Masters: Australia rejoices over Scott victory

Adam Scott and his caddie Steve Williams reacts to his putt dropping on the second hole of a playoff to win the Masters golf tournament, Sunday, April 14, 2013, in Augusta. Runner-up Angel Cabrera watches in the background. Scott became the first Australian to win the Masters. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Curtis Compton)

Rarely can this event, or any of the other three majors for that matter, have hung on a knife-edge for so long. At no time over the four days did any player hold a significant lead for any length of time. Cabrera turned for home in the final round with a two-shot cushion; Jason Day held a similar lead with three holes to play.

The latter will no doubt be feeling the most pain as the dust settles, especially after he had also come close to winning here in 2011, finishing second to Charl Schwartzel. The consolation, if there is any, for Day on this occasion was that he lost out to a fellow Australian.

It is difficult to believe that, in 76 previous stagings, this event had not fallen to an Antipodean. Greg Norman, of course, should have claimed the honour in 1996 only to blow a six-shot lead and end up a staggering five shots behind Nick Faldo.

That was one of the reasons a lot of people were pulling for Scott in his play-off with Cabrera here in the rain on Sunday night. The other, of course, was the collapse Scott himself had suffered in last year’s Open Championship at Royal Lytham, where he led by five shots with nine to play but was pipped for the Claret Jug by Ernie Els.

With both of those events in mind, it was no wonder that Scott, after holing a 20-foot birdie putt across the green at the 72nd hole, got lost in the moment. “For a split second I thought I’d won,” he admitted afterwards.

He would have won in regulation play if Cabrera wasn’t such a stuffy competitor. It took guts to respond to what he had watched from down the 18th fairway by hitting a 7-iron to three feet. Even those fighting deadlines back in Britain were glad the 43-year-old Argentinean rolled in the putt to match Scott’s nine-under-par total of 279.

Apart from their approaches to the first extra hole coming up a tad short, the quality of the golf in the play-off was a credit to both players. Cabrera, the 2009 winner, almost chipped in at the 18th. On another day, his birdie putt at the tenth might also have dropped.

That Scott completed a grand slam of sorts by seeing the Masters join the Open Championship, US Open and USPGA Championship all now having been won by players using either long or belly putters was down to Steve Williams, Tiger Woods’ long-time caddie, winning 13 majors with him, but now on the Australian’s bag.

“I could hardly see the green in the darkness and was struggling to read the putt,” said Scott of the 12-footer that saw him become a national hero in sporting-mad Australia. “I said, ‘do you think it’s just more than a cup?’ He said, ‘it’s at least two cups. It’s going to break more than you think’,” Scott said. “He was my eyes on that putt.”

Williams, who also read the putt that helped Woods win the 1999 USPGA Championship, admitted this one had been more satisfying, probably because it had earned Scott what many believe is a long overdue first major and also, of course, because of the pair’s Anzac connection. “The winning putt might be the highlight of my career,” admitted Williams.

Another Kiwi, philanthropist Craig Heatley, probably summed up what Scott’s win, which has elevated him to No 3 in the latest world rankings, meant to the people who had been watching the drama unfold in Australia and New Zealand. Chairman of the Masters press committee, he was closer to tears than the winner as he sat beside Scott at his post-event media conference.

While Scott admitted he probably won’t know the enormity of what he had achieved until he returned home, it is no secret that this event had been the one big void on Australia’s sporting CV. “We are a proud sporting country and, like any proud sporting country, we  like to think we are the best at everything,” he said. “Golf is a  big sport at home. It’s been followed with a long list of great players. This is the one thing in golf that we had not been able to achieve. It’s amazing that it’s my destiny to be the first Australian to win.”

That Scott has joined the major winner’s circle at just the second attempt following his meltdown at Lytham is testimony to his strength of character. “I played 14 really good holes last time, but I played maybe 20 good ones today,” he said with the smile that has made him the game’s pin-up boy since first bursting on to the scene on the European Tour just over a decade ago, when his early successes included a runaway win at Gleneagles.

Following Scott’s latest victory, four of the last six majors have now been won by players wielding long putters. Keegan Bradley sparked the trend when he used a belly putter to win the 2011 USPGA Championship, with Webb Simpson (US Open) and Els (Open Championship) then doing likewise last year. With an announcement believed to be imminent over the proposal by the R&A and USGA to ban “anchoring” from the start of 2016, it will be interesting to see if Scott’s success will have any effect on that.

“We are all waiting to hear what’s going to happen and I don’t know if this is going to have an impact on any decisions upcoming,” he said. “My feeling is that it was inevitable that big tournaments would be won with this equipment. These are the best players in the world and they practise thousands of hours. They are going to get good with whatever they are using. It’s inevitable.”

As inevitable, perhaps, that the Masters will always throw up drama like no other golf event.