When Danny Won the Masters

Augusta National, golf's fantasyland.

There was a time when those from these isles

made the green, green grass of Georgia a home from home.

COMMENTATOR: Yes, what a man.

Passing on the prized jacket to one another each springtime.

When Nick Faldo overtook a broken Greg Norman

on a memorable Sunday in 1996,

the next British winner was surely just around the corner.

AUDIENCE CHEERS AND APPLAUDS

COMMENTATOR: That is the way champions do it.

But then, there was Woods in '97.

O'Meara in '98.

Olazabal. Singh.

Woods, again and again.

Weir. Oh, that feels good.

Mickelson. Woods.

Mickelson. Johnson.

Immelman.

Cabrera. Mickelson.

Schwartzel. Watson.

Scott. Watson.

And in 2015, Jordan Spieth.

20 years had passed, and we wondered,

"Where would our next Masters champion come from?"

We used to play any sport, really, like boys do.

Anything we could get us hands on, football, rugby, cricket, whatever,

and golf was this sport where I could beat

me two older brothers and me dad.

We obviously lived a mile, a mile and a half, from Birley Wood.

My dad was a vicar at Hackenthorpe down the road.

You'd run home from school, get your clubs on your back

and get on the tram with all the schoolkids

and you're just like... "This looks daft, doesn't it?

"I'm on a tram here with my golf clubs and my practice bag."

So, yeah, if the tram was not there, or if the trams were busy,

I'd end up just walking up the road,

head down, walk up, go and see Pete and see how he was

and have a cup of tea, and then go out and practice.

Birley Wood is an inner-city golf club

in the middle of an estate which

most people wouldn't want to walk in those days.

But a fantastic area for kids to

come and develop their own skills.

Pete Ball was definitely one of those people

within the early years of my career, that was...

He was the one who enabled me to...

He let me practice and gave me his time,

which, you know, out of all of it, is the most important thing.

He didn't stand out at that moment of time.

His idea of hitting the golf ball wasn't great.

He didn't quite understand where the club was and where his body was,

and where the ball was in relation to the club.

But, literally, within a few weeks, there was a noticeable difference.

He could do things with a club and a ball which might take

a lot of kids two, three years to do, to be honest.

As kids, we were trying to beat each other.

We were all very similar standards

and then we sort of stayed here and he just went like that.

Work rate, phenomenal.

Most kids would go home about 4.15, 5 o'clock in the winter,

when it's pitch black and pretty cold, sometimes raining.

Almost ice - not rain, really!

Dan stayed there until 6.30,

practising from the lights of the pub.

Summer holidays was, in the early days, from dawn till dusk.

Mum and Dad would drop me off,

give you a fiver for your lunch, pick you up again when it was dark.

And that was kind of how it went.

Within a short while of meeting him, I knew he was special.

He used to say to me,

"Do you know the answer to this?"

when we are doing skills challenges,

and you say, "Yeah, I know the answer."

He said, "Well, get on and tell me quick,

"cos I don't want to waste time doing some of this stuff," he said.

He was almost impatient to learn,

which was a good thing for him.

He had a way of working that was

better than whatever we were doing.

We might put the hours in,

but the quality, in my opinion,

what he used to do, was just far superior.

I remember when I first picked up a club,

obviously Tiger was in his peak, in his prime.

Seemed like every other week, he was winning golf tournaments.

It was always, with your pals,

test yourself and to have little competitions.

And you're always on the putting green,

got a ten-footer here to win The Open,

to win the Masters, to win the US Open, to win the US PGA.

It was always to win a major, because they're the events

that you watch on TV.

I always knew he'd win tournaments.

That was never, sort of...the question.

But being a Major winner,

yeah, I would say I thought he'd be a major winner.

I knew he'd be a major winner.

And so, the son of a vicar from Sheffield

moved to the very top of the amateur game,

with Walker Cup honours.

Before taking his promise and personality

to the professional ranks.

I think that should be quite good.

'What you see on a golf course with Dan is...that's him.

'Unbelievably competitive.

'If you're playing with him for the first time,

'you'd soon grasp, after a few holes,'

of just why he is so good.

You'd understand how much attention to detail,

how competitive he is, and he won't let you win.

Then, Willett, the winner.

First in 2012,

and a breakthrough 2015 season, with two victories.

A first trip to Augusta

and a sixth-place finish at The Open Championship.

COMMENTATOR: Lovely, lovely, lovely. That is a beauty.

It was a great learning experience to do it at St Andrews.

Being up there in contention was unbelievable.

