AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Jordan Spieth played his final official round of golf for 2016 on Dec. 4, the last day of the Hero World Challenge. He had competed in 50 rounds since that fateful Sunday at Augusta National, when he rinsed two shots into Rae's Creek on the 12th hole and ultimately lost the Masters.
Now it was over. This was the professional golfer's equivalent of the final school bell ringing before summer vacation, signifying more than a month before he would again be in the public eye.
Spieth signed his scorecard, posed for photographs with volunteers and fulfilled his media responsibilities. He was finally done -- done with a year that had been both undoubtedly successful and unfailingly trying. Done answering the questions about how he'd lost the Masters and how he bounced back and whether it still ate at him every second of every day. He started to walk toward the player dining area when a journalist -- not a usual one he was accustomed to seeing on the PGA Tour -- stopped him.
"Just one last thing, Jordan," the man prefaced his question. "About the Masters this year..."
There exists no algorithm or analytics to explain how a dramatic loss in the year's biggest tournament can affect a player differently in the current era than before, but the evidence remains. More media, more social media and more inquisitive rubberneckers mean the loss lingers longer. A player can insist his ego is intact after such misfortune. Still, the questions continue, no matter how many times they've been answered.
It's enough to consider an existential proposition: Is it worse to lose the Masters or deal with the aftermath of losing the Masters?
Rory McIlroy knows all about this theory. Six years ago, he led the Masters going into the back nine on Sunday afternoon. His tee shot on the 10th hole went so far left that it found a piece of Augusta National property many watching on television didn't know existed. By the time he was done, he shot 80 and finished in 15th place.
Like Spieth, McIlroy understands how a grueling loss on this stage can become the gag gift that keeps on giving. Unlike Spieth, McIlroy didn't already own a green jacket to soothe his frustrations -- and still doesn't.
"I think about what could have been and if that hadn't have went wrong, I wouldn't have to answer the questions that I have to answer at this time of the year every year until I win one," McIlroy said recently. "There's a lot of that stuff that goes through your head, but you learn from it. You move on."
Those close to Spieth confide that already owning that Masters title from the previous year has played a pivotal role in the way he has handled losing another one.
He'll always have an invitation to play this tournament. He'll always have a green jacket in the Augusta National clubhouse, a seat at the table for the Champions' Dinner.
"When you're at Jordan's level, you're going to have heartbreak and unbelievable triumph; you don't get the good without the bad," his caddie, Michael Greller, said. "He's going to be going there for another 35 years. He knows he's going to have a lot more opportunities. At the end of the day, it wasn't the end of the world."
It's that last sentiment many have failed to grasp. Just because Spieth failed under the brightest spotlight in the game, that doesn't mean it consumes him. He won at Colonial a month later and in Australia at the end of the year, in between helping the United States team reclaim the Ryder Cup.
By any measure, that's a successful year. Just as, by most accounts, a runner-up Masters result, after finishing second and first in his initial two attempts, would be considered an achievement.
Instead, he has spent the past 12 months answering the questions, over and over, about what went ingloriously wrong, and why, and how he has dealt with such heartache ever since.
He also has a valid theory as to why these questions continue to linger.
"Tiger [Woods] has lost the Masters more times than I have, so has Jack [Nicklaus]. It happens," Spieth said. "I just think there's not enough that goes on in the golf world. There's not enough drama, so it seems like people are searching for it. Unlike other sports, you don't have negatives in golf very often. Therefore, there's really not much news involved, as far as drama goes."
These words came tinged with irritation. Or maybe exasperation is the better term.
This was one day after a recent Spieth news conference had turned into yet another forum for asking about all of those whats, whys and hows from a year ago. One day after he'd sat down with a television network and given a lengthy interview summoning his memories from that afternoon.
It has been a year now. A full year of not only internalizing and compartmentalizing what happened on the 12th hole that led to losing the Masters, but of constantly being reminded about it.
"Unfortunately, it's something that would pass quickly anywhere else," he said. "But it just lingers here, because there's not much else."