Adam Scott has become the first Australian golfer to win the US Masters, snapping one of the country’s great sporting hoodoos.
Scott ended decades of near-misses and heartbreak for Australians when he defeated 2009 champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina with a birdie at the second hole of a sudden-death play-off.
The 32-year-old Queenslander showed nerves of steel as he holed the winning putt from about four metres on Augusta National’s 10th hole after Cabrera left his birdie putt almost on the lip.
Scott became the 10th Australian to win a men’s major, the first since Geoff Ogilvy in the 2006 US Open.
But he’s the first to win the Masters after Australians had famously finished second outright or tied second eight times in the past, including Scott’s tie for second two years ago.
Earlier Scott holed a seven-metre birdie putt on the last hole of regulation play to shoot a closing three-under-par 69 and finish at nine-under-279.
But 43-year-old Cabrera nailed his approach shot at the 18th, putting it within a metre of the hole and matched Scott’s birdie to tie him with a round of 70.
Scott’s countryman Jason Day finished outright third, two shots back after a closing 70.