Masters 2017: Live results and news from Sunday’s final round at Augusta National

Sergio Garcia has always been physically good enough to win a major, that’s never been in doubt. But as is attributed to Yogi Berra about the game of baseball, “golf is 90 percent mental and the other half physical.” But now, he’s the 2017 Masters champion, despite the fact that his history with majors has been anything but triumphant before today. Here’s how he got here after a couple heartbreaking moments in majors.

This was the first of two second place finishes at the PGA. Garcia, then 19 years old, ran up against another young stud that final round: Tiger Woods.

Sergio Garcia is the Masters champion for 2017 and a major champion for the first time in his long, fascinating golf career. Garcia got to put on his green jacket for the first time at a ceremony a few minutes after he beat Justin Rose in a playoff.

Garcia had to sweat for it. He began the day tied with Rose, and the two swapped leads throughout the round. Garcia had an opportunity to win the tournament in 72 holes, but he missed a short birdie look on the 18th green at Augusta National.

Sergio Garcia’s first-ever major championship win at The Masters would be special on any day of the year. But it just so happens to come on one very, very special day for Garcia, for Spain, and for golf fans all over the world.

On Sunday, three-time Masters champion and Spanish golf great Seve Ballesteros would’ve turned 60 years old. The impactful, transcendent Hall of Famer passed away far too young in 2011 after a battle with brain cancer. Garcia, who considered Ballesteros an idol and a mentor who paved the way for Spanish golf youngsters, said earlier in the week he wanted to win the title for Seve.

Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia have a complicated history that involves a years-long feud that boiled over during the 2013 Players Championship.

But when Garcia outlasted Justin Rose on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff Sunday at Augusta, Woods was quick to offer congratulations to his former nemesis.

Sergio Garcia is the Masters champion for 2017, having beaten Justin Rose in a thrilling Sunday round that required a sudden-death playoff. For that, he’ll get a green jacket and a place in eternal golfing lore. He’ll also get $1.98 million, the largest payout in Masters history.

The sport’s four majors have all become significantly more lucrative over the last few years. Golf has undergone a sort of payouts arms race, with tournaments competing amongst themselves to add a sense of prestige by paying out more money. Every major’s been swept up in it, along with the PGA Tour and the Players Championship.

We got golf’s version of overtime in what will go down as one of the greatest Masters final-round duels in recent memory. It ended with this putt by Sergio Garcia to secure the green jacket.

Garcia beat Justin Rose on the 73rd hole of the Masters after trading haymakers all the way down the stretch on the second nine. The Masters playoff format has come a long way. If the tournament was tied after 72 holes in yesteryear, we’d be back on Monday to finish this thing.

Sergio Garcia’s career-long major championship dry spell is over. He beat Justin Rose in a tantalizing playoff at the Masters on Sunday, finally closing the deal on a major Sunday after years and years of close calls but narrow misses.

One of the coolest moments of the championship came just before Garcia sealed the green jacket by putting out. Rose had a poor tee shot and second shot on the first playoff hole, and Garcia stuck his second shot inside of Rose’s third shot. Because it’s a sudden-death playoff, Garcia was clearly in the driver’s seat.

What a finish at Augusta. After separating themselves from the field, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia traded back-and-forth shots down the stretch at Augusta National.

Sergio fired a big shot on 15, hitting the pin with his approach to the par-5 and burying the eagle putt. Rose responded with a birdie on 16 as they went shot-for-shot and hole-for-hole to close out The Masters.

The year’s first golf major has its champion as Sergio Garcia won the Masters.

Just like the Open Championship last summer, the fun here was the epic duel coming down to the wire at Augusta. It was essentially match play between Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, so much so that CBS pretty much stopped showing the others golfers on the course because nobody was within three shots. It was fun as the two men just traded haymakers coming down the stretch.

Finally. We’re finally writing this sentence. Sergio Garcia is a major champion.

After years and years of heartbreak, failure and Sunday mishaps, Sergio outdueled Justin Rose on an instant-classic Sunday at Augusta National to take home his first-ever green jacket at the the Masters on the first playoff hole.

The Masters has given us golf’s most dramatic scene in some time on Sunday. Veterans Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose dueled until the 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club, where they finished in a tie to set up a playoff.

Garcia and Rose both hit solid drives to the left side of the fairway, with Garcia’s settling a few yards ahead of Rose’s. Both hit brilliant second shots, setting up a pair of birdie opportunities with nothing less than the green jacket on the line. Both golfers missed their putts, with Garcia’s coming from a few feet closer.

Sergio Garcia is trying to end his career-long major drought by winning the Masters on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club. Garcia began the day tied for the lead with Justin Rose, but he fell behind and needed to claw back late in the back nine. He did that with the help of an astonishing approach shot on the 15th hole.

Garcia trailed leader and playing partner Rose by a shot while they moved along the par-5 15th. His second shot hit the flag stick and settled a decent ways from the pin. It was either a stroke of wonderful or horrible luck.

They’re racing toward the finish at the Masters. The entire field is at least on the back nine on Sunday at Augusta National with the green jacket on the line.

Thomas Pieters, who led the tournament briefly on Thursday, has made a back-nine charge to put himself into contention.

