When Tiger Woods played himself into Sunday's final pairing with a closing birdie in the third round, somehow there seemed very little doubt that he was going to win the Masters, that he wasn't going to back up, and that those behind him would have to go low just to have a chance. There's something mystique about his presence on top of or near the leaderboard-that aura of invincibility, especially in major championships.
Going into the Masters Sunday, Woods had won 22 out of 24 PGA Tour events in which he held or shared the lead after three rounds, and 6-for-6 in the same position in majors.
Now, make that 23-2 in Tour events and 7-0 in majors and counting; this guy is the best closer in golf.
The leaderboard after 54 holes at the Masters could not have been handpicked much better. It featured six of top seven players in the Official World Golf Ranking. Other than world's best Woods, other five top-ranked players-Phil Mickelson (No. 2), Ernie Els (No. 3), Retief Goosen (No. 4), Sergio Garcia (No. 5) and Vijay Singh (No. 7)-combined for five majors, including 2000 Masters triumph by Singh. Who's who in golf indeed.
The excitement and anticipation were palpable. Defending champ Woods and reigning U.S. Open winner Goosen were co-leaders paired in the final group. Playing ahead of them were other marquee pairings featuring Singh and Mickelson in one, and Els and Garcia in the other. These guys were about to make CBS look like a genius for going with 18-hole coverage in the final round starting this year.
Alas, great expectations only breed even greater disappointments. Other than that Woods made more history by defending his Masters title, it was an extremely, dare it be said, boring Masters.
Every one of so-called 'challengers' laid down and made sure Woods would win. The seemingly unflappable Goosen, who many thought had the right temperament to stare down Woods on a Sunday at a major, hooked his first tee shot, three putted the first green and lost five shots to Tiger in the first eight holes. Mickelson started birdie-birdie but immediately bogeyed the next two holes to fade away. Garcia bogeyed two of the first four holes and never recovered.
But it was two two-time major champs who wilted in the most shocking fashion. Els, three behind Woods on the 13th tee, hit his tee ball into the woods and two more into Rae's Creek for a triple-bogey 8. Singh found water on the same hole for a par, and then hit two more into the pond at the 15th to shoot a quadruple-bogey 9.
