Masters top favourites Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy succumb to a disastrous loss
They may have been the best bets at the start of the first major event of the season, The Masters at Augusta National, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy were nowhere to be seen on the leaderboard on the final day of the event.
Both players, who were riding on the tide of newly gained confidence by recent victories, fell for a sloppy scoring rounds on the closing day of the event, finishing for a joint 40th.
For the mighty Woods, this was his worst career performance on the sprawling Augusta National.
He said, “I played the par 5s atrociously. This is a golf course you just have to dominate the par 5s, and I did not do that at all this week. I had the wrong ball-striking week at the wrong time. Unfortunately I hit more shots than most guys did today,
or this week”.
Woods landed his first PGA Tour title, The Arnold Palmer Invitational last month after a break of 30 months and was brimming with confidence for his fifth green jacket.
He was being touted as the most favourite for the coveted title alongside Rory McIlroy, who landed a wire-to-wire victory at the 2011 US Open.
He broke headlines at the Masters last year when he led the opening three rounds of the event and fell for a sloppy final round of 80 to slide out of contention.
McIlroy opened up the event with average scores, carding rounds of one-under, 71 and three-under, 69.
Hoping to capitalise on his meagre gains in the opening rounds, McIlroy fell for a terrible five-over, 77, losing all hope for a green jacket.
He shot another disappointing four-over, 76 on the final day to finish for joint 40th alongside his nemesis Woods.
He said, “It was a disappointing weekend. Just one of those things. 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 for the rest of the tournament”.
While McIlroy may have a strong chance of shooting back in form soon, the loss may come as a severe blow to the ailing Woods who has been suffering from form vows and consecutive injuries.
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