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Danny Willett poses with the DP World Tour trophy, wife Nicole Willett and their two children.

By Kent Gray
This was never going to be easy, not for Danny Willett, not with all those demons lurking.

Even with a two stroke lead standing on the 18th tee on Earth, there had to be one last heart-in-your-mouth moment as the Englishman watched his 3-wood drive leak towards the creek that splits the length of the final fairway. Somehow, miraculously, Willett got the type of break that had eluded him since he donned the green jacket at Augusta National three Aprils ago, his ball nestling in a barely playable lie.

The next shot, with a narrowed stance and the ball beneath his feet, would have amateurs fearing a dreaded shank into the trees right but Willett summoned his ball over the water and onto the mown grass, popped his next onto the green and two putts later had become the 10th winner of the DP World Tour Championship at -18, that two shot buffer maintained. Sweet, sweet redemption. Finally – a full 953 days of lows after that Augusta high. 

His Sunday battle with the reigning Masters champion Patrick Reed, after cameo appearances atop or near the summit of the leaderboard from the likes of Matt Wallace (who would tie second with Reed), Dubai-resident Adrian Otaegui and defending champion Jon Rahm had ultimately faded, was drama-filled.

It was a fitting way and the perfect stage, being the European Tour’s 2017-18 season finale, to relaunch a career blighted by a back injury which saw him inexplicably slide down the world rankings from a career high ninth after his major breakthrough and last win in 2016, to the relative wilderness of 332nd spot.

Willett agreed the win validated all the hard work in a comeback that at times had him despising golf.

“Yeah, it does. I mean, it’s a result. Regardless of what would have happened today, I’m in a much better place than where I was, and I knew that things were going the right way and I was doing all the work possible to give myself chances to do this,” he said at his champion’s press conference.

“Winning’s a rarity on Tour, really. I’m pleased to have won the tournaments that I’ve won over the last few years. I’ve won some pretty big ones, and obviously Augusta is always going to be special. But this, coming back after everything that’s happened, this year, really, is going to go down in the history books for myself as one of the most pleasing.”

So just how low did you go?

“It was a tough old time,” Willett admitted. “You know, that’s why I’m a very lucky man. I’ve got a fantastic family at home and obviously close family with my brothers and my mum and dad and stuff. And then some fantastic friends that never really spoke about bad situations, bad times. You know, they just kind of took it all on the chin that things will get better, and that’s kind of the way everyone has kind of been around me. A lot of positive people around, even when I was really not.

“To have Nic and the kids with me there all the time; you think about how fortunate you are, two healthy boys and a wonderful marriage, and golf is golf. And like I said, my main aim was to be fit and healthy at the end of this year than I was at the beginning; and if the golf is good because of that, fantastic. And if it’s not, we’ll keep work at it.”

Whether Willett kicks on from his fifth European Tour win is a moot point. That he’s made it back at all, given the pain he’s endured in the past two or so years, is a remarkable achievement in itself. It’s not quite Tiger Woods, fused back redemption, but there were similar dark days from which Willett admits he never thought he’d recover.

Still, it didn’t stop the inevitable question about next year’s major championships. Can you win another one of the bigs?

“I have no idea,” was Willett’s refreshingly honest answer.

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Danny Willett hugs his caddie, Sam Haywood, following victory.

“I’m going to have eight weeks off starting tomorrow. It’s going to be nice to get back home and lock the door and do nothing and look forward at where we want to play and what we want to play in. And if we keep doing the work that we’ve been doing at home and keep putting the hours in, hopefully we can come back in January and pick up where we left off from.

“We’re fortunate that we’re in all the majors for the next few years, so you can plan around them. Yeah, if things keep going the way they are, I’m going to look forward to getting back to Augusta in April actually with a golf game that can get around the golf course.”

For all the drama of the final hole, Willett actually handled Sunday at Jumeirah Golf Estates with relative aplomb given what was on the line, out-scoring Reed 68 to 70.

After starting the final round tied with the American Ryder Cupper at -14, Willett opened up a one shot lead after Reed bogeyed the 1st, before holing a double-breaking, downhill bomb for an eagle three on the 2nd to stretch out to a three shot buffer.

A drive yanked into a fried egg lie in the hard-packed sand on the 10th led to his first bogey and had a few wondering if Willett was about to hit a speed wobble, especially as Reed responded with a birdie, the first of four gains in a six hole stretch. When Willett bogeyed again on the 12th, his lead was suddenly down to one.

The duo traded classy birdies on the 15th but the shot that ultimately clinched it for Willett was his tee shot on the rowdy par-3 17th to six foot. He duly rolled in the birdie putt, albeit in what seemed like slow motion, as Reed failed to get up and down from the front left of the green.

“Yeah, you do [draw on experiences like Augusta when he held off Jordan Spieth in 2016]… You look and you kind of really think of shots I hit around Augusta, and how you felt there, hands were shaking, how your nerves were, holing a few of them little slippery 6-footers, and we had a few of them today.

“Fortunately I feel like we [Willett and caddy Sam Haywood] are relatively good in certain situations when I’m competent in what I’m doing.”

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Reed plays out of a bunker on the 18th hole in the final round.

For Reed, it was a case of close but too many missed putts as he chased his first win since this year’s Masters – and his first on foreign soil.

“To be five down going into the turn and to flip the script and play some normal golf and play some good golf on the back nine and to have a chance to tie it up on 16 — you’re going to have some of those putts throughout the day and throughout the week, you’re going to hit good putts that don’t go in.

“That said, Danny did what he had to do at the end. He got off to a hot start and good lead, and after that, he birdied 14, 15, birdied 17 to get the job done. Hats off to him. He played some great golf. Unfortunately I just didn’t play well enough in the beginning.”