A laughing matter: Spieth over Masters collapse

Jordan Spieth hasn't taken his Masters meltdown as hard as some might have expected...

Jordan Spieth has admitted he laughs about his harrowing 12th-hole meltdown at Augusta National and hasn’t taken the episode as hard any many suspected he would.

Spieth was one clear of the field standing on the tee, but he found water twice and racked up a quadruple-bogey seven to fall three shots behind Danny Willett.

Related: Danny Willett swing sequence

Despite a valiant comeback attempt, he wasn’t able to become just the fourth golfer in the history of The Masters to win back-to-back Green Jackets.

“I laugh about it now,” he said. “I honestly do.

“I’m not taking it very hard. I’ve got ladies at the grocery store putting their hand on me and going, ‘Really praying for you; how are you doing?’ I’m like, my dog didn’t die. I’ll be okay. I’ll survive. It happens. It was, again, unfortunate timing.”

That said, Spieth recognises the incident will be forever linked with his name and brought up whenever he returns to Augusta National.

“The 2016 Masters will always come back up. It will keep coming back up, even if I were to go onto next week and win and go onto Oakmont and produce clutch shots and win. It’s still going to come up when I get back to Augusta. I understand that,” he said.

Asked to elaborate on what happened at Golden Bell, Spieth – who was attending an event for FedEx, which donated €1m in his name to a Memphis children’s hospital – added:

“I wasn’t trying to hit the ball at the flag, I was trying to hit the ball to our spot.

“My miss that week was slightly off the heel with a short-right shot. It was just bad timing on the miss. And then just a poorly executed wedge on the next shot.”

Some have suggested the collapse will leave lingering scars, while others feel he’ll bounce back stronger. Spieth said he’s received notes of support from athletes across the sporting world, with messages including: 'This happens to everyone’, ‘Don’t draw on it’ and ‘No doubt you’ll be back’.

“And pretty much they believe, just as we believe, that we’ll be back – no problem,” he concluded.