AUGUSTA - Danny Willett’s record at Augusta National since his victory in the 2016 Masters has been quite poor, a trend he’s trying to reverse this week.
In the ensuing five years after winning the Masters, he’s missed the cut four times, including last year. And he needed a second-round 66 to make the cut in 2020 when he finished in a tie for 25th. Those results didn’t have fans clamoring to make him their first pick of their annual Masters pool.
It mattered little to Willett, who opened with a 3-under 69 on Thursday, the best first-round score in eight visits. The Englishman finds himself in contention for the first time since 2016, when the shot 67 on the final day and took advantage of Jordan Spieth’s watery woes.
“If you come back to a golf course like this, because you’re at the same venue every year, and you come back with your game ready, hitting the shots that you know you’re going to need and you’re capable,” Willett said. “I think that’s why you see quite a few more winners around here often spaced a while apart because the course gets longer, but you still remember certain breaks, certain putts that guys who have played it once or twice might not ordinarily see.”
Willett has played nine events on the PGA Tour this season with only one top-25 finish. But his hard work is beginning to pay off. The man in black with the spotless white shoes -- “OCD,” he explained – said he wasn’t surprised by the 69.
“Things have been trending nicely,” he said. “The body’s good and this place lends itselt to the certain golf shots that we’ve been trying to work on and trying to hit. It doesn’t mean you’re going to hit them, obviously, but it’s always nice when the kinds of things you’ve been working for and what you’ve been working at kind of pay off.”
Willett got a bad break on the first hole. His opening tee shot caught mud and he had to try and work it around a tree, where missed the green and took bogey. He made birdies at No. 8 and No. 9 to turn in 1-under 35. He curled in a downhill birdie putt from the middle green to make birdie and energize his round. Birdies at No. 13 and No. 15 – he birdied all four par 5s -- gave him a 34 on the bogey-free back nine.
“We kept it relatively stress free on the last 11, 12 holes, after a great four on No. 6,” he said.
The finish evoked memories of the year Willett won his green jacket.
“It was quite a lot of Sunday pins out here today, I thought,” he said. “It was just a tricky enough day with how the wind was, trying to get to a few of them, bumping downwind and stuff. Augusta always gives you the opportunity to get it close. The course is probably playing as long it’s played in years, especially with how wet it’s been.”
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