By Miguel Ángel Caderot Alonso
The Spaniard from Castellón becomes the third Spanish winner after Seve Ballesteros and José María Olazábal.
He angrily pumped his fist, squatted down and closed his eyes. It was 01:31 minutes Spanish time on April 10, 2017 and Sergio Garcia had just won the Augusta Masters. Or what is the same, a Spaniard was once again wearing the green jacket 18 years after José María Olazábal did it. Finally, the genius from Borriol has his ‘big one’.
He fought and deserved it like no one else. He sweated blood to overcome the English giant Justin Rose in an epic duel that is already world golf history. From the 1st tee it was a face to face duel that Jordan Spieth, Charl Schwartzel and Matt Kuchar did not have access to.
The duel was titanic, and it showed the same solid, calm and unflappable version of Sergio Garcia that had been seen all week. The Spaniard’s first nine holes were impeccable: birdies on 1 and 3 in which he knew how to take advantage of his options by using his solidity with the putt, a constant throughout the week. From there, six pars. A highlight was the 7th hole, where he saved the 4th in an impeccable way, with a great recovery from the bunker.
The problems came in the second round. There were bogeys on 10 and 11, but the Spaniard did not despair, quite the contrary. He was calm and went about his business, oblivious to the festival that Justin Rose had unleashed. “I’ve never felt that calm in a ‘big one’,” he said at the end of the agony.
A great birdie at the 14th and an eagle at the 15th, celebrated with enormous rage, put Sergio Garcia back in the lead. Rose, with a birdie at the 16th and a bogey at the 17th, was volcanic, anything could happen on the 18th, whose tee they both teed off in a draw.
The Spaniard had a three-meter putt to win on the 18th, but it did not go in, the drop was not the right one. So it was back to play off, back to play the 18th. Justin Rose got into trouble from the tee and Sergio played the hole as it had to be played, to perfection. His putt is already Spanish sports history.
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