. Three putt there for par.”

Made: par

Hole 3, par 4 (350 yards)

“I laid back with a five iron off the tee. Had a pitching wedge into the green, which was a little too much club into that hole. Ideally I would have liked to have been up further. But I hit the pitching wedge on a number, got it to where it was a putt that if it would at least be a par, if not a birdie; it’s a sucker pin, and just hit one of the better putts I’ve ever hit. I hit that putt five times in the practice round knowing that that’s where I wanted to be. And I fed it out there and it broke five feet from a 12, 15-footer. It fed out there and went in with perfect speed in the middle. I gave a little fist-pump after that, excited to be two under through three and be back even with Justin on the day.”

Made: birdie

Hole 4, par 3 (240 yards)

“I hit four iron in, stayed just above the ridge. I was 225 yards adjusted, I think. Hit a putt a little past it and made that four-footer, kept it in the right side of the hole.”

Made: par

Hole 5, par 4 (455 yards)

“I hit three wood off the tee left, which was not ideal. Tried to hook a seven iron around the trees. Didn’t quite get enough hook on it, so I left it in a spot that you don’t want to be. Didn’t get the chip on the green and that’s really all I had to do. Left it just short and it was actually a good bogey from there, a good two putt. Made a nice six-footer for my bogey, which could have saved the round right there.”

Made: bogey

Hole 6, par 3 (180 yards)

“I hit a six iron. Tried to fade it in. I hit it really straight and it ended up pin-high which was three or four feet higher from the front of the green, so it was a little easier to putt. Hit a really good putt in there and tapped it in. That’s the kind of stuff I was looking for all day.”

Made: par

Hole 7, par 4 (450 yards)

“I hit driver right again and hit a six iron through a little gap in the trees, which may not have been the smartest move, but I didn’t really like any other options at that point. Got a bit unlucky because if it wasn’t into either of the sand traps, it would have been a pretty easy up-and-down. Instead it’s in between and I don’t have a stance. I’d be interested to see a picture of that. Half my feet were dangling over the bunker. I was just standing on my toes with the club almost on my toes and hit actually a really good pitch to get it to a makeable length. It’s just a tough putt. It’s another one you have to cast out to the side, and it’s a feel-based putt. I just didn’t quite hit it hard enough to hold its line. So that was two bogeys in three holes to get back to even. I was disappointed at that time.”

Made: bogey

Hole 8, par 5 (570 yards)

“Eight was a big tee shot. If I hit it in the bunker there, I hit it in the left rough; then it makes the hole a lot harder. It was a big tee shot to hit in the fairway. I hit a hybrid out there just short of the green. If I had killed a hybrid it may have chased on. Otherwise it was going to be just short and I had a very basic up-and-down. Just a straight pitch up, funnelled probably the left side of the hole and made about a three-footer to get back under par.”

Made: birdie

Hole 9, par 4 (460 yards)

“Good drive on nine. Hit eight iron into the green. Stayed up by a rotation. Last year, it seemed like it was one rotation from staying up. And at that moment when I went up and marked that ball, I said: ‘This could be a difference-maker.’ Like it was just last year versus this year. I felt more comfortable. That ball stays up. Last year it came down. It was just symbolic in a way. Made par there. Rosey had a three-putt and that gave me a five-shot lead going to the back nine. I was aware of that at the time. I was trying to play Rosey match play from there.”

Made: par

Hole 10, par 4 (495 yards)

“I hit three wood off 10. Hit a good eight iron in below the hole. Got it left of the pin. Hit a putt that broke left-to-right, and it went in with perfect speed to really steal one there. You don’t necessarily expect to birdie 10. I think I birdied it three times this week. I played it three under and that’s a hard hole. That was the key hole I think for me this week.”

Made: birdie

Hole 11, par 4 (505 yards)

“Hit a bad drive. Had to clear the crowd out. It was nice because it was almost gravel over there and it was mowed down. So I knew if I could just get something running with a four iron, it would chase up towards being even with the front of the green and I would have about a 30 to 40-yard pitch straight up the green. I got a nice little hook on that second shot and it got down to the base, too. It couldn’t have hit a better shot, second shot on 11. I didn’t have many other options and a lot could have gone wrong there if it just catches a pine needle and goes up in the air and hits a tree. It could have been a big number. Hit a great, great pitch and was in a good position, but left it to where it was just a two footer, right centre. Ideal, and really just stole a stroke back. Felt like I stole one on 10 and 11. Really with where I was, statistically should have been one over. Instead I was one under on those two holes.”

Made: par

Hole 12, par 3 (155 yards)

“I hit it over the bunker instead of like last year going at the pin and hitting it in the water. Hit it in a good spot, just too aggressive. Kind of a dumb three putt.”

Made: bogey

Hole 13, par 5 (510 yards)

“Hit three wood off 13. Got a nice little hook on the ball and a really good bounce to get up there to a comfortable five iron in. I think 13 were the two biggest shots I’ve ever hit in my life. Coming off a three putt and Justin being in a pretty good spot off that tee, I needed to do something. I needed to birdie that hole, because otherwise I think I would have dropped – Phil ended up making eagle – but it would have been around three strokes or something with five or six to play and anything can happen here. So I missed the five iron a little. I was trying to go a little left and just kind of hit it a little straight, kind of hit it a little off the toe. I was yelling, you know, ‘Get up, get up.’ When it landed, from my angle, I thought it hit short in the water and all of a sudden the roar came up and the pitch-mark was right on that little peninsula. And there was another moment where I thought, this could be destiny, just like No 9. This was symbolic. Last year I missed a short birdie putt and now I had a good look at eagle. It’s nice to get a birdie.”

