Garcia wins 81st Masters in playoff

Sergio Garcia on Sunday joined Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal as the only three Spanish golfers to ever win a Masters.

The Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia has ended almost 20 years of major disappointment, in beating England’s Justin Rose in a playoff to win the U.S. Masters.

Following a titanic tussle that saw both overnight leaders shoot 69 on Sunday and finish nine under after the regulation 72 holes, it was Garcia – so often golf’s almost man – who prevailed on the first extra hole following an enthralling finale. “It’s a course you can get to know and be competitive here for a long, long time”.

QUOTEWORTHY: “I felt a calmness that I never felt on a major Sunday”.

“I had chills from about 75 yards out and to have everyone here to support me, what an honor”, Hagestad said. “To do it on his 60th birthday, it’s something wonderful”.

Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff to cap a spectacular final round on Sunday.

“It was a great battle with Sergio all day”, Rose said.

“I feel really confident here, this my favourite tournament of the year”. “He’s had his fair share of heartbreak, so he deserves it”.

“I played nicely on the front”.

Garcia became the fifth global player to win the Masters via playoff and the first since Adam Scott in 2013. Jose sent me a text this week to say how much he believed in me, and that I needed to believe in myself.

“It’s been an wonderful week”, Garcia said, “and I’m going to enjoy it for the rest of my life”. But his putt never had a chance and veered right from the hole.

Rose’s tee forced him to punch onto the fairway which presented a huge opportunity to Garcia, one that he took thanks to some solid play combined with Rose’s mistake.

Garcia birdied the first playoff hole and Rose made bogey, after his tee shot bounced out onto pine straw near the fairway while Garcia found the fairway. “We wanted to beat the other guy not the other guy to lose”.

Pieters may have been unable to become the first debutant to win here since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979, but boy did the 25-year-old Belgian give it a good go.

Garcia and England’s Rose, the 2016 Rio Olympic champion and 2013 US Open victor, were deadlocked on nine-under par 279 after 72 holes. “I hit the putt exactly where I wanted, I practiced that putt in the practice rounds, and it breaks left, but somehow it didn’t”. “I hit it where I wanted”.

The gallery was in disbelief that these two golfers could handle the pressure and hit back-to-back shots like that, but it was Rose who sank the birdie. He had to take a one-stroke penalty for an unplayable shot, but he still managed to salvage par. Spieth, though, started clawing back with a birdie on No. 16 to reframe his focus and, although he was 10 shots down, he had confidence he could contend. Garcia got out there with his four.

“I’m disappointed. It’s pretty simple”, Rose said. I really stepped up. I think that they realized that he paid his dues, and they realized that he’s been close so many times. His rally took off on Saturday with five birdies on a 10-hole stretch for a 68 to leave him just two back heading into the final round.

Garcia birdied the 14th to get within one.

“And this week, I’ve done it better than I’ve ever had, and because of that, I’ve looked at the course in a different way throughout the whole week”.

Now, all Rose could do was watch as Sergio Garcia curled in a 12-foot birdie to finish off a dramatic duel at Augusta National.

Not two hours earlier, it looked like the Masters was his for the taking.