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 With his wife Nicole scheduled to give birth on Sunday, the
Englishman was set to miss the Masters until Zacharia arrived early
and freed the Englishman to make the trip to play at the year's
first major.
After a stunning victory at Augusta National that surprised perhaps
everybody except his inner-circle, Willett was set for a rip-roaring
celebration on Sunday night as he tried to process his achievement,
the first European to win here since 1999.
“You dream about these kind of days. It's kind of mind boggling,”
Willett said in his thick Yorkshire accent.
“I’ve won a couple of golf tournaments but this is a different
league.”
It has been quite a fortnight for the 28-year-old from the northern
English city of Sheffield.
 Willett was a doubtful starter at Augusta but the baby was delivered
12 days early, leaving the new father to get to work.
He planned to fly across the Atlantic on Tuesday, but manager Andrew
“Chubby” Chandler talked him into coming on Monday, to have more
than 48 hours to prepare.
Even so, he was the 89th and last player to check in, just as Jack
Nicklaus was 89th when he won his sixth Masters in 1986.
Coincidence perhaps, and Willett recalled another sign of fate,
revealing that his wife was in the womb when Sandy Lyle became the
first British player to win the Masters in 1988.
Though he started the Masters ranked 12th in the world, it would be
fair to say Willett was not the name on the tip of everyone’s tongue
on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, or even for most of Sunday for that
matter.
But in the space of less than an hour, he went from afterthought to
champion-in-waiting. He even shed his white jacket on the 18th hole
finishing his round off in his Masters-green shirt.
Though victory was almost a formality, he had to wait nearly an hour
for it to become official. His first call was to Nicole.
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“She just said ‘well done’. The line was a bit crackly,” he said.
Manager Chandler confidently predicted that Willett’s victory would
open the floodgates, rather than be a career pinnacle, and that the
player would soon feature prominently in any debate about who the
world’s best player.
“This is the start of the journey, not the end of the journey,”
Chandler said. “Danny thought this was going to happen. His game is
suited to all courses. He won’t be distracted.”
Chandler revealed a conversation with Willett when the player
recently rose to 11th in the world ranking. He told his manager he
still had 10 places to go.
Perhaps the only thing that could derail Willett is a chronically
bad back.
“He’s got a terrible back,” Chandler said. “He goes to London every
month to have a check.”
And Chandler said his client's 2016 schedule, which includes the
Olympic Games in Rio, would not change. He will also take out PGA
Tour membership.
Willett will fly home on Monday night, but in the meantime there is
celebrating to do.
“He’s trying to lose weight but he won’t lose any weight tonight,”
Chandler quipped. “He’ll be drinking.”
(Editing by Steve Keating.)
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