Sergio surges to a huge win
Sergio Garcia, above, holds off Justin Rose and wins the Masters in a playoff for the first major title of the Spaniard’s career.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The record will show that Sergio Garcia won his first major on his 74th try on the 73rd hole of the 81st Masters tournament.
But most who were watching on Sunday will tell you that he won the tournament on the 13th hole when he and Justin Rose both parred the hole.
Two pars decided the tournament?
It makes sense if you relive Sunday’s final round, which turned out to be match play between Garcia and Rose. In the end, it was the only pairing that mattered.
Garcia led by three after five holes.
Rose led by two after 11 holes.
They were tied at nine under after the 17th hole … and 18th.
“I knew I was playing well,” Garcia said. “I was very calm, much calmer than [Saturday], much calmer than I’ve felt in any major championship on Sunday.”
The first and only playoff hole started when Rose pushed his shot to the right, landing in the pine straw with a yawning tree branch blocking a natural route to the hole. All he could do was punch out and it wasn’t that good of a punch.
“If I had any option to try and do something creative, I certainly would have done so,” Rose said. “But I had a little pine cone behind the ball which meant I couldn’t really spin the ball. … So I really had nothing.”
Garcia had knocked his drive straight, almost 300 yards down the fairway.