In a thrilling and highly unexpected finish, Danny Willett propelled himself to victory with a final round score of 67 to win this year’s Masters. Willett’s rise to the top of the leaderboard coincided with, and was almost overshadowed by, the collapse of the defending champion and preeminent favorite, Jordan Spieth.  Although Willett was ranked no. 12 in the world coming into the Masters, he was by no means a household name in the United States.

Willett, a native of Sheffield, England, had played his last few seasons on the European Tour, where he has made a name for himself.  Willett planned to start regularly playing on the PGA Tour this year, but ultimately decided to wait for one more year when he found out his wife was expecting their first child.  He didn’t even know if he would play in the Masters until the week before the tournament because his wife’s due date was right around the same time.

After the first three rounds, Willett stood at even par, only three shots behind Spieth.  The course played extremely difficult all week, as the average score was three to four over par every day.  It was windy every day, which made it difficult to hit accurate shots, and four days of perfectly sunny conditions dried the greens out quickly, making them even faster than the lightning-fast speed they usually tend to play at each year.  Only Willett, Spieth and a few other players withstood nature’s onslaught.  The wind died down on Sunday and the sky was cloudier, giving the players more birdie and eagle opportunities. Willett took advantage and went from even par to five under to take the lead, which he would never relinquish.  Spieth also took advantage of the easier conditions, as he shot four under on the front nine of his final round.

Within 30 minutes, however, Jordan’s lead had vanished. Spieth, who opened the back nine with a six shot lead, bogeyed the 10th and 11th holes, and then shockingly quadruple bogeyed the par-3 12th hole by putting his first two balls in the water and his third in a greenside bunker.  This happened right as Willett surged ahead, giving him a four shot lead. Spieth got back to within two shots of the lead, but he was never able to fully recover, as his approach shot on the 17th hole found the greenside bunker, taking away any chance he would have had to tie Willett.

While the main story of the tournament has centered around Spieth’s collapse, it was also a tournament of lasts for one of golf’s legends. Tom Watson completed his final round at Augusta last Friday. The two-time Masters champion received a standing ovation and was emotional as he finished his final hole on the 18th green.

With the win last weekend, Willett joins the prestigious Green Jacket Club. It was quite the 12-day stretch for the new Masters champion, who welcomed a newborn son with his wife just days before winning the tournament.