Golden hell: Reliving Spieth's epic collapse on Augusta's iconic 12th

Many people weighed in with what Jordan Spieth should've done to avoid last season's epic collapse at the hole known as Golden Bell in the final round of the Masters, but six-time major champion Lee Trevino probably had the best advice.

"There are two rules on the 12th hole at Augusta," Trevino said. "One, is you never aim at the flag at Augusta on the 12th hole. You always aim in the middle of the bunker and try to carry the bunker and take your 20-footer left or right. Never go at the flag. Okay, that's number one. Number two, if you do hit (it) in the water, you never, ever go down to the creek and drop a ball. You always re-tee it."

Consider Spieth to be a rule-breaker then, because he did the exact opposite on his way to a quadruple-bogey 7 as he crashed out of the lead.

Build-up

Spieth made the turn Sunday with a five-shot lead, but after bogeys on 10 and 11, and two straight birdies by Danny Willett, stood on the 12th tee with that advantage whittled to one. The 10th played as the fourth most difficult hole on the course last year, while the 11th was the toughest, as is usually the case. With four of the easiest holes awaiting him from 13-16, it wasn't panic time yet for Spieth.

In the first three rounds, the defending champion played the 12th hole in 1-under, so he had reason to be confident as he pulled his 9-iron to strike the tee shot.

Tee shot

"I didn't take a deep breath and really focus on my line on 12," Spieth said. "Instead, I went up and I just put a quick swing on it. That was the right club (9-iron from 152 yards), just the wrong shot. I was more comfortable hitting a draw with my iron. I knew every time I played a fade this week, that shot kind of came out."

The tee shot sounded incredibly heavy from the second he made contact, and any seasoned golf fan knew that could mean one thing - it was coming up short. How short was the only question left during the ball flight, and as his Titleist plunged to its watery grave off the embankment, it was clear this tournament was far from over.

Third shot

This is the point that Spieth broke Trevino's second rule, and opted to take a drop instead of re-teeing to hit his third shot. He wouldn't even watch his chunked pitch shot land in the water, turning to caddie Michael Greller and saying, "Buddy, it seems like we're collapsing."

The Texan would say after the round, "I wanted to be brutally honest with the way I felt towards him so that he could respond with what was necessary to get us to rebound."

Aftermath

Spieth was now tasked with hitting his fifth shot from the exact same place he dunked his third. Like any human being on the planet, he airmailed one over the green and into the back bunker, but unlike most other humans, he splashed out to seven feet and rammed home the putt for a quadruple-bogey 7.

In the span of three holes, Spieth had dropped six shots all the way back to 1-under. It was so unbelievable that Willett actually thought it was a prank.

"I thought someone was having some fun and would put the 7 back up there," he said after the round.

Sadly for Spieth, it was all too real, and to add insult to injury, as defending champion he would be tasked with placing the green jacket on Willett in Butler Cabin following the round.

(Videos courtesy: Business Insider)