[caption id="attachment_70785" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Graeme McDowell, left, and Padraig Harrington had reasons to be cheerful leaving Augusta. "]
Some things are simply meant to be. When Bubba Watson hooked his shot out of the deep woods onto the green on the second playoff hole at the Masters, that was clearly meant to be.
Other things, however, aren’t meant to be. This came into focus when a resurgent Padraig Harrington left a couple handfuls of putts just wide of their targets on Sunday afternoon. He got a share of eighth place, six strokes in back of Watson and Louis Oosthuizen, in the finest 72-hole performance he has had in quite some time.
Graeme McDowell also had a worthwhile Masters, although his was of the too little, too late variety. A final-round 68, his career best in Augusta, lifted him into joint-12th place, eight strokes off the low number.
As for Rory McIlroy, maybe the Masters just isn’t his for the taking, after all. While it’s too soon to nickname him “Ishmael,” McIlroy was once again humbled by Augusta National and was essentially out of the tournament on Saturday afternoon. He kept interesting company in joint-40th place, his finishing position; both Tiger Woods and Henrik Stenson had equally perplexing runs amid the dogwoods and azaleas.
PUTTING LEAVES HARRINGTON SHORT
Harrington wasn’t entirely without hope as Sunday dawned. His tournament had begun auspiciously enough with an eagle-3 at the second hole on Thursday. He shot 71 and came back with 73 on Friday to place him at even par for 36 holes and five strokes off the lead.
Harrington really got rolling, though, on the back nine on Saturday, when he reeled off four consecutive birdies beginning at 13. After par at 17, he added another birdie at 18 for 68, with five strokes still separating him from the top of the leaderboard.
Sunday began well enough with birdies at the second and sixth holes, but Harrington’s putter waned thereafter. Birdie attempts just nicked the cup time after time. He closed the tournament out with a double-bogey 6 at 18.
“I haven’t seen any of the golf, but I’d be surprised if people had as many short putts as I had for birdie today,” Harrington said after Sunday’s round. “I putted well; I just didn’t hole them. I wasn’t reading them right.”
Still, Harrington has a lot to be excited about as he moves on.
“That’s probably the most comfortable I’ve felt through 18 holes in the last round of a major, and I was in a nice place mentally all day,” Harrington said. “So, yeah, I take very good positives. I did a lot of good things this week.”
GMAC LIKES IT FAST AND FIRM
McDowell appeared ticketed for an early exit after an opening-round 75 that saw him mix four bogeys and a double with three birdies. The winds of fate reversed course quickly, however, and he was two strokes under par for Friday’s round until bogeys at 17 and 18 left him even for the day at 72.
McDowell shot 71 on Saturday and then birdied five of his last 12 holes on Sunday to finish with 68 and an aggregate 286. Two of those five birdies came on par-3 holes – the 12th and 16th.
“This golf course isn’t the perfect setup for me, but as the golf course got faster and firmer this week, all of a sudden I started to see my way around it,” McDowell said. He’s also looking forward to another crack at Augusta National, and the sooner the better.
“I’d love this tournament to be starting tomorrow because I fancy my chances,” McDowell said. “The golf course, as wet as it was on Thursday and Friday, was not the golf course for me. I am just not driving it long enough, not shaping it from right to left well enough, and I was able to handle a little bit more these firmer fairways [on the weekend].”
BAD OMENS FROM RORY
McIlroy gave a hint of things to come with a double-bogey 6 at the first hole on Thursday. But he immediately answered that with a birdie and left the course having shot 1-under-par 71, with four more birdies and two more bogeys on the scorecard.
Friday’s round teased McIlroy’s backers into believing that their man might be fitting his frame into a green jacket on Sunday evening. Five birdies and two bogeys yielded a round of 69, which left him just a stroke off the lead at the halfway point.
But the first hole got McIlroy again on Saturday. Paired with Sergio Garcia, he took double bogey there and didn’t record a birdie until the 12th hole. His 77 knocked him out of the running, although he finished on a spectacular note, when his approach shot at 18 on Saturday curled up to within inches of the cup, in the far right corner of the green. A round of 76 followed on Sunday.
McIlroy’s problem stemmed almost entirely from the par-4 holes, which he played 11 strokes over par, including four double bogeys. He was four under on the par-5s and two under on the par-3s.
“It was a disappointing weekend, just one of those things,” McIlroy said. “I played pretty well over the first couple days and then just came out on Saturday and really just didn’t have it that front nine, and that sort of killed me the rest of the tournament.
“I actually felt like I played okay, just was a couple of yards off here and there, and missed the slopes and missed the greens in the wrong spots, and if you do that here, it’s very difficult.”
Darren Clarke missed the cut by five strokes. He played well enough on Thursday, finishing a stroke over par with 73. He was only a stroke over par for Friday’s round through five holes, but matters worsened progressively, thereafter. Six bogeys and a double at 17 yielded a round of 81.
