Jordan Spieth's participation in the 2024 Masters tournament could be short-lived following a calamitous end to round one on Friday.
Drawn as one of the later first-round starters on Thursday, Spieth was unable to complete most of his back nine on the opening day following thunderstorms in the area which delayed the beginning of the first men's golf Major of the year.
Having started on the final leg of Amen Corner at Augusta National Golf Club - the par 5 13th - at two-over, 2015 Masters champion recorded a birdie on what has historically been known as the easiest hole on the famed layout.
However, the American's morning went on to quickly unravel with a bogey five at the 14th before an unmitigated disaster one hole later.
After slightly pulled his drive on the par-5 15th, Spieth played back into position with his second and left a wedge into one of the toughest greens to hit due to its severely sloping nature. Understandably not wanting to leave his approach short with water in front, Spieth sent his ball just over the back of the horizontally-thin putting surface.
Jordan Spieth with a quadruple bogey on the 15th 😬 pic.twitter.com/Z7pPE6O8teApril 12, 2024
From there, Spieth - who is renowned as one of the world's best short-game players - made a real mess of getting up and down. His fourth shot, an attempted bump and run down the hill towards the flag, was far too heavy-handed and the ball trickled off into the water.
After considering a drop in the exact same spot, Spieth and caddie Michael Greller opted to take their next shot (sixth) back in the fairway with the creek in between player and green.
The 30-year-old proceeded to throw his chip over the back of the green once again, however, leaving him in almost the same position he was in three shots earlier. An under-hit putt presented Spieth with a tricky downhill putt, though, and when that was left a few inches short, the American finally tapped in for a nightmare nine.
According to data guru, Justin Ray, "Spieth is the only player in the last 20 years with multiple scores of 9 or worse at the 15th hole at The Masters." The Texan first managed to card a nine on that hole during the opening round of the 2017 Masters - two years after his victory at Augusta. He shot 75 on Thursday that year and went on to finish T11.
Jordan Spieth makes a quadruple bogey at the par-5 15th, tying his highest score on a hole in his PGA TOUR career.That is Spieth's third 9 on TOUR and second at No. 15 during the Masters Tournament (R1/2017).April 12, 2024
However, the same result appears highly unlikely in 2024 as Spieth's first-round total of six-over moved onto seven-over in the end with a bogey on 17 - 14 shots behind leader, Bryson DeChambeau.
With a clear Augusta weather forecast for the remainder of the week, round two tee times at The Masters have remained unaffected and are set to begin at 8am ET (1pm BST) on Friday, with Spieth resuming at 10:42am ET (3:42pm BST) alongside playing partners, Ludvig Aberg and Sahith Theegala.
