AUGUSTA, Ga. — “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
Vince Lombardi was never one to spare a player’s feelings, and his concise take on the harsh realities of professional sports still resonates.
Nowhere is that more apparent than at Augusta National, where every loss can seem heartbreaking from outside the fish bowl. But even in the vortex of the game’s most intense test, there are varying shades of defeat.
When Tom Kite finished a dozen strokes behind Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters, he probably was simply happy to take B-flight honors; but a decade earlier, when Kite failed to convert a birdie attempt at the 72nd hole during the ’86 Masters that would have forced extra holes against Jack Nicklaus, defeat probably had a more painful bite.
“I made that putt; it just didn’t go in. I made it six or seven times in practice rounds, and it never broke left once,” Kite later lamented.
Some players never recover from a near-miss at the Masters (see: Beck, Chip, 1993), while others take the missed opportunity and learn from it (see: Spieth, Jordan, 2014). If players really do learn more in defeat, a common refrain for the bridesmaid, this year’s Masters creates a number of compelling possibilities.
For two particular players, the 83rd Masters stands as the ultimate platform for redemption, following runner-up showings by Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose the last two years.
In Fowler’s case, an adage applies — sometimes you lose an event and sometimes you get beat. In 2018, Fowler came up short in spite of a of finish that in another year could have been heroic. Following a slow start to his week with rounds of 70-72, Fowler began his rally with a third-round 65 and made the turn on Sunday at 1 under par. Birdies at Nos. 12 and 13 moved him within two strokes of Patrick Reed and another at the 15th hole has him one back. When Fowler rolled in a birdie putt to complete his day at 18, he was still a stroke short of Reed and could only wait for the inevitable, a one-shot loss at the tournament that means the most to so many.
“It would have been nice if there was one more hole when it was all said and done, but no. I hit the shots that I wanted to, and obviously you can look back at the whole week and be like, well, if I would have done this or would have done that,” Fowler said on Monday, a year later, at Augusta National. “I was happy with how I played.”
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There was no unpacking of what could have been done differently, no second guessing, no pity party for what would have been a winning score (14 under) the previous two years.
“I had full intentions of birdieing the last three, which would have been nice,” Fowler said. “But after being in those positions before and not having executed, it was nice to put those together, and birdieing the final hole is always nice.”
For Rose, the days following the 2017 tournament had a slightly different vibe. Although there were no got-you moments for the Englishman to rue following his playoff loss to Sergio Garcia, that didn’t make the moments of reflection any easier. There would always be something that would trigger the memories of that final round and send Rose back in time to the closing nine holes, when he crossed the iconic Nelson Bridge, on his way to the 13th fairway and (seemingly) an appointment in Butler Cabin with a green jacket. At the time, Rose was two shots ahead of Garcia and the Spaniard had pulled his drive at No. 13 into a place where good rounds go to die. Garcia scrambled for par, Rose missed his birdie putt, and another major script was rewritten.
“I felt like that was the first major I’ve been close to and not won, really, like a heartbreaker,” Rose said. “I took comfort in the fact that you can’t get through a career without something like that happening. So just deal with it and move on. You’re not the first person, you won’t be the last, so just kind of get on with it.”
It was Henrik Stenson, of all people, who would explain to Rose that winning can be equal parts form and fluke. The Swede reminded him that during the 2016 Olympics in Rio, there were pivotal moments when the ball bounced Rose’s way and the result was a gold medal.
“Sergio had a break on 13. It’s the way it goes sometimes when you win,” Rose can now admit.
It probably helped that 2017 wasn’t the first year Rose had the door closed on him at Augusta National. In 2015, he began Sunday in the final group, albeit four strokes behind Spieth. He immediately put pressure on the would-be champion with back-to-back birdies to begin the final round. Rose would add three consecutive birdies starting at the 13th hole, but he was never able to close the gap and finished tied for second with Phil Mickelson.
“I’ve given myself a couple good chances being in that final group on Sunday and playing well on both occasions and came up against Jordan, who was making everything in 2015, and Sergio ... it was a coin flip who was going to come out on top there,” Rose said.
Lombardi’s take on victory and defeat remains apropos, but Fowler and Rose have proven that the line between heroics and heartbreak can be more nuanced than that.