Tuesday 12 April 2016

Our Roundup of the 2016 Masters Championship

Rising star Danny Willett dons the green jacket


A rising star no more, Danny Willett has now officially risen to the top of the golfing food chain after winning the 2016 Masters with a superb five-under-par 67 and a three-shot victory over defending champion, Jordan Speith.

The Masters Tournament is the first major golf championship of the year and is held at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, USA. The tournament has a number of traditions, including, most renowned, the presentation of the green jacket. Since 1949, the Masters champion has been awarded the green jacket which they are permitted to keep for a year, after which it must be returned to the Augusta clubhouse. It was on 10th of April 2016 that defending champion from Texas, Jordan Speith, helped Danny Willett, a vicar’s son from Sheffield, into his first green jacket.

Danny was a crowd favourite from the beginning and in fact, almost missed the masters altogether due to the imminent birth of his son, Zachariah, who by a simple twist of fate, was born 12 days early. He was made only more popular by his brother, PJ Willett’s humorous running commentary on Twitter during the final hours of the tournament.

Having climbed from outside the top 100 to a ranking of 9th in the world (thanks to his Masters win) in less than two years is somewhat remarkable and is a far cry from the youth who used to practice his golf in a sheep pasture near his home in England. While Danny has several victories to his name – the 2007 English Amateur Championship, the 2012 BMW International Open in Germany and two wins on the European Tour in 2015 – few would have predicted that his first major win would come from his second only appearance on the challenging Augusta course.

Danny’s win is a win for European golf. The previous European champion, Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal took the green jacket 17 years ago in 1999 and the last British victor was 20 years ago in 1996 when Nick Faldo won his third Masters five strokes ahead of runner-up Greg Norman.

Be a part of golfing history and travel with us to Augusta in 2017 for the Masters Tournament to watch Englishman Danny Willett defend his title.



No comments:

Post a Comment