Danny Willett can remember it all. The yardages, the gusts of wind and his thoughts outside a toilet by the 16th tee – he has a memory of every sight and sound from the remarkable day 10 years ago when he became Masters champion. But first we’re talking about castration.
And that requires a detour to an airport in Las Vegas, around five weeks after his glorious Sunday at Augusta in April 2016. Willett had been on holiday with his wife Nicole, decompressing from the madness, and they were headed for a flight back to the east coast when a couple of strangers began staring in his direction.
He knew the drill well enough by then and how the double-takes of recognition usually led to brief conversations. But this chat followed a different path.
‘It was a little old couple,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘The lady was chatting with her husband and we noticed they were smiling and nodding at me. Eventually, she says, “Are you…?”
‘I’m about to go, “Yes”, when she says: “Theon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones.”
‘Oh, for f*** sake.’
Willett enjoys telling this one, even if he doesn’t quite see what the rest of us can when you place his picture next to those of Theon Greyjoy, played by Lily Allen’s brother Alfie.
Danny Willett pulled off one of the most remarkable Major victories in golf by winning at Augusta in 2016
The Englishman saw off the challenge of Lee Westwood at Jordan Spieth to claim the green jacket
Or maybe he doesn’t want to – Theon Greyjoy, an unfortunate character, had his genitals cut off in the show, meaning some associations are probably less welcome than others.
‘Look, I’ve had some pretty bad times in the past 10 years, but at least I wasn’t castrated!’ Willett says.
Every so often, his wife still brings up that resemblance, but rather more frequently someone mentions the Masters.
‘Can’t quite believe it’s been so long,’ adds Willett. At other times more recently, it has felt so far removed that it might have occurred in another life, but his career will always be defined by the day in April 2016 when he, the 125-1 shot from Yorkshire, ended a 20-year wait for an English winner.
To do so, he tamed Augusta National at its most fiendish, which was only half the story. The other half belonged to Jordan Spieth and one of the most galling collapses in golf history.
Because, if we are to talk about Willett’s win, you must also discuss the American, who led by five at the turn from Willett and was fast closing in on his third major title in his past five starts, the 2015 Masters included.
‘I think we all thought we were chasing second,’ Willett recalls.
Understandable. But what followed was proof of an old cliche – the Masters doesn’t begin until the back nine of the final round.
Having played the front in four under, Spieth bogeyed the 10th and 11th and then arrived at the par-three 12th, where he sustained the kinds of scars that stay for life – two balls went in the water and eventually he signed for a quadruple-bogey seven. Amen Corner had handed Spieth an Old Testament flogging; Willett, the 28-year-old son of a vicar, was suddenly leading.
‘I was a couple of groups ahead so had no idea at first what was happening to Jordan,’ says Willett. ‘You hear a few noises but they don’t have screens at Augusta or any of that.
‘First proper clue I got was at the 15th – there’s one of those giant old leaderboards by the green. I saw Jordan had gone from seven under to one under and I’m leading the Masters on four under. Wow.
‘I took myself to the bathroom on 16, and came out and just sort of said, “Look, five nice swings here and hole a couple of putts, and we’ll see where we’re at in 40 minutes time”. I remember it all quite vividly.’
He can. At one stage in this conversation, Willett detailed every club, distance and bounce that went into a round of 67.
‘I reckon I’ve only watched the round back in its entirety two or three times,’ Willett says. ‘To be honest, I don’t need to. It’s all in my head, every step of it.
Willett’s form has been largely indifferent since his Masters title a decade ago
‘The feelings are still clear. Obviously it was one of those where I couldn’t celebrate on the 18th because there were people still on the course, but I knew when Jordan bogeyed the 17th I was clear.
‘I was watching on a TV (in the scoring cabin) when Smarty (Jonathan Smart, his caddie at the time) came running in and tackled me on the couch. I can’t even sum up what the exact thoughts are in a moment like that. Just joy.’
His final margin to Spieth and Lee Westwood was a hefty three shots. If there was a single misfortune about the day, it is that it has been remembered predominantly for Spieth’s choke. There’s an obvious truth in that. But Willett’s control and nerve when destiny knocked was worthy of a new jacket.
That there hasn’t been an English winner since, with Willett’s victory coming 20 years after Sir Nick Faldo in 1996, is proof of a rare sporting feat. But it’s also evidence of a strange career built on astonishing peaks and prolonged periods of utter despair.
When we review Willett’s titles, it is some list of marquee crowns – the Masters, DP World Tour Championship (2018), the PGA Championship at Wentworth (2019) and the Alfred Dunhill Links (2021) are among his eight wins.
But it’s no secret that his lows have been mind-scrambling. Two years after prevailing at Augusta, he fell in an exhausted, injured heap from ninth in the world to 462nd. After getting back into the top 30 in 2020, he plummeted as low as 624th early last year.
In between those mountains and valleys, he has suffered chronic problems in his back and shoulder, lost his swing and found it countless times, and endured the gut punch of losing a PGA Tour title in 2023 to a three-putt from three feet on the last hole. As Willett puts it: ‘There have been great moments and some really, really, really s****y bits.
Today, aged 38, Willett is ranked at 382nd and his hope is that the karma debt for winning the Masters has been paid off
‘Golf is hard. And it’s harder when you get bad injuries. Things fall out of sync, consistency is harder to find and then your confidence is low and that makes it worse.’
It’s one reason he actually hasn’t watch excessive replays of his greatest day. ‘To be honest, when I was playing s*** and injured and not feeling very good about life, I wasn’t really in the mood,’ he adds.
Today, aged 38, Willett is ranked at 382nd and his hope is that the karma debt for winning the Masters has been paid off. He also believes another win of some description is not beyond the realms of possibility.
‘I’m sure there’s quite a few left in there,’ he says. ‘If I can keep everything under control and keep the body good, I know I’ve got high enough skill sets to beat anybody I want. But it’s just having that consistency in performance and staying healthy.
‘That’s not easy to do. I know that as well as anyone! But I also know the skill set is there.’
In the meantime, he has another Champions Dinner to attend at Augusta and knows he will have a seat at the table for life. It would be interesting to know how many golfers would sacrifice a body part to be able to say the same.
