Legend dented
AUGUSTA, Ga. – A 4-iron wasn’t the only thing that Tiger Woods broke Sunday at the Masters.
Fractured, too, was the myth that the man couldn’t be beat once he grabbed the outright lead in the final round of a major.
Twice before, Woods had been caught and passed. But both times – in the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla and here a year later – Woods came out on top. In this wackiest of Masters, he held the lead for all of a few minutes after making a birdie at the second hole, then spent the rest of the day trying in vain to catch a rotating cast of characters going by him in Augusta National’s passing lane.
“I had a chance, but looking back over the week, I basically blew this tournament on two rounds where I had bogey-bogey finishes,” Woods said, referring to Nos. 17 and 18.
“That’s 4-over on two holes,” he added. “You can’t afford to do that and win major championships.”
Broken club worth risk
Woods lost a golf club but saved a par at the Masters on Sunday.
Already enduring a difficult day, Woods snapped one of his middle irons while punching out from behind a tree on the 11th hole.
His drive landed to the right and slightly behind one of the pines that was planted in recent years specifically to make the layout at Augusta National more difficult.
He took a swing to punch the ball back into the fairway and the shaft of the club rammed into trunk of the tree and bent in half. Woods let go of the club as soon as he could after making contact, knowing he could have broken his arm or hand had he held on.
Instead, it was the club that took the abuse.
Woods picked it up after the shot and finished the job, snapping it in two. He saved par on the hole to stay at 5 over, but was still three behind the leaders with six holes left.
The Rules of Golf state that players can replace a club if it is broken in the course of normal play, though there were no signs that he was looking for a replacement.
Second place not so bad
Retief Goosen had cleaned out his locker, packed his bags and was angling to catch a flight home for the weekend. Rory Sabbatini didn’t have much reason to believe he’d be hanging around at the Masters either come Sunday.
They say second place makes you nothing more than the “first loser” at tournaments like these, but for the two South Africans who finished tied with Tiger Woods as runners-up, second place didn’t seem so bad.
“A very special moment,” Sabbatini called it after a round of 3-under-par 69 that included a 75-foot carnival putt on No. 8 that briefly gave him the lead.
That putt – a round-the-world, multiple breaker – had pretty much everything going for it but the clown’s mouth and the windmill.
It was good for eagle and, with Sabbatini running around, doffing his visor and celebrating as if he’d just won the tournament, it was exactly the kind of made-for-TV moment the Masters has been famous for over the years.
The ungainly bogey he made to follow that eagle, then another bogey on No. 14 after the wind pushed his drive right, were great examples of how wickedly difficult Augusta National had become this week.
“From there, it was pretty much just trying to recover, and I didn’t get it done,” said the 31-year-old, who finished the tournament at 3-over 291, two strokes behind winner Zach Johnson.
Still, Sabbatini gets some nice crystal for the eagle, a handsome paycheck, some publicity beyond just being known as a fast-playing hothead and a nice dose of confidence for his next major.
No-factor Phil
Phil Mickelson didn’t bother waiting until the last hole for this Sunday meltdown at a major.
Never much of a factor this week, the defending Masters champion ended any chance he had of winning with a triple bogey on the par-4 No. 1.
“I didn’t feel I played that well. Certainly not as well as I wanted,” Mickelson said after shooting a 5-over 77 that left him tied for 24th.
“It wasn’t my day, but it sure turned out to be an exciting Masters with a lot of guys in it, eagles on the back nine, birdies.
“I just wasn’t one of them.”
Mickelson arrived at Augusta brimming with confidence. He’d already won once this year, at Pebble Beach, and thought he’d figured out the driving woes that led to his 72nd-hole collapse at the U.S. Open last year.
He’d won two of the last three Masters, and was considered the guy to beat along with Tiger Woods.