While thousands of players were competing for prime prizes within the Sunday Majors last weekend, the general round of the Masters golf was concluding at Augusta National. 

Undoubtedly there have been nightmares endured on the tables, but so too in Georgia, where the reigning champion Jordan Spieth underwent a collapse some say he'll struggle to place behind him. 

For folks who were too distracted on the tables to watch, Spieth's trouble happened at Amen corner, specifically the 12th hole, a par three 155 yard short-iron shot, and a water hazard that might cost him four shots. That turned his leading score of 5 under par (accumulated over three and a half days) into that of a runner-up, and all in precisely ten minutes. 

To his credit Spieth pulled a shot back at the next hole, but he'd never come on the subject of the lead again. He walked off the general hole bewildered. British player Danny Willett took full advantage to say his first winner's jacket. 

Having reporting at the EPT for almost ten years, I've often asked whether another sport or activity mimics poker for its inconsistency, and for that random element that frustrates even probably the most talented of player. 

The best I MAY do, if it was a tad anthropomorphic, was horse racing (a large "player pool", different winners every time. But comparing people to horses doesn't quite fit. A GREATER analogy, as one high stakes player explained, was golf.

Golf has that very same unpredictability. Players are troubled as much by those things they can not control as what they may be able to: conditions, the bounce of a ball, the slope of a green, all of which they ought to absorb as being a part of the game. 

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of professional golfers across the world, lots of whom win one week then fail to make the cut the next. They have periods of fine form, but are just ever a single mistake clear of ruining an otherwise faultless display.  One bad hole, not unlike one bad hand, asks difficult questions of your character as you endeavour to come again on level terms. 

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Spieth experienced something like this on Sunday, ditching what gave the impression to be a sure lead until the 12th. "It was really one swing," he told ESPN. What number of poker players leave a tournament prematurely, thinking "It was really one hand"?

Well, it's an exhaustive list. 

Take Dzmitry Urbanovich within the EPT Grand Final high roller last season. He led almost to the bell until mistakes handed victory to Eric Seidel (Urbanovich has since proved it's possible to recover). 

Philip Hilm famously blew up at the 2007 WSOP Main Event final table, bluffing off a chip result in eventual winner Jerry Yang. 

Even last weekend, Daniel Palsson of Iceland was stacked at UKIPT London and on target to achieve the overall table. Then a mistake (that you would be able to examine here at 8:29pm) cost him everything, and handed a huge result in eventual winner Usman Siddique. 

It can strike anywhere. 

But, like every great players Spieth, still just 22, will recover. All you are able to do is dust yourself off and set about rebuilding, and similar to in poker, you need to achieve this alone. 

Plenty of similarities then to make golf arguably poker's spiritual cousin? Just don't mention the entire fresh air sunshine. 

Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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