You wait years for a US Masters champion from Europe and then two come along in succession.
All the way down the back nine it seemed (despite Matt Kuchar’s best efforts) that either Justin Rose or Sergio Garcia were going to follow up Danny Willett’s 2016 triumph with another for this side of the Atlantic.
In the end, at the first play-off hole, it was the Spaniard who made it back-to-back European wins.
Before Willett’s surprise victory last year the previous European victory had come all the way back in the last Millennium – 1999 to be exact – when Jose Maria Olazabal won his second green jacket.
Why should the Irishman pretend to be something he is not? #TheMastershttps://t.co/tqIXgKz9nY
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 10, 2017
On Sunday Garcia became the third Spaniard to win the year’s first Major, following on from Olazabal and the late, great Seve Ballesteros, who also claimed a pair of victories at Augusta.
In a delightful twist of fate, Garcia’s first Major at the 74th time of asking came on what would have been Ballesteros’s 60th birthday.
Many may have lost belief that Garcia – not known for his putting – could end his long wait on the glass-like greens around Augusta National but, after donning the green jacket, the 37-year-old revealed that he has received a morale-boosting text from Olazabal ahead of the tournament.
“To join [Ballesteros] and (Jose Maria) Olazabal — my two idols in golf my whole life, it’s something amazing.
“To do it on [Seve’s] 60th birthday and to join him and Olazabal, my two idols in golf my whole life, it’s something amazing,” Garcia told Jim Nantz on CBS.
“Jose sent me a text on Wednesday night telling me how much he believed in me and what I needed to do and just pretty much believing in myself and being calm and not let things get to me like I’ve done in the past.”
Garcia certainly believed in himself. He was severely tested around Amen Corner and, again at the 18th, but each time he fought back and no one could say he did not earn that coveted jacket.
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