AUGUSTA, Ga. >> Jordan Spieth exited butler’s cabin to make the traditional walk to the first tee with his hands shoved deep in his pockets and his head bowed down as Augusta National members serenaded him with a huge round of applause.

The Dallas native seemed embarrassed by all the attention, as if he’d already won his second green jacket without ever taking a swing.

Turns out, his expression was right on the money.

Making the final turn for home with a five-shot lead, somebody once said the Masters begins on the back nine on Sunday and you certainly won’t get any argument from Spieth.

He bogeyed the 10th, bogeyed the 11th and then quadruple-bogeyed the 12th that left the throng of patrons at Amen Corner sucking every breath of air out of the house Bobby Jones built.

After watching Spieth drop those two shots on the first two holes, the huge crowd rose as one as Spieth stepped to the 12th tee not knowing what they were about to witness would be left in their memory banks for the rest of their lives. Their cheers were meant to buttress the defending champion, to lift him on their shoulders and carry this 22-year-old home shoulder high to victory.

But that didn’t happen. Not even close.

Instead, Spieth played the tricky par-3 12th like the young lad that he is, hitting his tee shot into Rae’s Creek that guards the front of the green, chunking his second attempt into Rae’s Creek again just for good measure, hitting his third attempt into the back bunker and then blasting out and sinking the putt for a good, old-fashion 7.

Hey Jordan. Mickey Mantle just called. He wants his number back.

Spieth’s punishment, once he came in from the cold, was having to put the green jacket on the back of eventual winner Danny Willett three times — once in butler’s cabin and twice at the closing ceremony as darkness descended on Augusta National. Not once did Spieth, who resembled a zombie from the Walking Dead, have a smile on his face. Willett did that for the both of them.

Give the young Englishman credit. He did what he had to do to win, shooting a final-round 67 that lifted him from three shots back at the start of the final round to three shots ahead by day’s end over Spieth and perennial runner-up in majors, Lee Westwood.

But much like Gary Player in 1961 when Arnold Palmer double-bogeyed the last to produce the first international champion or Scott Hoch in 1989 when he missed a 2-footer to give Nick Faldo the crown or when Faldo benefited again on Greg Norman’s epic collapse in 1996, Spieth lost it.

Simple as that.

Granted, Spieth had enough holes to mount a comeback, and briefly did with birdies at Nos. 13 and 15 to get within two shots of the lead. And when he stuck his iron shot to within 7 feet at the par-3 16th, the crowd once again did its best to shake the cobwebs from Spieth’s brain.

But one look at that downhill putt that made a right turn inches off the putter, most folks knew he’d be fortunate to find the hole, much less put the ball in it. He didn’t and it was basically game, set and match for Willett at that point.

There might be a time when Spieth and contemporary Rory McIlroy can spend some time together and talk about their respective back nines on Sunday at the Masters. In 2011, McIlroy held a four-shot lead going into the final 18 and shot 80, including a triple bogey at the 10th to keep him from already winning his own grand slam.

Just a note on that one: Two months later he came back to win the U.S. Open by eight shots. And how Spieth responds to this devastating defeat will go a long way in determining how the rest of his year will go. Remember, he wasn’t playing his best golf coming in, and didn’t strike the ball all that well this week, either.

Somebody once said, sometimes when you win, you lose, and sometimes when you lose, you win. Golf fans who witnessed that train wreck at 12 will never forget it. Somehow, Spieth has to, and move on from here.

FINAL-ROUND SCORES AND MONEY

At Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.

Yardage: 7,435 Par: 72 (36-36); a-denotes amateur