By Ray Bennett
Sunday April 10, 2011
In a long rich tradition of South African golfers, names like Gary Player, Ernie Els and Trevor Immelman come to mind. You can add another name to that list.
On Sunday, Charl Schwartzel, a 25-year-old from Johannesburg, became the third South African to win The Masters. He outlasted Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day on the final few holes to capture his first major championship. His win capped off a wild final round at Augusta, which saw many lead changes.
Schwartzel started out the day at -8. Paired with K.J Choi, Schwartzel started out his final round with a birdie on the first hole. Two holes later on a Par 4, Schwartzel chipped in an eagle for a tie for the lead at -11. He finish the front nine at -10 after a bogey on the fourth hole.
Schwartzel and the rest of the contending field caught a huge break on the back nine after a monumental collapse from Rory McIlroy. McIlroy held the lead through his run in the front nine at -11. He then hit the wall on the tenth hole. After his first shot went way off the course, McIlroy had to shoot out of many obstacles. This resulted in a triple bogey, knocking him out of the lead for the first time in the tournament. A bogey on the next hole and a double bogey on the Par 3 twelfth doomed his chances of becoming the second youngest golfer ever to win The Masters at the age of 21 years and 11 months. He finished the day shooting an 80 on the Par 72 course, finishing the tournament at -5 in a tie for fifteenth.
Once word spread of McIlroy's fall from the top of the leaderboad, the rest of the field took notice. Four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods managed to recover from a terrible third round. Entering the final round on Sunday, Woods was seven strokes off the lead. After two birdies and a bogey on his first five holes, Woods started to show his once feared poise by hitting birdies on six and seven. On the Par 5 eight hole, Woods hit an eagle putt to take his score to -10 and a tie for second place.
Woods and Schwartzel were in a huge battle on the back nine with others that were near the lead. Australians Adam Scott, Jason Day and Geoff Ogilvy started to make their move towards the lead. Ogilvy, who started the day at -5 with Woods, managed to get close to the lead on the back nine. After shooting an even 36 on the first nine holes, Ogilvy strung together five consecutive birdies on holes twelve through sixteen, ending the day at -10. Scott and Day teed off together in the final round. Scott had the upper hand on the front nine, shooting a 34 to Day's 36.
Scott made his move on the eleventh hole with a birdie to bring him to a five-way tie for second with Woods, Schwartzel, Choi and Angel Cabrera. Woods had many chances to take the lead on the back nine. After reaching the green on two shots on the Par 5 fifteen hole, Woods had an opportunity to take sole possession of the lead with an eagle. However, his shaky putting came back to haunt him as he missed the potential go-ahead eagle. He tapped in for birdie on his next putt. On the next hole, a 170+ yard Par 3, Tiger had a chance to tie for the lead. However, he missed his birdie putt, eventually saving for par. Woods finished at -10.
On the tail-end of the round, Schwartzel, Scott and Day made the final few holes very entertaining. Day got back in the hunt for the green jacket after getting birdies on thirteen and fourteen. After two Schwartzel birdies on fifteen and sixteen, Scott sunk a birdie putt on sixteen, bringing him to sole possession of first place for the first time in the tournament. After Scott hit par on seventeen, Schwartzel hit a key birdie put at seventeen to take the lead at -13.
Scott and Day entered the eighteenth and final hole in second and third place. After getting a 3 on seventeen, Day managed to get another birdie to bring his total tournament score -12. Day posted the best score from a golfer at his first Masters with a total of 276 strokes. Scott had a chance to tie with Schwartzel on his birdie putt. However, his putt broke away from the hole and Scott could only save it for par, finishing with a -12. This sealed the tournament for Schwartzel, who birdied the final hole when he only needed to two-putt to win.
This is Schwartzel's first win in a major tournament. With the victory, he joins Gary Player and Trevor Immelman as the only South Africans ever to win at The Masters. Player was first to win a green jacket in 1961. He added two more in the 1970s with wins in 1974 and 1978. Trevor Immelman, who finished this year's tournament tied for fifteenth at -4, won the tournament back in 2008. He also joins Ernie Els and Louis Oosthuizen as the fifth man from his country to win one of the four major tournaments (Masters, U.S. Open, The Open Championship, and The PGA Championship). This is also Schwartzel's first victory on American soil in his first official year on the PGA Tour.
(This story correctly identifies Ogilvy as Australian. The previous three stories misidentified him as South African)
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