The way Dan is, once he gets that bit of confidence,

that is it, he is off.

Another win at the start of 2016

came after news of a first child for Danny and his wife Nicole,

due to arrive in the springtime.

I'd set aside five or six weeks there where I said,

"Right, I'm not going to play golf here."

Obviously, he was due Masters Sunday,

so if he would've come Masters Sunday,

I'd have been at home, watching it on TV.

So I had made the decision not to go, if he had not come along.

So, I was always on standby.

Then, he was up in the air, but, at the end of the day,

it is your firstborn.

You know, some things are bigger than golf.

Luckily, he came on the 29th of March, on the Tuesday,

which gave me time to be in hospital with Nic

and make sure she was all right, to bring her out of hospital

and take her home and look after her for a few days,

and then feel somewhat all right about leaving her.

She then said, you know, "Of course you are all right to go play.

"Don't worry about me - I'll be fine."

That was it, really,

that was then the seven most surreal days of golf that followed that.

It's such a special event.

The first time we went there,

every time I walked onto Amen Corner,

I said to Dan, "Walking down 11, I have goosebumps every day."

Because I've watched people do it, and there is only...

The only inside the ropes are player and caddie,

and I was like, "Dan, it does not matter what we do in life.

"You can't buy this."

The whole area of Augusta, the golf course,

the atmosphere when you walk through the gates or down the drive,

it is a bit surreal, because I have been there for five times now

and lucky enough to have walked around every single hole.

You never, ever see a weed at all in the place.

It is pretty, pretty unique. It is such a special place.

The greens are big,

and they are lightning fast.

Ordinary golfers never see anything like it.

There are so many difficult golf holes around that golf course

where, if you're playing good golf, yeah, you can shoot a good score.

If you are slightly off,

it can make you look a little bit silly at times.

So, a week to the day after the early arrival of Zachariah Willett,

Danny made it to the 80th Masters on Tuesday of tournament week,

the last of 89 competitors to register.

He was a proud dad and just the way he was walking round,

he was a lot more relaxed, he was...

he was dead chuffed with himself and what had happened for him.

A lot of people say, "Your mind must've been elsewhere,

"you're not thinking about golf, the expectations must've been low."

They are, to a certain extent,

because you have got other things that you are thinking about.

Obviously, when you get down to the nitty-gritty,

you are thinking about playing good golf.

When the golf began, American sensation Jordan Spieth

seemed to be making light work of his title defence.

He led the way after each of the first three days,

with Willett three shots behind going into Sunday.

HAZEL IRVINE: Hello, welcome back to Augusta National,

on what is one of the great days in any sport.

Masters Sunday,

a day when tailor-made excellence is rewarded with a green jacket,

in this, the 80th playing of the tournament.

We went into Sunday three shots back,

which around any golf course isn't very much,

let alone around Augusta, on a Sunday, with the Masters.

We were both like little kids.

We're kind of in contention going into Sunday

playing with Lee Westwood and Billy, who are good friends,

but Westy is still someone we've watched, growing up, on TV,

and you've watched him on a Sunday at Masters

I don't know how many times.

So, it was just... It was cool!

COMMENTATOR: Danny Willett. Lovely tee shot.

Just hung on to the edge of that table top.

And takes advantage. Two for Danny Willett.

So, moves to one under par. Three behind Jordan Spieth.

At six, we birdied.

Eight, we birdied.

And then you're kind of there or thereabouts.

But then, you're watching Spieth.

In she comes. There it is. There is another one.

By jolly, he has holed some crucial puts.

I've gone, "Well, there is not much we can do about that."

Spieth.

He has gone straight at it, I fancy.

And he...

Yes, is that going to move down?

Amazing, amazing. He is relentless.

Willett, at the ninth for his par.

He'd made an unbelievable par save down nine,

and holed what can only probably be described as

the smelliest little nine-footer.

This will be a great putt to hole.

And he does!

Wow.

You know, when you talk about momentum, it is one thing

that he did unbelievable all week,

and it just kept us going.

I remember watching, going back years and years, you see people,

it's all about the back nine on Sunday at Augusta

because of the holes that they are.

Stepped on the 10th tee, he has hit his tee shot,

and then, as we're walking off it, he says,

"Well, we are in contention on a Sunday at the Masters."

And like I say, we were both just laughing,

realising what situation we were in.

Makeable chance here for Spieth.

Up the hill. And...

Got it!

He has got a stranglehold on this golf tournament at the moment.

That is a five-shot lead heading to the back nine at Augusta.

