AUGUSTA, Ga. — On a warm, sunny afternoon in Amen Corner, Jordan Spieth stepped up to No. 12 and stuck it right next to the flag.

A year too late.

“I really could have used that one 12 months ago,” Spieth quipped Tuesday, mustering a smile before heading over the Hogan Bridge for a tap-in delivered with an Arnold Palmer-like flourish.

The Augusta National patrons roared with laughter. But for anyone who takes a bit of self-deprecation during a practice round as a sign that Spieth has gotten over the green jacket that got away, think again.

The sting is still there.

You can hear it in his voice.

“Certainly you don’t want to hold stuff in,” Spieth said. “That would be crazy.”

If not for a meltdown at the shortest hole on the course, a mere 155 yards, the 23-year-old would have been talking Tuesday about his quest to become the first player to win three straight Masters. Instead he was reminiscing again about the biggest disappointment of his young, flourishing career.

In 2016, Spieth made the turn on the final day with a commanding five-shot lead. He gave away some of that cushion with back-to-back bogeys at the 10th and 11th, but it was at the par-3 12th, the devilish little hole known as Golden Bell, that he lost the tournament.

First, he splashed his tee shot into Rae’s Creek. Then, from the drop zone, he chunked another one into the water. Just like that, he was on the way to a quadruple-bogey 7 that ensured it would always be one of those Masters remembered more for how it was lost than how it was won.

Back in December, when Spieth returned to Augusta National for the first time since that fateful day to play a round with friends, he was thinking about what happened on the last day of the Masters. When he played the 12th on Tuesday, in front of a large gallery but merely for practice, it was on his mind again.

When the tournament begins, he expects more of the same.

“It will surely be there and it has been there,” said Spieth. “It is one of the many tournaments I’ve lost given a certain performance on a hole or a stretch of holes. It happens in this game.”

TOMMY FLEETWOOD is making his second appearance at the Masters, the first as a player.

Three years ago, Fleetwood came to the Masters as a spectator because he figured he would be in the field at Augusta National and it wouldn’t hurt to take in the entire experience of Masters week.

It just didn’t work out that way.

The 26-year-old from England was No. 52 in the world deep into 2014 and signed up for the Dubai Open on the Asian Tour with hopes of cracking the top 50 by the end of the year to get a Masters invitation. He missed the cut and finished the year at No. 51.

If nothing else, he figured that trip in 2014 as a spectator would keep him from being in awe when he did make it as a player. Wrong again.

“It doesn’t quite work like that. When you get to the golf course, it’s still the same feelings,” Fleetwood said. “It doesn’t disappoint when you arrive, and you drive down Magnolia Lane.”

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