2011 Masters was spectacular free-for-all in final round

Charl Schwartzel won a Sunday like no other in Masters Tournament history.

It was less like a major golf championship and more like a NASCAR race. Players were coming down the back nine 10-wide. Rory McIlroy crashed spectacularly. Tiger Woods ran out of gas. Schwart­zel won the sprint to the checkered flag.

The man who birdied the final four holes to win the green jacket had no idea what kind of free-for-all he was involved in until weeks later and he watched a replay on television.

“That’s the first time I saw how tight it was,” Schwartzel said. “We watched the leaderboards and you can see, but it never sort of registered. You just know that you have to make a few birdies to actually get out on top eventually. But watching it on TV – phew – and seeing guys making eagles and birdies. You don’t get to see it when you’re on the course. And then I saw the finish. That’s when it sunk in what sort of prestige I won.”

He erased a four-shot deficit in about 30 minutes to start the day, making a seemingly impossible chip-in birdie with a 6-iron on the first and holing out a wedge for eagle on the third.

He followed a bogey on the par-3 fourth with 10 consecutive pars while the rest of the field was inspiring nearly constant roars. When all he managed was a par on the par-5 13th, Schwartzel was starting to feel like the birdie opportunities he needed were dwindling.

“I was disappointed,” he admitted. “Thirteen feels like a birdie hole. I felt like I needed to make at least two birdies, that 12-under may win but should be in a playoff. Not birdieing 13 almost was like a step back. It felt now so much harder. Leaving it right in the mouth on 14, I was all the sudden running out of holes.”

The young South African knew it was now or never on the par-5 15th.

“I think 15 was the most important birdie,” he said. “After making this string of pars and playing well and not getting birdies – I’ve hardly missed a shot all day – to make that 6-foot putt on 15 for birdie, that sort of got me going and finally got that hope that this is what I needed. Sometimes you just need to get over that hurdle and the gates open and you can go. That’s what it felt like.”

Schwart­zel confidently poured in a 15-foot putt for birdie on No. 16 to grab a share of the lead.

“Those were the two birdies that I wanted, and I still had two holes left,” he said.

He hit a cut 9-iron around the trees that blocked his approach to No. 17 and drained another birdie from 12 feet to take the outright lead for the first time.

“When I got to 18 tee was probably where I got the most nervous,” he said. “That was the first time I led and also the first time I let my mind slip a bit and think, ‘Hang on, you’re gonna win this.’ That thought made me nervous. You can’t think like that. That’s the last thing you can think of. I very quickly regained my composure and got down to the shot.”

The club for the tunnel from the 18th tee had been automatic for him. In all seven of his previous Mas­ters rounds and most of his practice rounds, he hit 3-wood. But, with the green jacket on the line, he reached for his driver.

“I just went to the bag and pulled the driver out. No hesitation,” he said. “My caddie didn’t protest but just looked at me and said, ‘Hit it.’ That’s the kind of confidence I needed from him as well, not to look at me funny and say, ‘What are you doing?’ I just felt like that was the club I was hitting the best all day. Once that tee shot was gone, it sort of felt like this was gonna happen.”

That driver to the middle of the fairway left him a perfect wedge distance, and he stuck it to 14 feet. All he needed was two putts to win.

“The hardest thing is when someone tells you just two-putt,” he said. “How do you just two-putt? You’re under immense pressure and the greens are already crusty and as fast as they’re going to get. Anything hit with just a little authority is going to go a meter past. And it wouldn’t have been a bad putt. The last thing I wanted was to be standing over a meter putt to win the tournament.

“The best way of keeping myself from just pushing the ball to the hole was to tell myself I can make this. You have to have that mind-set to hit a positive putt. So I was thinking of making it.”

He made it, becoming the first person to birdie the final four holes to win the Mas­ters.

Though Schwartzel presented Augusta National with the sand wedge he used to make eagle on No. 3, it’s those four consecutive birdie putts that will be the lasting memory.

“To be a part of history like that is fantastic,” he said. “For me as a golfer to achieve something that can go in the record books with a player like Jack Nicklaus, it’s something spectacular.”

His finish earned high praise from three-time Mas­ters champion Phil Mickel­son.

“We’ve seen in Europe and Africa that when he has a chance to win he usually does,” Mickelson said. “He’s a closer. There’s no higher compliment for a player.”

Schwartzel believes it himself, which is the key.

“I just need to get myself in contention,” he said. “Once I’m in contention coming through on the back nine, I work harder. I know I’ll either win it or get close. I just need to get myself there. You get nervous, but it’s adrenaline combined. As long as you don’t start thinking about the result too much and get ahead of yourself too much, you’ll be in control.

“All the tournaments that I’ve won I feel like you learn something. Everybody is good enough, but sometimes it’s the technique of finishing it off.”