Four birdies in a row for Jordan Spieth.

Danny Willett is going to have to make decisions now.

Every single step throughout that entire day,

he kept himself two or three shots in front,

which around that golf course is just enough

to give you a little bit of breathing room.

This is for his birdie at the 13th.

Sweetly done.

Then, when we birdied 13,

that was obviously a big, big chance to take.

Spieth seems to be in total control, although this putt for par.

Well...

And then 14...hit, obviously, a great shot in there.

Willett.

COMMENTATOR: He has got that look in his eye, Ken.

It was a four-footer that we couldn't quite tell

which way it was going to go.

It was one of those straight downhills.

You're trying to look for it breaking out of one side,

but it wasn't obvious.

A big moment for Danny Willett.

At the moment, to get within two of Spieth.

Oh, he is doing all he can.

Danny Willett pushing Spieth hardest of all.

Then, all the sudden, you've kind of pulled a gap on third,

you get a bit closer to the lead,

and you think, "We've got to keep pushing."

So, once more to the well he goes with this magical stick.

COMMENTATOR: The tendency is to think that this putt

will move to the right, but it is virtually dead straight up the hill.

Oh, it actually went a little left, even! Goodness!

You are so right, Paul.

That is the way he saw it.

Didn't mis-strike it. Just slightly misread it.

And a Jordan Spieth has dropped shots on the 10th and 11th.

He leads by one from Danny Willett.

He makes this walk up to the 12th tee,

and all sorts of thoughts in his head now.

It's a very tricky session of golf.

Of course, everyone knows how difficult them holes are,

with the wind swirling between the trees.

Just let it release.

COMMENTATOR: That's right...

And that's water!

And just like that, five shots gone.

Goodness!

For someone of his young age,

who appeared to be so cool and calm,

it came as a big surprise.

Easily the most difficult shot in golf,

after you've dumped it in the water with the lead,

long is no good, short is no good.

Oh, no.

Oh, my word, he's chunked it. He has chunked it.

And Jordan Spieth is sinking without trace in the Masters.

This is extraordinary.

Danny Willett now.

Doesn't realise it, but he is in the catbird seat.

Danny Willett will shortly lead the Masters.

Another attempt now for Jordan Spieth.

Shot number five.

Gone long.

Now, what is happening? What is going on?

Where is Jordan Spieth?

For the first time all week, Jordan Spieth has given up the lead.

It happens. That's our sport, you know?

Jordan didn't mean to do it.

He just made a bad swing at the wrong time

and then, mentally, made a mistake on top of that again.

Augusta, of all golf courses. You can get away with one mistake

and make a bogey or a double or something, you're still OK.

But at Augusta, you pay a severe penalty.

The next time we saw a leaderboard, Westie had just chipped in

from the back edge of 15, to get within one of us.

COMMENTARY: Lee Westwood, this for eagle across the green.

What if this went in?

Oh, and it has gone in! Oh, my goodness!

And just like that, Westwood one back and he's one back

of his playing partner, Danny Willett, who now leads the Masters.

That was, kind of, goose bumps, because the crowd

went ballistic for a minute and the sound was just ridiculous.

COMMENTARY: I think it's a very good thing

that Danny Willett does not know what's happening on the 12th yet.

COMMENTARY: How will Danny Willett react when he sees

that he is leading the golf tournament?

I'll never forget it, walking towards the 16th tee.

And, literally, Jon put the flag in, walking back,

we were both like, "Good effort, that," whatever,

and then we heard all the oohs and aahs.

CHEERING We turned round.

Obviously, it's a massive scoreboard.

This one guy went like this and I was like, "What's that about?"

Then everyone's like, "Whoa," and you're hearing mumblings

and you turn round and they've changed the scoreboard.

We kind of looked up and kind of looked back at each other,

just waiting almost for them to change the score again

because they've got it wrong.

And then you obviously realise what position you're in.

And we were just like, "Interesting!"

Once you get in a tense situation in sport, this gets busy.

Pictures come in, thoughts come in.

I ran to the bathroom and I'm in the bathroom just thinking,

"This is what you practised for."

My hands are shaking, you're nervous,

but this is what you practised for. How do you not embrace it?

Someone shouted in the crowd, "You're leading the Masters,"

and you go, "That sounds good to me."

He took himself away from the tee box and I thought that

was very clever of him,

just to distance himself from the atmosphere,

to try and just look after himself in the heat of the moment.

I just kept telling myself, "You've got five good swings.

"That's all you need. See if you can hole a couple of putts

"and see what happens."

