South African Charles Schwartzel won the first major of the season, The Masters, which concluded Sunday in Augusta.
Fifty years after (no, not Yuri Gagarin went into space) South African Gary Player became the first overseas player to win at Augusta National Golf Club, his 26-year-old compatriot Charles Schwartzer won his first major there. The 26-year-old posted a final score of 14-under par, two strokes ahead of Australia’s Adam Scott and Jason Day.
The South African started the final round as one of the chasers of the tournament’s undisputed leader, Rory McIlroy. He, along with three other golfers, was four strokes behind the Northern Irishman. But Sunday was definitely Schwartzel’s day. He was also getting plenty of help from his competitors.
The South African made a birdie on the first hole and an igloo on the fourth. His bogey on the fifth didn’t faze him… After pausing for a moment, the 26-year-old from Johannesburg kept par for the next ten holes and carded four birdies in a row on the final four. Schwartzel completed his triumphant performance at the Masters with an 18-foot putt.
“By the 15th hole, I was in a pretty tight spot, and I had to do something,” Schwartzel said. “It was a very exciting day. So much noise! The atmosphere is indescribable. Just phenomenal!”
In general, the leader of the competition changed no less than 15 times during the final round. Woods was the first to cause confusion. The most popular golfer of today, who hasn’t had a tournament win in 17 months, started with birdies on the second and third holes, but bogeyed on the short fourth. Birdie putts on the sixth and seventh and a terrific putt on the eighth, made possible by two amazing strokes into the slide and a neat putt from 10 feet. On the ninth hole, Woods, even after hitting a sand bunker, miraculously saved par and gave himself a chance to break the drought. But that didn’t happen. The American made a bogey on the three-par 12th hole, missing by just a couple of centimeters, but couldn’t make it right on the rest of the field. The American could make the much-needed needle on the 15th hole, but he settled for a birdie and parred the rest. He ended up sharing fourth place with Australia’s Geoff Ojilvy and England’s Luke Donald in fourth place.
By the way, Donald, the triumphant winner of the traditional Par 3 Contest showdown on the Wednesday before the main event, was at one point poised to take a big win. But fatal for him was the 12th hole where he, who sent the ball into the water, was recorded a double bogey. Argentinian Angel Cabrera and South Korean Kei Jae Choi, the 2009 Masters champion, also shared an interim lead, and soon all eyes were on Scott, Schwartzel and Day.
Scott took the lead after a birdie on the 14th hole and a superb tee shot on the 16th brought him closer to becoming the first champion from Australia, but while his compatriot and final round partner Day performed a birdie on the final two holes, Scott himself was unable to surpass par there. In the end, one of the Green Continent’s representatives carded a 67 in the final round, the other a 68, and that wasn’t enough to knock off the trailing Schwartzel.
Rory McIlroy is unlikely to want to remember this Sunday. The 21-year-old gripped the lead after the first round and consolidated his lead to four strokes at the end of the third. But the final day of competition was a nightmare for the star from Northern Ireland. Only one birdie to four bogeys plus two double bogeys on the 10th and 12th holes! In the end, it took Rory 80 strokes to make it past the par-72 course, his worst score of the day.
McIlroy finished only 15th in the final scorecard. And The Masters title went not to Northern Ireland, but to South Africa. Now representatives of the African, not a small European country, own half of the majors – the winner of the Open Championship, recall, since the summer of 2010 is Louis Osthuizen. And by the way, taking into account the fact that last year the US Open was won by Northern Irishman Graham McDowell and the US PGA – by German Martin Kaymer, we can state that the Americans now do not own titles of any of the majors. For the first time since 1994.
