FILIPINO-Australian Jason Day (-7) beat his golfing idol, America’s Tiger Woods (-5), by two strokes to place third outright in the final round of the 2013 US Golf Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia, on Sunday, April 14.
The much-coveted Masters ‘Green Jacket’ was won by Day’s golfing buddy and compatriot from Queensland, Adam Scott (-9), who broke the Australian hoodoo at the Masters after defeating Argentina’s Angel Cabrera on the second play-off hole.
Scott and Cabrera had finished in a dead-heat, 279 (-9), after 18 holes of the final round.
Day had led a field of the world’s best golfers by two strokes going into the last two holes of the final round, with the big prize well in sight. But he bogeyed the 17th and missed a birdie-putt on the 18th, allowing Scott and Cabrera to pass him and share the top spot at the finish.
Day had also held a one-stroke lead in the third round but fell back after bogeys on the last two holes.
Final scores for the first four positions at the 2013 Masters were: Adam Scott 69 72 69 69 (won on second play-off hole) and Angel Cabrera 71 69 69 70 on 279; Jason Day 70 68 73 70 on 281; Tiger Woods 70 73 70 70 and Marc Leishman 66 73 72 72 on 283.
The Filipino-Australian, who tied for second at the Masters two years ago on his debut, was quoted in Golf Digest’s website as saying after this year’s Masters: “You know, it was really tough. I think the pressure got to me a little bit and unfortunately I bogeyed those. I had a really good shot at birdieing 18, too, but …”
Before this year’s tournament, Day was also quoted as saying: “Obviously there’s a lot of pressure on my shoulders, being from Australia and no Australian has ever won the event.
* In world rankings the top 20 Australian golfers today rank as follows:
1 Adam Scott (7 in world rankings)
2 Jason Day (36)
3 John Senden (50)
4 Geoff Ogilvy (57)
5 Greg Chalmers (64)
6 Marcus Fraser (65)
7 Aaron Baddeley (92)
8 Brendan Jones (95)
9 Marc Leishman (108)
10 Brad Kennedy (165)
11 Scott Hend (184)
12 Peter Senior (187)
13 Cameron Percy (235)
14 Richard Green (236)
15 Brett Rumford (239)
16 Kurt Barnes (247)
17 Nick Cullen (255)
18 Rod Pampling (271)
19 Nick O’Hern (284)
20 Matt Jones (291)
