Horror 13 shatters Sergio’s hopes of Masters title repeat

Sergio Garcia’s title defence effectively came to an embarrassing end as he took an amazing 13 shots to play the 15th hole in the opening round of the Masters.

Garcia dumped five balls into the water on the par five, where he made an eagle in last year’s final round, to record the highest score on the hole in tournament history.

The previous record was 11 shots, shared by Jumbo Ozaki, Ben Crenshaw and Ignacio Garrido.

After his second shot – with a six iron from 206 yards – found the water in front of the green, Garcia took a penalty drop and left himself around 90 yards to the green, but repeatedly hit wedge shots onto the putting surface and watched them spin back into the hazard.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Garcia said. “It’s one of those things. I feel like it’s the first time in my career where I make a 13 without missing a shot. Simple as that.

“I felt like I hit a lot of good shots and unfortunately the ball just didn’t want to stop. So it’s just unfortunate, but that’s what it is.

“It’s not the first time the pin’s been there, but with the firmness of the greens and everything I felt like the ball was going to stop and unfortunately for whatever reason it didn’t want to.”

Garcia did at least bounce back with a birdie on the 16th, but an 81 left him 86th in the 87-man field as Tiger Woods rallied to post an opening 73 in pursuit of his 15th major title.

“It was interesting, an up and down day for me today,” Woods told ESPN. “I had some opportunities to makes and didn’t do it. I played the par fives very sloppily and that was the difference in the round.”

J or danSpei th took the club houselead late on day one, posting a six under par round of 66, two ahead of Tony Finau and three ahead of a host of players, including Henrik Stenson.