Feel-Good Winner Danny Willett Deserves the Spotlight Amid Wild Masters Finale

He was going to stay home in England and blow off the Masters entirely so he wouldn't miss the birth of his first kid. And then, Zachariah James Willett was born on March 30, so what the heck? Danny Willett decided he might as well come play the Masters after all.

Willett grew up in England playing golf in a sheep pasture that looked not one bit like Augusta National. And during Willett's final round Sunday, his brother, PJ Willett, was firing one-liner after another on Twitter:

And this:

Willett is going to be lost in the story of his own Masters. Sure, Monday at work people will be talking about Jordan Spieth's collapse. Is he a choker? But 10 years from now, or 20, when we've had a little time and space to give this moment some breathing room and perspective, you know what people will say? 

Spieth hit two balls in the water in crunch time, and some other guy won.

Willett's is actually a feel-good story. He had not been hyped, promoted or even thought about. In that sense, even though he had skyrocketed in the world rankings over the past two years from outside the Top 100 to No. 12, he was still just a regular guy. Even after he won Sunday, he talked about the things his wife, Nicole, had to put up with being married to him—hours of practicing and much of the rest of the time living out of a suitcase. 

"You don't get many brownie points if you have the dishes (to do),'' he said in his post-round press conference on the Golf Channel. Or, he continued, if the baby needs to have his diaper changed.

"You're not only trying to be a great golfer, but you're trying to be a great person, husband, father, all that other stuff as well.''

Yes, there are sacrifices. But the families of multimillionaire golfers who spend their lives at resorts tend to find a way to survive. And Willett might not realize this yet, but he's about to bring home $1.8 million that he wasn't counting on.

Golf is going to have to face a cold reality, though. It is not going to be able to celebrate the feel-good story of the golf year because the feel-good guy did it by beating the guy golf wanted to win.

The guy golf needed to win.

Andrew Redington/Getty Images

What made Willett's win so shocking was whom he beat and how he beat him. Spieth had a five-stroke lead, and then he made consecutive bogeys followed by a seven. The story of the little guy slaying the giant only resonates because the guy who fell was a giant.

And people will wonder what that means to Spieth in the future, but the problem of his collapse is much bigger than that. It had looked as if golf had neatly and nearly seamlessly replaced Tiger Woods.

Now, the face of golf is the face of a choker. That is tough to get past. The player of the future can fall apart like anyone on any golf course.

It's tough to sell. The guy has won two majors, but that collapse is going to define golf for a little while. It was worse than Cam Newton's Super Bowl. A nice, little story like Willett's just can't compete.

The feel-bad of the moment overwhelms the feel-good. We don't know Spieth as well as we thought we did. Not to mention: Rory McIlroy had his own choking problem at this Masters. On Saturday, Spieth and McIlroy were the lead pairing, setting up the future of the game.

By Sunday night? PJ Willett tweeted:

And this:

I would say that the stage was set for Willett to fade away, but the truth is it wasn't set for him at all. He is 28 and had won four times on the European tour. He had played the Masters just once, last year, and finished in 38th place. If you had given him 10 seconds of thought, you'd have figured he had every reason to fall apart if he got anywhere near the title.

Spieth was the opposite—though the truth is he hadn't been playing well all week. He had done what great champions tend to do when they're not on: find a way to win anyway. 

Instead, Willett not only won, but he also did it in reserved consistency. He did not bogey—which is all Spieth needed to do on the final nine holes—and shot a 67.

JIM WATSON/Getty Images

Fortunately, the London Telegraph had plenty of information about who the heck this guy is. The story says that Willett's dad was a vicar in the Church of England and his mom a math teacher.

While he grew up in England, he quit school at 16 and later somehow ended up in the U.S. to play two years for Jacksonville State University in Alabama. He didn't graduate, but he was the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year. Credit the story for pointing out that he learned to play in a pasture.

His child was due Sunday, the day of the Masters finale, and Willett had told the paper: "If he fancies coming out early on, it would be great. But if not, I won't be playing.''

Well, people might not be listening, but golf has a nice story to tell. And so does Danny's brother, PJ.

Greg Couch covers golf for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.