Made: birdie

Hole 14, par 4 (440 yards)

“I hit a drive and I hit a seven iron in I thought was going to be good when it landed, but it pitched over down the slope, still in a good spot to two putt from. Made about a three-footer.”

Made: par

Hole 15, par 5 (530 yards)

“I hit driver and I was left with the same scenario I had two other times that week, round one and round three, and that was a number where if I hit a good, solid four iron, it’s perfect. And if I go to hybrid, it’s probably too much club but it’s not in the water. But if I miss a four iron, it could very easily go in the water. First day I chose hybrid when I probably should have hit four iron. I ended up making bogey from over the green. Yesterday I hit a four iron and just hit it really solid, led to a tap-in, a two-putt birdie. But today I wasn’t going to hit four iron. I was going to make sure I was over the green at that point and I put a really good swing on a hybrid, picked a straight line. When I hit it, I thought maybe it would catch some breeze or fall a little short, and it actually carried past the pin and went over the green. Hit an average chip. Ideally would have liked to have gotten it past the hole to where I was below the hole. But I didn’t carry it far enough. It hit short of the green and came down a little bit and then made a really good six-footer that had to start outside the hole. Pushed it a little and it still stayed on the right side.”

Made: birdie

Hole 16, par 3 (170 yards)

“I was trying to hit a smooth seven iron. Could have been an eight iron, but at the time the wind was kind of flipping. If I knew that it was going to be down, I would have just ripped an eight; instead we hit to seven. Justin hit a seven, I think he hit a seven iron, and when he hit it, he thought it was long on his line up on top of the slope, and instead it just actually pitched short of the pin. That changed actually what I thought about the shot. I was just going to hit a nice smooth, high fade off the pin and drop it short right of the hole there and there wasn’t going to be any trouble with it. Instead I thought I had to hit it harder because I thought maybe the wind was doing something different or whatever. Just came over the top.

“Then I got over that shot and I’m sitting there going, ‘this is I think Tiger in 2005. This is the shot. Let’s chip this thing in.’ I think that’s arguably the greatest shot that’s ever been hit in major championship golf given the time and what it meant for him. And I was sitting there looking at a little easier chip, but the same kind of pitch it up; missed the chip and had a five-, six-footer that I had to play about six inches outside the hole on, or maybe even a foot. At that point, I was with my putter. Didn’t care what it looked like. Didn’t care my posture. Didn’t care the mechanics. It was all feel-based. I was seeing the line. I was seeing the arc of the putt.

“Same thing on 15, and just going with it. Fortunately they were good strokes and they started on my line and that one went in the middle, and that’s when – that was maybe the biggest putt I’ve ever hit. Given that left-to-righters downhill have been my nemesis, those are putts that I miss right 90% of the time I miss them, and oftentimes look up and get out of them a little early. I stayed with my head down on that putt and just said, ‘you know, this is a huge moment. Let’s knock this thing in.’ After Justin missed his, and it was almost like a tease for him; could have been a two-shot swing, instead, all-square.”

Made: par

Hole 17, par 4 (440 yards)

“I drove it. I hit seven iron again. Wanted to just make sure that I landed on the green. Flushed that one up in the air and it got it really easy. It got it below the hole with a 15-, 18-footer, couldn’t have asked for more. Putted it up there to an inch, tapped in, went to 18 with a four-shot lead.”

Made: par

Hole 18, par 4 (465 yards)

“My driver today was not what I wanted it to be. I was just slap-shotting it at the end. Didn’t feel comfortable ripping straight balls, which is ideally what I like to do. Towards the end of that round, I was just kind of taking it back and just coming over the top and hitting a little heel-cutter. But that’s all I needed towards end of the day today and that’s what I hit on 17, and really that’s what I hit on 14, 15, 17 and 18. Got it over in the pine straw and instead of hitting back to a wedge, I knew I could get a five iron at least into the bunker. If it gets in the bunker then I can just blast it out on to the green. If you have a wedge in, you never know if you’re in a divot and you can miss the green. Just different – I knew I could get it up close to the green and that was going to be the best option. It curved over to a perfect spot and at that point I knew I had won the tournament.

“After I got that five iron out, I kept my head down before that. I wasn’t enjoying - I was enjoying the ride and the intensity of the round because that’s what we play for. But it didn’t creep into my mind that I had won the tournament until I hit that second shot on 18 and walked up there. And I said to Michael before we walked up to that chip, I said, ‘Mike, I think we just did it.’ He says, ‘No, you haven’t yet. Don’t say that. Just go up there and hit the chip.’ That was perfect. That’s what he should say there. Got up there and hit a chip and obviously would have liked to just make the putt to finish in style, but I think I had four of them at that point.

“So that was really, really cool to be able to walk up to the green with a few shots to spare and not worrying about anything and being able to enjoy that walk, soak it in. I’ll never forget watching the front of the hole as the last tap-in went in the front edge. There was no need for crazy celebrations. At that point I was just really, really pleased with the whole week, being out on top, being able to stay on top and to conquer my favourite tournament in the world.”

Made: bogey

Score for round: 70

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