ESPN - Charl Schwartzel gave this Masters a finish it deserved.
On
an amazing Sunday at Augusta National, where the roars came from
everywhere and for everyone and didn't stop until it was over,
Schwartzel emerged from the madness by becoming the first Masters
champion to close with four straight birdies.
His final putt from 20 feet curled into the side of the cup for a
6-under 66, the best closing round at the Masters in 22 years. It gave
the 26-year-old South African a two-shot victory over Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day.
"Just an exciting day," Schwartzel said. "So many roars, and that atmosphere out there was just incredible. A phenomenal day."
Indeed, this final round had it all.
First came a fist-pumping charge by Tiger Woods,
who erased a seven-shot deficit in nine holes only to go flat on the
back nine. Then came the stunning collapse of 21-year-old Rory McIlroy, who put his name in Masters lore for all the wrong reasons.
Still
leading by one shot as he headed to the back nine, McIlroy hit a tee
shot next to the cabins left of the 10th fairway and twice hit a tree to
make triple bogey. He three-putted from 7 feet for bogey on the 11th,
four-putted from about 12 feet on the next hole and buried his head into
his forearm as the shock began to settle in.
McIlroy shot 80, the
highest final round by the 54-hole leader since Ken Venturi in 1956.
Not since Jean Van de Velde at Carnoustie had someone blown at least a
four-shot lead going into the last round of the major.
Let's start with the epic collapse of the young buck Rory. With everyone telling me before the golf started yesterday that Rory had it locked up, this makes me laugh even more. The kid is 21 and has never had pressure like this in his life. You couldn't expect him to come out and shoot in the 60's again. I expected a par round, or maybe one under, but this collapse was one of the worst in history. You almost feel bad for the kid, because it was such and epic choke job.
For more casual golf fans yesterday was a great day. First off there was always about 10 golfers in the race to win the thing and Tiger Woods was one of them. Tiger showed that he still has some gas left in the tank for a Sunday round at a major tournament. If his putting didn't look like a 2 year old girl on Saturday, he would be the champion right now. Although he didn't win, he did give us hope that he can win a couple more major's before his day is done. With that said I will be watching a lot more golf this year than I would have if he played like shit all weekend. Tiger Blood lives on.........for now.
Oh yeah, as for Charl Schwartzel, we will probably never hear his name again.
-Dow
Submit your news, pictures, and videos to customerservice@backyardtees.com
