Tiger Woods was the main story heading into Sunday, but after a playoff between Adam Scott and Angel Cabrera, the Aussies were the story, as Scott became the first golfer from Australia to win the Masters and he made a tough comeback after being three strokes behind Cabrera with eight holes left in the round.
Scott helped erase the memories of his blown chances at both Augusta and in the British Open in the past and now he adds a major championship to his resume and the first for the Australians, as Marc Leishman and Jaaon Day were also in contentions nearly all weekend.
Woods had himself a strange weekend all around and after a fantastic final round on Sunday he finished just out of reach of the leaders at five under and it could have been even closer without his penalty strokes and missed putts. Woods was forced to watch Angel Cabrera and Adam Scott's playoffs from the clubhouse and he finished tied with Australian Marc Leishman, who had the first round lead, back in fourth place for a top five finish with five-under par.
Woods added his third excellent performance in as many tournaments, except at Augusta he didn't win after taking the titles at the WGC-Cadillac Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The entire tournament took a new shape after Woods was assessed a two stroke penalty on Saturday morning after taking what he thought was a legal drop on the 15th hole after his near perfect shot hit off the flag and into the water.
After struggling a bit early in his round on Sunday, Woods bounced back with birdies on four of five holes from the ninth to the 13th while missing on the 11th hole. Woods's penalty from the previous day will be talked about by golfers for a very long time, but since Woods didn't win that changes the conversation a bit. Woods left some shots on the course throughout the day, including three putts on holes under five feet. Woods was right around the top part of the leaderboard for most of the day, but between his missed shots and his penalty strokes, he never could make it up.
Woods was one of the favorites heading into the Masters and he had a tournament worthy of that, but two golfers that didn't were Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson, who both finished over par for the event on Sunday. McIlroy shot a three under 69 on Sunday to finish the tournament two over par, while Mickelson continued to struggle and shot a 73 to finish nine over par. McIlroy had been playing better after coming in second at the Texas Open, but he couldn't hit consistently at Augusta.
Mickelson won once on tour this season and finished with a result that was only his fifth time not breaking a 70 in 21 career starts at Augusta and McIlroy had a similar start the previous year. This time the number two golfer had a 42 on the second nine he played, which left him out of contention for the second straight year.