COMMENTARY: This is all new for him.

I'm sure he's never experienced what he's feeling right now.

You know, you've hit it a million times in practice

and you just try and go back to keeping it as simple as possible.

Well, what do you do here? Well, I'm trying to hit this eight iron.

I can't remember the exact numbers.

Jonny'll know, he'll probably still have his book at home.

We had 181 flag, down and out the right and we just create a picture.

Yeah, your hands are shaking, your mind's racing a little bit

and your heart's pumping, but again it literally does come back to,

"I've hit this shot on the range a million times.

"Just do what you do."

COMMENTARY: Take a deep breath.

COMMENTARY: Swinging a big eight iron

from right to left. It's 181 yards.

That's a massive shot and a fantastic result.

All of a sudden, Danny Willett in control

of his own fate, maybe, here.

I stepped up there and hit what a lot of people would see

as one of the best shots on that Sunday.

The pressure that would have been on him. He knew that a good tee shot

there would set him up nicely for the last couple of holes

and the way he kept his nerve,

you just have to admire him because these guys were under huge pressure.

Everyone's telling you walking down the hole,

"Come on, Danny, this is yours," or, "Don't mess it up," you know.

Some people are saying all sorts of different things.

If you ask him, he probably didn't even hear any of it.

He was in one of those frames of mind

that he was ridiculously focused.

For some reason, on that Sunday,

I was the best I've been mentally ever,

I would have said, on a golf course.

COMMENTARY: The biggest putt of his young life.

COMMENTARY: In it goes! Another one for Willett. He leads by two.

He's two holes from home. Is the green jacket to be his?

All of a sudden, we've gone in the last 45 minutes

from, I think, three or four behind to three in front.

The phone rang. It's my middle son.

He said, "You need to turn the TV on. It looks like Danny is going to

"win the Masters," so I turned round and said, "Are you winding me up?"

He went, "I'm serious. Danny might win the Masters."

With a few holes to go, I was watching at home

and I turned to my son and I said, "He's got this. He'll win."

And he looked at me and said, "How do you know this?"

I said, "I've seen that look before. He's got this. He'll win this."

As soon as that, he holed that again,

I turned my back on him and walked to the tee because he doesn't need

any encouragement or, "Oh, you're in the lead," or blah-blah-blah.

You've got another shot to hit. You've got two more holes.

And then, when he missed the 17th green,

I just knew that he'd get up and down.

I'd seen him play shots like that.

COMMENTARY: Here's Willett.

It looks fairly innocuous,

but there's a big slope all the way left to right downhill.

Looking back, it was a really tricky chip.

I think I was going to go back there and put a ball down

and see just how difficult it is.

You've got to loft the ball maybe that far in the air,

see it pitch and then run, find the contours and stop by the hole.

It got to the top of the hill.

I was like, "Oh, he's not hit it hard enough."

And then it rolled over. I was like, "Oh, that's quick, isn't it?"

COMMENTARY: It looks a good speed. That looks a very good speed.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

That's a magnificent shot.

I chipped it pretty much stone dead, which, around Augusta, you don't do.

So, yeah, it was an unbelievable chip shot.

COMMENTARY: All down to this fella.

COMMENTARY: Well, it's downhill and just the slightest touch.

Needs something magical now, Spieth.

Might have it.

COMMENTARY: One good, clean, straight drive

and you'll be 80% there.

That tee shot, to me, looks like a hotel corridor.

I was stood there watching, thinking,

"That's getting narrower, that tee shot."

COMMENTARY: He's done it, Ken, I think. He's...

He's done it beautifully.

Again, hands shaking, everything shaking and then, you know,

the walk then was pretty enjoyable up to that second shot.

It's still not over. You know how tricky that last green is.

Just a cut off that right-hand tower, come up to... Exactly.

COMMENTARY: Exactly. You can do it.

What a great moment, though, for British golf, English golf,

Yorkshire golf, if he can do it.

Good swing.

I think it's straight enough.

Yes, it is now. What a nice little bounce!

Oh, yes, the golfing gods are smiling.

Walking up to the green was an unbelievable experience.

Again, we're having a little giggle to ourselves

walking up the 18th, realising what position we're in.

COMMENTARY: I wonder what he's thinking at this moment.

It was almost not the realisation of,

"We've got a genuine chance here."

I was still pretty focused, but not far off the job,

as much as what we could control, being done.

COMMENTARY: Can you imagine it?

A chance to button up the green jacket.

And you look at the putt and you just think, "Yeah,

"it'd be nice to get to six under, but I don't want to drop to four."

