AUGUSTA, GA — Throughout the first nine holes of Sunday’s final round at the Masters, Sergio García was greeted with thunderous applause from the grandstands. Just 15 years ago, when he was perceived as precocious but persnickety, he was ridiculed by crowds at American major golf championships. But now García, 37, was a fan favorite.
He had the empathy of the galleries because they knew the 18 holes of Augusta National Golf Club had grown to be his personal house of horrors. Before this year, García had contended for the Masters title six times and never finished higher than eighth. Sometimes he fell all the way to 38th or 40th.
People will always root for someone trying to shed a millstone. Enough is enough.
And besides, this was the first April that García had arrived at Augusta promising a new, uplifting outlook. His normal mien, which he had never done anything to hide, had been to expect the worst. If he was promising to turn over a new leaf, the crowd was playing along. It cheered him as he left the ninth green and walked toward that famed golf crucible: the back nine on a Sunday at the Masters.
But within minutes, the spectators felt sorry for him all over again.
Poor Sergio. Same old Sergio. There he was, going to pieces again.
He bogeyed the 10th and 11th holes, and on the 13th hole his tee shot was so deep in the bushes he had to declare it unplayable. His playing partner and good friend, Justin Rose, appeared to be running away with the championship.
And then something unexpectedly good finally happened to García on a Masters Sunday.
He made a sparkling recovery for a par on the 13th, followed by a birdie on the 14th hole and a stunning eagle on the 15th.
The fans, his newest best friends, were delirious and even hugging in the stands. You could see their thoughts in their eyes: Sergio might actually win this thing.
Not so fast. Three timid putts on consecutive holes led to a playoff with Rose. But it was just his Masters demons toying with him again. It turns out García had suffered enough. He sank a birdie putt on the first playoff to clinch the title, eliciting, once more, unbridled applause.
“I felt like I was back in Spain,” García , the third Spaniard to win the Masters, said of the crowd’s reaction. “It’s been a long, long wait, but it’s that much sweeter because of that wait. People believed in me, sometimes more than I did, and that mattered a great deal.”
Even Rose, a British golfer who is himself popular around the globe, gave credit to the galleries for their role in his friend’s victory.
“I was quite pleased to see people rallying around Sergio, because he’s had his fair share of heartbreak,” Rose said, well aware that García had gone 73 previous major championship tournaments without a victory. “He often feels like he’s not supported the way he wants to be in America. But this time, that wasn’t the case.
“The crowd was mostly with him, and I think it’s because people felt like it was his time. They realized that he’s paid his dues. Sergio is the best player not to have won a major no longer.”
García said he found himself strangely at ease even as his game appeared to be unraveling.
And then something unexpectedly good finally happened to García on a Masters Sunday.
“Even at 13, I felt calm — it was the calmest I ever felt at a major championship on a Sunday,” he said. “Even the bogeys did not bother me. And when we got on the green, I knew that if I could make a par, I could do some good things and still maybe catch Justin.”
You could see their thoughts in their eyes: Sergio might actually win this thing.
García made a stirring up and down to make that par, and when Rose’s five-foot birdie putt slid past the hole, García trailed by only two strokes. He cut that deficit in half with the birdie on the 14th, then smashed his next drive 330 yards down the middle. His downhill 8-iron from 192 yards will be the shot that is most replayed when the highlights of the 2017 Masters are shown for years to come.
García’s ball was tracking for the pin from the time it left his club, and it landed just a few inches from the hole before ricocheting off the flagstick and caroming 14 feet away.
“I wonder if that hit the flag?” García asked with a smile. In other years, there is a chance he would have bemoaned the outcome, cursing his fate since even a nearly perfect shot ended up so far from the hole.
On Sunday, García simply sank the putt instead. The tournament was never the same after that moment, and most likely, García’s career will never be the same, either.
“Not letting things get to me that used to get to me in the past has been a big step forward for me,” he said. “I’m not going to lie — I didn’t always feel this way, and not at Augusta, because I started to feel uncomfortable here. But I came to be at peace with it. I accepted what I needed to change. I feel perfectly at home now.”
At dusk on Sunday, wearing the green jacket that is awarded to the winner of the Masters, García was cheered anew at a ceremony behind the 18th green.
García’s career will never be the same, either
Sergio García bowed, then stood straight and blew kisses to the crowd.