Wednesday, May 9, 2012

2012 Masters Tournament Recap


Every year the best golfers in the world come to Augusta, Georgia to compete at the Masters, one of golf’s four major tournaments.  The Masters has a tradition unlike any other, with a course designed by the legendary Bobby Jones and a list of champions that mark the who’s who of golf over the past few decades.  With that said, though, the Masters of 2012 was certainly one of the better events in the event’s history, with a finish that would leave everyone on edge.

After the third round was completed Peter Hanson found himself in the lead by one stroke over Phil Mickelson and two over Louis Oosthuizen.  Mickelson had stormed back after shooting a first round score of 74 with two straight rounds in the 60s to give himself a chance for his fourth career Masters victory.  Back in fourth place after round three was Bubba Watson, one of the longer hitters on the PGA Tour who almost never hits the golf ball straight during a round. 

When it came to Sunday Peter Hanson got off to a slow start with a bogey on the first hole, and never really seemed comfortable out on the golf course all day, ending with a round of 73 to finish in a tie for third place overall.  Phil Mickelson looked to be in the driver’s seat heading into Sunday as he had the experience of having won the tournament multiple times before and was coming off of two great rounds earlier in the week.  However, things took a turn for the worse for Mickelson when he came up on the par 3 fourth hole.  Mickelson hit his tee shot far left of the green, hitting the grandstands and bouncing even further left into the woods.  He was able to find the ball, but when all was said and done with the hole Phil ended up with a triple bogey and was never able to recover, shooting a round of 72 to also finish in a tie for third place.

The man who came out on fire early was Louis Oosthuizen, who hit one of the greatest shots in Masters Tournament history on the par 5 second hole.  Oosthuizen hit a good tee shot into the fairway and was about 260 yards away from the green.  Louis decided to hit a high iron and hoped the ball would run up somewhere on the green, but it did much more than that.  As the ball rolled up to the green it kept rolling right towards the hole, and after about 20 seconds later the ball ended up dropping into the hole for an amazing double eagle.  After that he was able to maintain the lead for most of the round until Watson decided to join the party.

Bubba Watson was four shots out of the lead after bogeying the 12th hole, and it looked as though Oosthuizen would run away with the tournament.  However, Watson went on an incredible streak of four consecutive birdies to end up in a tie with Louis after his round was completed.  Both of the players made par on the first playoff hole, with Bubba being able to prevail after a great iron shot on the second playoff hole to capture his first career major victory.  It was an event that masters ticket holders will not soon forget, and should go down as one of the best finishes in the event’s history.

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