Now, that hurts
Garcia cards a 13 on the par-5 15th to end repeat bid at Masters
enter into a seven-way tie for fourth. Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., who won the tournament in 2003, was 4-over 76 to tie for 62nd.
Rory McIlroy, needing only a green jacket to compete the career Grand Slam, also took notice. He played in the group ahead of Spieth, and McIlroy was scratching our key par saves just to stay in range. He was in the large group at 69, the solid start McIlroy needed, especially with how Spieth was going.
It was the first time since 2011 that McIlroy broke 70 in the first round at Augusta.
“Jordan had a pretty strong finish there,” McIlroy said. “But this is my best start in a few years. It’s such a hard golf course to play catch up on. If you start to chase it around here, that’s when you start to make mistakes. But to be right up there and have the ability to stay patient, because of the position I’m in, that’s a nice luxury I have over the next few days.”
The best comeback? That might now belong to Finau.
On the eve of his first Masters, he made a hole-in-one on the seventh hole of the Par 3 Tournament, raced toward the green to celebrate and as he turned back toward the tee, his left ankle rolled. Finau went down, the ankle contorted, and he popped it into place. He wasn’t sure he could play until tests showed he was cleared to play.
And he played great, opening with a 68 despite a short par putt that he missed on the 14th hole.
“I was just extremely happy that nothing was seriously wrong with my foot,” he said. “Quite honestly, it was a pretty cool moment followed by probably one of my most embarrassing moments and a scary moment at the same time. It was quite crazy, all the emotions that I dealt with overnight, but I was more than ecstatic to just be walking to that first tee and be playing in my first Masters.”
AUGUSTA, Ga. — This time, Sergio Garcia offered no excuses.
Blame this one on the golf gods? Not a chance. Even they couldn’t possibly be this cruel.
One moment Garcia was fighting to get back to even par and in contention at the Masters. The next he was writing a double-digit number on his scorecard that effectively ended any chance he had of defending his Masters title. Even for the mercurial Spaniard, this was uncharted territory.
“It’s the first time in my career where I make a 13 without missing a shot,” Garcia said. “Simple as that.”
Well, not exactly. If it were that simple, Garcia might have a lot more prized possessions in his display case than the green jacket he won in a memorable back nine charge last year that included an eagle on the par-5 15th hole.
He won’t get another this year after an implosion on the very same hole that someday might have its own special spot in Masters lore.
Unfortunately for Garcia, for all the wrong reasons.
Five straight shots into the water. Four of them from less than 100 yards with a sand wedge in his hand.
And, finally, a one-putt from 10 feet for a 13 on No. 15 that sent golf writers scurrying to the internet to find out what to call it.
For the record, it was an octuple bogey.
Also for the record, it was the highest score posted by any player ever on the hole that played second easiest for the field, and part of an 81 that was the highest score ever shot by a defending champion in the opening round of the Masters.
“I felt like I hit a lot of good shots and unfortunately the ball just didn’t want to stop,” Garcia said. “I don’t know, you know, it’s one of those things. So it’s just unfortunate, but that’s what it is.”
Give Garcia credit for at least trying to explain the unexplainable. But that’s Garcia, a walking contradiction over the years who once blamed the golf gods for stealing a British Open title from him.
He’s rarely shied away from answering questions, and seems to try his best to answer them honestly. For years the biggest question was why he couldn’t win a major, something his win last year here finally put to rest.
Compared to that, this answer was relatively simple.
“I felt like the ball was going to stop and unfortunately for whatever reason it didn’t want to,” Garcia said.
Good enough, though perhaps not quite as memorable as the response of his idol, the late Seve Ballesteros, when asked how he fourputted at the 1986 Masters.
“I miss, I miss, I miss, I make,” Ballesteros said.
If golf is a crazy game, so is Garcia’s relationship with it. He was supposed to be a rival for Tiger Woods after they had a showdown at the 1999 PGA Championship, and is known as one of the finest strikers of the ball in golf.
But his putting was always suspect, and so was the space between his ears. Garcia often pouted when things went bad, and took to blaming unknown outside factors for his failures to capitalize in the major championships.
But now he has a green jacket in his closet, and a new wife and a newborn baby at home. Her name is Azalea — yes, after the bushes that flower on the back nine of Augusta National — and she’ll be a constant reminder of the greatest triumph of his golfing career.
Yes, he’ll still have a green jacket in his hand when Sunday rolls around. But this time he’ll be putting it around someone else’s shoulders.