Adam Scott sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole Sunday to beat Angel Cabrera and win the 77th Masters, becoming the first Australian golfer to capture the green jacket. Nine months after making bogeys on the last four holes to squander a British Open lead at Royal Lytham and two years after sharing second at the Masters, the 32-year-old from Adelaide won his first major title in impressive fashion.
"I don't know how that happened," Scott said. "It seems a long, long way from a couple years ago, or last July when I was trying to win a major." Scott and Cabrera both birdied the 18th hole to finish deadlocked after 72 holes on nine-under par 279. Each parred the hole again to open the playoff and both had birdie putts at the second playoff hole, the par-4 10th.
Cabrera just missed his 12-footer and Scott followed with his winning putt, thrusting his arms into the air with joy after the ball curled into the cup to signal the end of a journey from Down Under to the top of the golf world. "It's amazing that it's my destiny to be the first Aussie to win," Scott said. "Just incredible." It was Scott's second celebration after an emotional 25-foot birdie at 18 in regulation that Cabrera matched with a stunning approach to four feet and a birdie putt of his own.
"There was a split second I thought I had won," Scott admitted. "You never count your chickens. It was time to step up and see how much I wanted it." Cabrera, the 2007 US Open and 2009 Masters champion, shared a hug with Scott after the final putt. Cabrera, a grandfather ranked 269th in the world, would have been the second-oldest Masters champion at 43, trailing only Jack Nicklaus winning the 1986 Masters at age 46. Australian Jason Day was third on 281, two strokes ahead of world number one Tiger Woods and Aussie Marc Leishman with Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen and American Brandt Snedeker sharing sixth on 284.
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