Danny Willett

Daniel John Willett (born 3 October 1987) is an English professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. In April 2016, he won his first major championship at the 2016 Masters Tournament, becoming only the second Englishman to achieve the feat and the first European in 17 years to win at Augusta National.

Willett was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, one of four brothers. His father, Steve, was a Church of England vicar and his mother, Swedish-born Elisabet, was a maths teacher. Willett used to practice his golf in a sheep pasture; interviewed by The Daily Telegraph in 2016 he said, "We used to go to Anglesey to play a par three course in the middle of a sheep field."

As an amateur, he won the English Amateur Championship in 2007 and competed in the 2007 Walker Cup at Royal County Down. In March 2008 he became the number one ranked amateur in the world.

Willett signed with FirstPoint USA in 2005 and secured a golf scholarship he played two seasons for Jacksonville State University (JSU) in the U.S. During his time with JSU, he was the 2006 Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year and won medallist honours at the 2007 OVC Championship. He was a first-team All-OVC performer and a member of the OVC's All-Tournament Team in both seasons.

2008–15

Willett turned professional in May 2008, and earned his European Tour card for the 2009 season coming through qualifying school. Following a successful 2009, finishing 58th in the inaugural Race to Dubai with 8 top-10s, Willett challenged at the 2010 BMW PGA Championship, taking the first round lead before falling off the pace and finishing outright fifth, winning 190,800 euros. Following this performance, Willett moved into the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time. He finished the 2010 season ranked 23rd on the Order of Merit.

2011 proved to be a less successful season, with only one top ten placement in 30 competitions; he still managed to retain his tour membership comfortably with a final 91st place in the Order of Merit.

Willett first victory on the European Tour came in June 2012 at the BMW International Open in Cologne. He defeated Marcus Fraser on the fourth extra hole of a sudden death playoff. In the same season he collected a 2nd place at the Omega European Masters, a 3rd place at the Maybank Malaysian Open and three additional top ten finishes, that gave him the 23rd position at the final Order of Merit.

The 2013 and 2014 seasons didn't bring any more victories, but helped Willet to establish himself as one of the leading European players in the European Tour; in 2015 alone he collected 7 top ten finishes, and finished ranked 25th on the Order of Merit.

In December 2014 Willett won the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa; in May 2015, with a third place at the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Match Play, he earned a special temporary membership on the PGA Tour for the remainder of the 2015 season.

Through 36 holes at the 2015 Open Championship, Willett was one stroke off the lead of Dustin Johnson and was paired with him in the final group for the third round of the Championship. He only could muster an even-par 72 in the third round, however, and dropped down the leaderboard. A final round 70, moved him into a tie for 6th at the Old Course at St Andrews, his best finish in a major.

In July 2015, Willett won his third European Tour title with a one-stroke victory over Matthew Fitzpatrick at the Omega European Masters. Though he earned enough to qualify for a PGA Tour card, Willett declined to take PGA Tour membership for the 2015–16 season.

2016: Masters victory

Willett won his first major championship at the 2016 Masters Tournament at Augusta National after shooting a five-under-par round of 67 to take advantage of a collapse by Jordan Spieth. Defending champion Spieth led by five shots as he approached the 10th hole of the final round. Willett took the lead when Spieth, who was leading by 1 shot from Willett, had a quadruple bogey 7 at the par-3 12th. Willett was the leader in the clubhouse at −5 when he posted a bogey-free final round of 67 and was crowned champion when Spieth finished at −2 alongside Lee Westwood. Willett became the first British player to win the Masters for 20 years, Nick Faldo having won in 1996. After being presented with the green jacket as champion, Willett said: "It was a very surreal day when you look back at the ebbs and flows." After his win, Willett accepted PGA Tour membership and rose to the 9th place of the Official World Golf Ranking.

Beside the first major win at the Masters, 2016 proved to be the most successful season for Willett. He collected his fourth win on the European Tour in May at the Dubai Desert Classic, and had a 2nd place at the 2016 Italian Open and a 3rd place at the BMW PGA Championship, establishing himself early in the season as leader of the Race to Dubai. With his position he also earned the automatic selection for the 2016 Ryder Cup.

Willett's Ryder Cup debut started with a controversy stirred by his brother Peter Willett on a National Club Golfer article stating that "for the Americans to stand a chance of winning, they need their baying mob of imbeciles to caress their egos every step of the way"; Danny Willett successively distanced himself and apologised for his brother's comments, although he later defended his brother's comments as correct after the competition had completed. In the event, he played three matches without earning a point: in the Friday afternoon fourballs he teamed up with Martin Kaymer, losing by 5 and 4 to Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka; on Saturday, he paired with Lee Westwood against J. B. Holmes and Ryan Moore in a 1 up loss in the fourballs; in the Sunday singles he lost again, by 5 and 4, to Koepka.

Willett married Nicole Harris in 2013. They reside in Rotherham, Yorkshire. Their first child, a son, was born in 2016, just a few days before his victory at the 2016 Masters. Willett has described his father, Steve, as the best sports psychologist he has known. Willett is a supporter of Premier League club Liverpool. One of his older brothers is a teacher.

Willett is a member of Lindrick Golf Club.

• 2007 Yorkshire Amateur, English Amateur
• 2008 Australian Amateur Stroke Play Championship, Spanish Amateur Open Championship

PGA Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	10 Apr 2016	Masters Tournament	70-74-72-67=283	−5	3 strokes	Jordan Spieth, Lee Westwood

European Tour wins (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	24 Jun 2012	BMW International Open	65-70-69-73=277	−11	Playoff	Marcus Fraser
2	7 Dec 2014	Nedbank Golf Challenge1	71-68-65-66=270	−18	4 strokes	Ross Fisher
3	26 Jul 2015	Omega European Masters2	65-62-71-65=263	−17	1 stroke	Matthew Fitzpatrick
4	7 Feb 2016	Omega Dubai Desert Classic	70-65-65-69=269	−19	1 stroke	Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Andy Sullivan
5	10 Apr 2016	Masters Tournament	70-74-72-67=283	−5	3 strokes	Jordan Spieth, Lee Westwood

1Co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour
2Co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour

European Tour playoff record (1–0)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	2012	BMW International Open	Marcus Fraser	Won with par on fourth extra hole

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runners-up
2016	Masters Tournament	3 shot deficit	–5 (70-74-72-67=283)	3 strokes	Jordan Spieth, Lee Westwood

Results timeline

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

• Most consecutive cuts made – 6 (2015 Open Championship – 2016 PGA, current)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)

Results not in chronological order prior to 2015.

DNP = Did not play
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Yellow background for top-10.

Amateur

• Jacques Léglise Trophy (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 2005
• Walker Cup (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 2007

Professional

• World Cup (representing England): 2013
• EurAsia Cup (representing Europe): 2016 (winners)
• Ryder Cup (representing Europe) : 2016

Ryder Cup points record