Charl Schwartzel Wins 2011 Masters Championship
Tiger Woods charged, Rory McIlory imploded, and in the end South African Charl Schwartzel took the Green Jacket at the 76th Masters championship.
During the wildest Sunday at Augusta National in recent memory third round leader McIlory's ugly triple bogey on the tenth hole left nine players -- representing every continent on earth besides Antarctic -- within two strokes of the lead.
Tigers Woods was thought to have fallen out of contention with a bad round Saturday, but his 31 on the front nine Sunday blasted him right back into the thick of things. However, the five-time Masters winner didn't have enough on the back nine to keep up with the pace ultimately set by Schwartzel, who birdied the last four holes to finish at 14-under, two shots ahead of Australians Jason Day and Adam Scott.
This was the 26-year-old's first major victory, and it came fifty years to the day after his fellow South African Gary Player won his first of three Masters.
Player's win in 1961 was hailed as an important step in the globalization of golf. 50 years later, an all-corners-of-the-earth leaderboard at Augusta with another South African on top confirmed that process has since been completed.
- Contributed by Jeremy Taylor