AUGUSTA, Ga. _ At 2:31 p.m. Eastern, Jordan Spieth rolled in a 16-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole, clinched his right fist and punched the cool, blustery Georgia air.
After a day of wobbles, but no significant falls, he was 1-under and, suddenly, tied for the first-round Masters lead. Spieth exited the green and happened to look at the scoreboard behind the 14th tee box at the very moment Dustin Johnson's name was removed.
That's when Dallas' Spieth learned that Johnson, the world's No. 1-ranked player, had been unable to start his round after falling on stairs Wednesday night. Now Spieth was an early co-leader and the betting-line favorite.
Then, poof, Spieth's afternoon unraveled _ on the same back-nine and in a similar manner in which it fell apart during the final round of last year's Masters, when he lost a five-shot lead.
Spieth bogeyed the par 4 14th hole and made quadruple-bogey on the par 5 15th after making what he called a poor decision to try to stick his third shot close to the hole after laying up on his second. Instead, his third shot landed 15 feet from the hole and spun back off the green, into the water.
"You think of it being a birdie hole, obviously being a par-5," Spieth said. "And unfortunately, I still thought of it as a birdie hole today and it really isn't, when you lay up.
"I was stuck in the 15-is-a-birdie-hole mentality and it kind of bit me a little bit."
His scores of 5-9 on Nos. 14 and 15 were not nearly as catastrophic as last year's final round, when he made bogey 5s on holes 10 and 11 and quadruple-bogey 7 on the 12th hole, where he twice hit into Rae's Creek. Spieth's 3-over-par 75 on Thursday, however, means the 23-year-old has ground to make up.
"I'm going to probably need to play something under-par tomorrow, which maybe puts a little bit of pressure that I wouldn't have put on tomorrow," Spieth said.
With Thursday's howling 30 mph winds, with 40 mph gusts and similar wind predicted for Friday's second round, Spieth said he figured even-par would be a good score through two rounds.
"Obviously now at 3-over, I feel like I need to snag something tomorrow," he said. "But do it through patience and taking advantage of the par 3s."
This was Spieth's fourth straight over-par round at Augusta National, a course where he led wire-to-wire en route to a record-tying 18-under score in 2015, and where last year he shot an opening-round 66 and took a two-shot lead.
Since then he has shot 74-73-73-75. Thursday was his worst score in 13 rounds at the Masters, where in three appearances he's finished second, first and second.
Despite the downward trend, Spieth should be able to solace in the fact that he was far from the only player who struggled in Thursday's conditions _ and in the fact he rallied by shooting 1-under on the final three. He hit 7-iron to 3-feet on the par 3 16th, saved par from the trees on No. 17 and made a 15-foot par putt on the 18th.
As Spieth walked from the 18th green toward the clubhouse, his father, Shawn, put his hand on his son's shoulder, then patted him on the back and spoke into his ear. It was impossible to tell whether he was commending Jordan for his gritty finish or reassuring him about what happened on 14 and 15.
Though it wasn't as shocking as fourth-round collapse last year, Spieth's Thursday tumble came as a surprise because he had momentum after the birdie on 13.
And, minutes earlier, with a huge gallery and large media contingent closely watching, Spieth cleared a potential mental hurdle by making par on No. 12. Though he has birdied the hole three times in practice rounds since last year's Masters, it was the first time he'd played the hole for keeps since those two fateful Sunday swings.
"Certainly, I always have nerves walking to that tee," Spieth said. "It was tough _ tough today because you don't know exactly what the wind is going to do to the ball."
Spieth said he was surprised when his Thursday tee shot on No. 12 drew loud cheers, despite landing 35 feet right of the hole.
"But I was relieved to see it down on the green," he said. "And I guess everybody else felt maybe more than I did. But it was nice to make a 3 there and capture 4 and the next. And I really thought we had it going there."