Jordan Spieth said he could not wait for this year’s Masters to be over so people would stop about his double dunk on No. 12 that cost him the 2016 green jacket.

Welp.

Matt Kuchar made the first hole-in-one of the Masters on Sunday evening, shortly after 5 p.m. ET. Kuchar’s ace came on the par-3 16th hole Augusta National Golf Club.

CBS’ Verne Lundquist said it was the 18th ace in Masters history. The 16th hole is playing at 170 yards this week. It’s been among the easier holes on the course, with 40 birdies made there in competition so far. But nobody had aced it — or any other hole on the course — until Kuchar knocked his tee shot in on Sunday.

There are many traditions surrounding the Masters, but perhaps the most iconic is the green jacket awarded to the winner each year. The origin of the tradition is much more humble than what the most famous award in golf eventually became.

In 1937, the green jackets began being seen around the grounds, but not until 1949 were they given to the winner.

If the Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday, as conventional wisdom has it, someone forgot to drop that well-known bit of golf knowledge on Sergio Garcia.

Because the 37-year-old Spaniard, who is looking to break an 0-fer-73 major-less drought, certainly got it going in his first nine holes. Garcia had a birdie-par-birdie start to the final round at Augusta and made the turn at 2-under 34 to get to 8-under for the week and in a tie with playing partner and 54-hole co-leader Justin Rose.

Russell Henley had a priceless reaction after his second shot to the par-4 fifth clanged off the flag and fell into the cup for a hole-out eagle.

Only thing missing from the three-time PGA Tour winner’s ho-hum reaction was a yawn. Doesn’t get much more chill than that.

Winning the Masters comes with all kinds of prestige and puts you in the golf history books. But it’s also a heck of a payday.

Danny Willett’s 2016 chunk of change showed just how big a deal this kind of money can be for a golfer who isn’t winning majors on American soil all the time:

Sunday marks the final round of the Masters, live from Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. This is annually one of golf’s greatest days, and it will be again in 2017.

Two European veterans, Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, led the field after the third round at 6 strokes under par for the tournament. They are the final group to tee off on Sunday, preceded immediately by young American superstars Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler. It’d be hard to have two more blockbuster groups closing out the first major of the year. As it happens, they are, and we’re in for some excellent theater.

The Masters moves to its final round on Sunday. Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia ended Saturday’s third round tied for the lead at 6 strokes under par for the tournament, just ahead of a star-studded rest of the leaderboard. Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, the Nos. 6 and 8 players in the world, will tee off right before them on Sunday.

It’ll be a dramatic day of golf at Augusta National Golf Club. That’s always the case on Sunday at the Masters, and nothing the players could’ve done this year would’ve changed it. But it seems primed to be an especially interesting day because of the way the 54-hole leaderboard stacks up. We’re probably in for a lot of suspense.

The Masters might be entering an era where there’s Jordan Spieth, and then there’s everyone else. It was never more evident than on the 15th hole late on Saturday afternoon at Augusta National. Spieth stood 106 yards from the pin, perched at the top of the hill with a pond below that purportedly wrecked his 2017 Masters just two days prior. That’s when everything went completely silent.

There are roars at Augusta but it’s not a particularly rowdy place, a point of pride that the green jackets uphold in the name of Bobby Jones’ notion of a proper patron. But just because it doesn’t get rowdy doesn’t mean it’s still or completely silent. Patrons are always moving one or two rows back from the rope line, trying to get ahead and find a better spot to view the next shot. There’s also always side talk, murmurs, and whispers. It’s not some great commotion, but there’s movement and it’s never completely noiseless.

It’s Sunday at the Masters, and the tee sheet is absolutely delicious.

With a leaderboard as varied and tightly packed as this one, it doesn’t come as a surprise that viewers will be treated to a couple of blockbuster Sunday groups. But the tee sheet for the final round at Augusta National Golf Club really can’t be overestimated. This is going to be must-watch golf, to an even greater extent than Sunday at the Masters already is must-watch golf. The pairings are that juicy.

Heading into the final round of the Masters on Sunday, Justin Rose is the betting favorite to win his first green jacket. Rose is tied for the lead with Sergio Garcia at 6 strokes under par for the championship. They have a one-shot lead over Rickie Fowler and a two-shot lead over Jordan Spieth, Ryan Moore, and Charley Hoffman.

Bettors give Rose 5/2 odds to win the tournament, according to GolfOdds.com. Rose has one major title to his name, that being the 2013 U.S. Open. They’re a lot less confident in Garcia, whose odds are 9/2. That’s probably because Garcia has been to the altar and fallen short so many times before. No player in the sport has been as good for as long as Garcia and not won a major, but he’s still looking for his first.

The final group to tee off on Sunday at the Masters will be Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose. The two players put themselves in that slot by emerging atop the leaderboard through 54 holes at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. There are just 18 to go. There are a lot of enticing-looking groups set to go off later in the afternoon.

Saturday was a dramatic day, full of all the movement you’d expect on a Saturday at Augusta. The weather was beautiful, after high winds made the course a challenging one to play for the tournament’s first two days. Players shot about two strokes better on average than they did on the first two days. The conditions were amenable for moving day, and several players moved.