AUGUSTA – Disorder reigned for much of the world's most buttoned-down golf tournament Sunday. So many contenders for the 75th Masters that a golf telecast took on the look of a "Glee" production number. A gory meltdown of a 54-hole leader, who practically played one shot from a front porch rocking chair. A succession of charges and retreats by players impossible to keep track of without the help of the control tower at Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
But when clarity arrived, as it inevitably must at the Masters, it came in a closing rush of birdies by South African Charl Schwartzel. From the chaos emerged a fitting winner at a fitting time – leaving only the confusion about the spelling of the champion’s name. Yes: Charl (no "es") Schwartzel (like the lead in a Mel Brooks golf movie).
Fifty years after another South African, Gary Player, became the first international player to win the Masters, Schwartzel, 26, seized control of a tournament dominated by internationals. He was the one who played the most reliable – and sometimes stunning – golf. His first three holes Sunday featured a chip-in birdie and a hole-out eagle. He went 4 under on his final four holes. And in between, he was unflappable even as the roars echoed all around him, signaling challenges from every piney corner.
So, how did it happen? “It was always going to come down to the back nine, who makes the birdies coming in,” he said.
No one could hang when he went on his binge.
Oh, how they tried.
Tiger Woods, with a front side 31, made his most passionate argument yet that he is coming back from his self-inflicted collapse. The autopsy of his Sunday will reveal a familiar problem – a balky putter when it mattered. His 3-putt bogey on the par-3 12th and a lip out of a five-foot eagle putt on No. 15 stole the wind he needed to carry him to the lead.
Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day made fine charges – it wasn’t their fault that Australia remains winless at the Masters. Both shot under par on the back side, and never once channeled their inner Greg Norman.
A revolving cast of characters floated to the top – at various times there was as much a five-way tie for the lead. Your Cabreras, your Chois, even your Van Pelts were momentary factors.
But in the end, this tournament will be remembered for two characters, one classic, the other most tragic.
By the time Rory McIlroy – the leader throughout the first three rounds – walked to the third tee Sunday, every bit of his four-shot lead had evaporated.
In front of him was a wall of noise created when Schwartzel deposited his 114-yard wedge shot for eagle. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a roar that loud around me,” Schwartzel said. He had just tied McIlroy at 11 under.
McIlroy was able to maintain at least a share of the lead until the turn.
What followed was the greatest Irish tragedy since Charlie Weis.
Standing at the tee on No. 10, he owned a one-shot lead over three players. Had he known the golfing horrors to come, he would have dropped his driver, walked to his car and headed straight for the nearest pub.
The closest McIlroy would get to the Butler Cabin, where they take the Masters winner for his CBS interview, would be with his tee shot off 10. He flew it obscenely left, between two of the cabins where the Augusta National membership “roughs” it.
It just got uglier from there. Sensitive children should read no further.
He chipped out of the cabin side yard through to the right side of the fairway. Then back across the fairway, missing the green far right. He hit a tree trying to chip from there, finally he chipped on and took two putts for a triple-bogey 7.
The leader the first three-plus rounds of the Masters was cooked. A four-putt effort on No. 12 increased the agony, and the poor 21-year-old limped in with an 80.
“You know, I’m very disappointed at the moment, and I’m sure I will be for the next few days, but I’ll get over it. I’ve got to take the positives, and the positives were I led this golf tournament for 63 holes,” he said, trying to mitigate the awful implosion.
And then, there was Schwartzel, providing the coolness under pressure.
As he said, “There were so many roars going on around Augusta – always a roar, every single hole you were walking down, someone was doing something.”
And yet, “I felt surprisingly very calm.”
He carved up the last four holes with precision iron work. While he didn’t need the birdie at 18, his wedge to 14 feet and putt that died so deliciously in the hole, was the perfect finishing note.
“I don’t know Charl too well but that (finish) is really, really special,” said runner-up Day. “To finish the way he did was just magnificent.”
A young man who grew up on a South Africa chicken farm, Schwartzel recounted earlier this week how much he enjoyed the hard work of rural life. “I loved to work with my hands. I loved to sweat,” he said. Was he ever in the right place Sunday, with temperatures reaching near 90 and an entire world of golfers breathing on his every swing.
His background should also serve him well come next year’s Champions Dinner, should he require a price break on whole roasters.
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