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The second blog for The Yorker from the University of York Riding Club
The elusive prize of the green jacket created an amount of pressure that I have never seen on a golf course before and it seemingly affected everyone apart from the eventual winner Charl Schwartzel, whose uncompromising, almost clinical, golfing style saw him home to a first Masters title.
From then on in it became a game of cat and mouse between the leaders. As McIlroy faltered, Tiger roared, as did Choi, Ogilvy, Donald, Cabrera, and Day. Interestingly, Schwartzel stayed close throughout the day but didn’t fire until the 15th green, where he made a sparkling birdie. He carried that momentum onto the 16th and 17th and made birdies on both holes.
Now it was down to holding his nerve. Schwartzel held the lead by one shot going onto the 18th, knowing that a par would be good enough for the Championship. As the crowd held its breath, Schwartzel wandered up the 18th and nonchalantly holed a birdie putt from 20 feet. The Championship was his, and suddenly golf looked like a very easy game again.
But try telling that to Rory McIlroy. The 21-year-old Northern Irishman had played almost perfectly during the first three rounds and led the tournament going into round four. Yet, after only dropping one shot in his first three rounds, he proceeded to play out the golfing equivalent of a car crash, dropping eight shots over the last 18 holes, including a calamitous triple bogey at the 11th.
McIlroy had looked so calm, so assured, and above all so confident in the run up to Sunday, and yet the pressure of leading The Masters proved to be too much for even him to deal with.
Having said that, the young man from Northern Ireland will be back. He is too good not to respond and his natural talent will stand him in wonderful stead for the future. After all, he will probably play another 20 Masters tournaments in his career and I would be willing to bet that he will win at Augusta at least once. He showed this week that he has the ability; all he has to do is work out how to shift gears throughout a tournament and have a mental edge over his competitors, rather than playing out future tournaments with the youthful naivety that was witnessed on Sunday.
On a course like Augusta, patience is a golfer’s best friend and most powerful ally. Schwartzel knew that and used it to his advantage to ensure this year's green jacket was his.
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