Garcia birdies 1st playoff hole to win Masters
April 9th, 2017 will forever be the day that Sergio Garcia shed the dreaded label of "best player to never win a major."
The Spanish star drilled a 12-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole of the 81st Masters to defeat Justin Rose and capture his first career major championship.
Garcia entered play on Sunday tied atop the leaderboard with the Englishman, who finished in the top 10 of a major 22 times, but had yet to get over the hump.
The 37-year-old got off to a roaring start in the final round, birdieing two of his first three holes to immediately drop to 8-under and open a two-shot lead over Rose. Both players would turn at that number following 2-under-par 34's, heading to the prestigious back-9 at Augusta with everything on the line.
History was certainly not on the Spaniard's side at this point as prior to Sunday Garcia was a combined plus-31 on the back-9 at Augusta, while Rose was a sparkling minus-11.
The final stretch would begin as everyone expected, as Garcia immediately bogeyed the 10th and 11th holes, while Rose was unflappable with two pars. The Englishman would remain two strokes up heading to 13 and split the fairway with a monster tee shot.
Garcia would find the bushes to the left of Rae's Creek and be forced to take an unplayable, leading to many declaring the tournament over and another collapse fully complete. Garcia would have other ideas, scrambling for an incredible par, to match Rose.
While the scores remained the same as they were on the tee box, momentum had shifted and Garcia immediately took advantage with a birdie on 14. He followed that up with arguably the shot of the tournament, stuffing an 8-iron from 192 yards to 14 feet to set up an eagle chance. He would drain the putt and head to the 16th tied with Rose.
The two would trade holes on 16 and 17 and head to 18 even at 9-under, both finishing the fairway, just yards from one another. After both struck approach shots to within 8 feet, heartbreak would ensue as neither Rose nor Garcia could convert, forcing a playoff hole.
After Rose found the trees off the tee, Garcia needed only to two-putt from 12 feet but closed out his first major in dramatic fashion by rolling it home to snag the green jacket.