COMMENTARY: Tippy-tappy, tippy-tappy...

Ooh, that looks not bad, but he wishes it were six inches nearer.

"I'll just walk over here and have a talk to my caddy."

I think he'd been playing well in the jumper all day.

I think he'd got that warm, cos I was boiling,

but I think we're all quite superstitious in our own ways.

There's not many golfers that don't have their own little superstition,

but I think once he'd tapped it up as close as he had,

he probably thought, "I can take it off.

"I'm going to struggle to mess it up from here!"

COMMENTARY: Now, Willett...

18 inches, maybe a bit less.

Gently, gently... Oh, well done!

Well done. Now, we just wait and see. We wait and see.

The walk from the 18th to the clubhouse was just bonkers.

He put his arm round me and I was like, "Dan, what have we done?

"What? This is bizarre."

CHEERING

We're kind of walking off the 18th

and we half-think that we've won the Masters.

And then, yeah, you walk up into the cabin, you sign your card,

make sure you've got all that right and then it is just a waiting game.

You've got off and you've got 150 text messages,

umpteen missed calls

and you're trying to get in touch with Nic, to see how she is.

You all right? How are you all doing?

Yeah, just a crazy old waiting game.

COMMENTARY: Spieth, now, can he hole this?

COMMENTARY: If he doesn't, really, Danny's the champ.

I was on the phone to Nic at the time

and I remember Jonny just ran in and jumped on the sofa.

THEY LAUGH

I didn't even realise the cameras were there!

It was a natural reaction to just go a bit mental, so...

'That was the moment then when you realise

'that what you've worked for and what you've just achieved,'

it isn't a dream. It's come true.

And I remember when they were fitting him for his jacket

and I was like, "This is bizarre," and he looked across at me

before he went into the room, just laughing,

like we had done a few times through the day, but it was nuts.

Jordan, would you please do the honour

of presenting our new champion his green jacket?

I almost fell over there.

Danny, congratulations. We're all very proud of you.

Welcome to our family. Thank you.

Every one of the Major trophies is significant in their own way,

but the green jacket, for me, is that little bit more special.

On this very rare occasion, I'm nearly speechless.

CHEERING

# There's only one Danny Willett... #

I hardly had a drink. I was like, "What's the point of drinking?"

There was nothing that could make me feel better

than how I was feeling that night.

# One Danny Willett... #

'Great party. It was brilliant seeing'

so many of his friends with him to enjoy the moment.

'Sir Alex Ferguson was there and gave him some great advice, said,

"You know what Manchester United did when we won our first trophy?"

And Danny had said, "What?" And he said, "We went and won another one."

As regards what it means, it's...

We've all had those putts back at our home clubs

as juniors, amateurs, to hole a putt to win the Masters.

And to actually go and do it and do something that you dreamed about,

I don't think in life you get a chance to do that very often.

I mean, for me, I always dreamed about playing and doing it,

but I tell you what, it was mega to be as close as I was to it

and felt like I had some sort of contribution.

You can't imagine being at Augusta from where we come from

and putting on the green jacket.

It's an incredible sensation just to see that happen.

I'm immensely proud of the young man.

I mean, when you walk through the door at home,

you're not Masters champion, are you? You're Dad. You're Dan.

You're straight back to changing nappies.

You take the jacket off, so you don't get anything on it

and you hang it up and then you go see your little man

and you see how he's changed just in the week that you've been away

and you make sure Nic's all right and how everyone is

and you lock the door and just try to enjoy it.

It's the only time I've watched the Masters back was that evening.

I opened up a beer with Nic on the sofa,

we put the little man to bed

and watched it for an hour and a half of the highlights

of obviously what we'd done, you know, two days before.

Yeah, just a crazy old few days, really.

Let me tell you a story about Danny, the champion of the world -

made of Sheffield steel

and forged through hours of hard work on a Yorkshire hillside.

He would chip and putt from dawn till dusk, daring to dream.

Many years later, on an April afternoon,

Danny sensed this might be his day.

He's got that look in his eye.

He looked over at Jordan, who stood in his way.

But at Amen Corner, the golfing gods frowned.

Oh, and that's water!

And Danny faced a test of nerve like no other.

Take a deep breath.

All of a sudden, Danny Willett in control of his own fate.

But his head and his hands were steady.

The biggest putt of his young life.

Down it goes! Is the green jacket to be his?

Indeed, the boy was ready.

And just like that, he had realised his dream.

He was a Master in green.

And that's the story of Danny, the champion of the world.