Zach Johnson captures The Masters title by two
The Goliath certainly fell today. Even the players who could be considered "fairly likely" to win fell to Zach Johnson. Johnson was certainly unlikely, the commentators on CBS were counting him out and assuming he would falter when Tiger made eagle early on the back nine.
Of course, Johnson wasn't just any professional golfer. Coming into the 2007 Masters, Johnson had a single win on the PGA Tour. He was the second best golfer on his high school team and was not invited to play collegiate golf at his dream school, Iowa. Johnson headed to Drake, the only school where he was offered a scholarship, and then went on to play assorted mini-tours for tiny purses and a sleep-in-your-car lifestyle.
Johnson faced barriers too in this week alone. No player has won The Masters without being in the final pairing since Nick Faldo. That said, not being in the last pairing isn't necessarily a bad thing. Especially when Tiger is in that pairing.
Stuart Appleby, partner of Tiger Woods on Sunday, played strong for awhile before dropping a ball into the drink. With that, Appleby fell soundly out of contention.
Young South African Rory Sabbatini made a Sunday charge after firing a three under par 69. That performance was matched by fellow South African Retief Goosen. Both finished in a tie for second with Tiger Woods. Goosen seemed to be in it all day after overcoming adversity when making the Friday cut on the number. A win would potentially be the greatest comeback in the history of The Masters.
Tiger's game was off for most of the day. Following a mediocre front nine, Tiger needed some energy. It looked grim once Tiger found himself in the woods behind a pine tree without any way out. He took a chance going at the green, but viciously snapped an iron on the tree. The energy came on the 13th hole when Tiger smashed his second shot on the short par five onto the back of the green. In true Tiger fashion, the ball began to slowly roll back toward the flag all the way to several feet. Tiger made the eagle putt easily causing an eruption from the patrons at Augusta National. Fast forward several holes, and Tiger needed a birdie on both the 17th and 18th in order to force a playoff with Johnson, who was already in the clubhouse. Tiger put his approach shot in the bunker on 17, and followed with a decent approach on 18 when he needed to hole out.
Another possible contender on Sunday was Vijay Singh. Singh fired an extremely respectable two under par front nine, but made several bogeys on the back to finish the week at eight over par.
Zach Johnson ultimately won by two strokes to receive the green jacket from Phil Mickelson in Butler Cabin. Johnson's Sunday 69 was the best of the week for him and tied the lowest score on Sunday.
Augusta National provided an extremely difficult test of golf this week. Sunday played the easiest with a stroke average for the field at around 74.5 strokes. The winning one over par score tied the highest in the history of The Masters.
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