“We want bogeys to be easy, pars to be made with good play, and birdies to be paid dearly,” said Bobby Jones, co-founder of the Masters and for some the best golfer ever. On the final day of the 86th edition, the Augusta National dressed up. Splendid sunshine, flags at the traditional locations, tens of thousands of skippers along the way, short sleeves… and two stellar matches.
The last to leave, the one who decided the winner between the American Scheffler and the Australian Smith; the other, the one that many would have wanted as a duel to close the Masters: Woods vs. Rahm. Tiger versus Lion. The myth of the 15 greats who returned after his accident measuring himself with the winner of the US Open who has dominated the ranking 36 weeks in a row and who sees golf in the image and likeness of his idol Seve Ballesteros.
The Masters – Final RoundJon Rahm and Tiger Woods.
Gregory Shamus (AFP)
Each impact, walk, look… was accompanied by the exhaustive attention of an almost compact mass because not even a soul could fit in the follow-up of the leading duo. Every success was celebrated with gibberish, every mistake with disproportionate regret. Tiger chose his iconic outfit to elevate the mystical potential of the moment: red top, black pants. The one on Sundays in which he elevated golf and gave birth to a legend that changed the sport.
Moments that every fan records in his memory. Like Rahm, the kid from Barrika, who recovered his best game despite the anger of the first 54 holes. On Thursday he broke a streak of fifteen consecutive rounds at Augusta at or below par and on Saturday he signed his worst card of the last 40 rounds in the majors with 77 strokes. But playing with Tiger and despite the initial bogey, he gave a recital with five birdies and only one error at 9 for 69 shots (-3 on the day, +4 in the tournament). The opposite of Woods, whose limp was already very pronounced, that he signed 78 hits (+6, +13 total). Nobody looked at the scoreboard, everyone gave a standing ovation to the Californian who is back despite the pain. Sergio Garcia finished with -1, +3 in the final computation. Top-30 for the two Spaniards: 23rd Sergio, 27th Jon.
Augusta enjoyed it, but the main course was missing: meeting the successor of the Japanese Matsuyama. Smith pressed with birdie on 1 and 2… but 3 was the key, on a sporting and psychological level. A prodigious chip put in by Scheffler together with a bogey by his rival, who repeated his mistake in the 4th, reassured the number one who began to carburete, unlike the ‘aussie’. Change of dynamics that the 25-year-old North American closed like a steamroller to achieve with -10 (double bogey on 18) his first major, and first green jacket, (fourth victory in the last six played after not winning any of the first 70 on the PGA Tour) despite the final exhibition, with an astonishing blow included from the bunker on 18, by Rory McIllroy (-8, for the final -7). Only nine players managed to deliver the final card in red.