GOLF: US MASTERSTHE GREATEST golfer of them all used to refer to stomach-churning days in the final round of a major. Invariably, Jack Nicklaus found a way to soothe such nerves; discovering that victory is the best elixir of them all.
Yesterday, the 76th edition of the US Masters at Augusta National plunged a veritable horde of men with questionable fashion sense but with eyes on a green jacket into such tightening of the abdominal muscles.
And, on a day of beautiful sunshine, and a course set-up that teased those in contention to adopt an aggressive attitude, American Bubba Watson and South African Louis Oosthuizen were locked just such a stomach-churning duel that went all the way to the death.
The sudden death was as dramatic as anything that went before it. Firstly, Oosthuizen’s birdie putt on the 18th – the first play-off hole – from 15 feet slipped by the hole, before Watson’s from 10 feet slid by. On the 10th, a downhill par four of 495 yards where Rory McIlroy’s dream perished a year ago, left-hander Watson pulled his drive into the trees down the right. And, lo and behold, Oosthuizen – who switched from driver to three-wood – pushed his tee-shot into the trees only for it to rebound back into play into the first cut with 231 yards to the green. Oosthuizen’s approach came up short.
Playing off the pine straws, through a gap in the trees, Watson responded with a piece of magic. He conjured up a snap-hook, with a wedge, that flew 155 yards to within 12 feet. A miracle shot, a la Seve Ballesteros of old. When Oosthuizen bogeyed, Watson, had two putts to win, He duly took them, to claim the green jacket. It was his.
In regulation, Watson had a 15-footer for birdie on the final green to win, but it gently slid by and he finished with a 68 for 278, 10-under-par, that was matched by Oosthuizen’s 69 for the same mark to force that sudden-death play-off. The pair finished two shots ahead of a quartet of Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Peter Hanson and Matt Kuchar.
Twists and turns, there were many. For everyone.
Although Sweden’s Hanson carried the 54-hole lead into the final round, the deeds of others – as much as the heartache he inflicted on himself, which included a shanked tee-shot on the short 12th – ensured that the final day race for the first major of the season would be a heart-thumping, spine-tingling affair with drama to match anything that had gone in its storied past.
One by one, players tossed their names into the hat to be picked out as champion. One of them was Pádraig Harrington, who played as well tee-to-green as anyone in the madcap race to the line. Unfortunately for the Dubliner, seeking a fourth Major title and first since his US PGA win of 2008, the putter – which had behaved for the first three rounds – became his Achilles heel.
Time and time again, Harrington – who’d started vie strokes behind Hanson – used glorious approach shots to set up birdie chances. Time and time again, his putter behaved like a bold pupil unwilling to do its master’s will. He’ll look back on missed, and genuine, birdie chances on the third, fifth, seventh, 11th, 12th, 14th and 16th holes and probably think that this was one that got away.
A double bogey on the last simply served to rub salt into the wound, as Harrington finished with a 72 for 284, on four-under where he started the day, which left the Dubliner in tied-eighth. “I putted well, I just didn’t hole them. I wasnt reading them right,” said Harrington.
In fairness, Harrington wasn’t alone in perhaps thinking the gods had toyed with him on a day when the roars reverberated around the course with a giddiness and a continuity that seemed to make the noise a constant presence.
Of all the scene-setting shots, Oosthuizen’s albatross two on the par five second, a hole of 575 yards, was historic. The fourth albatross in Masters history, it was the first ever on the second and it gave the South African – winner of the British Open in 2010 – a lead he held for the vast bulk of the round until Watson’s run of birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie from the 13th the huge-hitting left-hander a share of the lead.
A year on from his meltdown, Rory McIlroy – back as US Open champion – discovered that scars can take time to heal. Again, he struggled on a Sunday at the Masters. “It’s just one of those things. I will come back next year and try my best again,” said McIlroy, who laboured to a 76 for 293 that left him in tied-40th, perhaps fittingly, alongside Tiger Woods.
Graeme McDowell, though, finally found a way to play the classic MacKenzie design. The Ulsterman shot a closing 68 – his best-ever round in his fifth Masters appearance – to finish on 286, two under, that gave him a tied-13th place finish.
Stomach-churning, for everyone. But oh so exhilarating too!
