Agony at Augusta: Five First Coast, South Georgia players who came close at the Masters
The memories, no matter how distant, are still painful to anyone who has had one hand on the Masters Tournament and came up short.
Winning at the Augusta National Golf Club cements legacies and can be the difference between career honors such as the World Golf Hall of Fame (13 of the first 14 men to win the Masters, combining for 22 titles at Augusta, are enshrined, and 15 more have followed)
The Green Jacket. Negotiating Amen Corner. The victorious walk up the 18th fairway to the cheers of adoring patrons.
Winning at Augusta is like no other title.
The First Coast and South Georgia’s Golden Isles have combined to produce two Masters winners: Vijay Singh of Ponte Vedra Beach in 2000 and Zach Johnson of St. Simons Island, Ga., in 2007. But the area just as easily could have produced five more winners, had the breaks, putts or risky shots gone their way.
Here are five area players who had close calls with winning the Masters:
David Duval, Jacksonville
Duval posted four finishes of a tie for sixth or higher in four successive years, beginning with his best chance to win the Masters in 1998. Duval had a three-shot lead with three holes to play but bogeyed No. 16 after flushing his tee shot over the flag and Mark O’Meara birdied three of the last four holes, including Nos. 17 and 18, to win by one shot.
Duval tied for sixth in 1999, finishing five shots behind Jose Maria Olazabal, tied for third in 2000, four behind Singh (Duval hit his second shot at the par-5 13th hole in the water during the final round), and finished solo second behind Tiger Woods in 2001, missing birdie-putt attempts on the final two holes.
Duval had under-par scores in each of those four Masters, firing 67 in 1998 and 2001. He averaged 68.5 on Sundays when he made the cut but it was never enough.
After 2001, Duval never made another cut at Augusta in five more Masters starts.
Len Mattiace, Ponte Vedra Beach
One of the most painful Masters finishes came in 2003. Mattiace played brilliantly in the final round, holing out for birdie at the par-5 eighth hole and making an eagle at the par-5 13th on his way to a 65. He bogeyed the final hole after pushing his drive to the right and waited as Mike Weir finished.
Weir had a slippery 7-foot par putt attempt at the last. Make it and he was in a playoff with Mattiace. Miss it, and Mattiace is getting the green jacket slipped over his shoulders by Woods, the defending champion.
Weir made it. The two went to the 10th hole for sudden death and Mattiace never had a chance have blowing his second shot over the green into an impossible spot to get up-and-down. Weir won with a bogey and Mattiace played only one more Masters, missing the cut.
Davis Love III, St. Simons Island, Ga.
It was almost preordained that Love win a Masters one day. He grew up in Atlanta, his father played in the tournament and Love was one of the top winners on the PGA Tour in the 1980s and 1990s, capturing two Players Championships and the PGA in 1997.
Love had two solo seconds in the Masters among six career top-10 finishes.
A week after Ben Crenshaw's beloved teacher Harvey Penick died in 1995 (Crenshaw and Tom Kite flew to Austin for the funeral and returned the night before the first round), Love played the spoiler with a final-round 66 that pushed his way into contention.
Love birdied Nos. 14 and 15 to tie Crenshaw for first at 13-under. But a birdie (Crenshaw) and bogey (Love) swing at No. 16 gave Crenshaw a two-shot lead. Both players birdied No. 17 but Love parred the last and Crenshaw made a safe bogey for the victory.
In 1999, Love was two shots behind Olazabal with six holes to play but after both birdied the 16th, Olazabal closed with two pars and Love did likewise.
Jim Furyk, Ponte Vedra Beach
Furyk had four career top-10s in the Masters but his best chance also was the year Duval nearly won it, in 1998.
Furyk began the final round three shots behind Fred Couples and after two early bogeys, Furyk ran off three birdies in a row at Nos. 8, 9 and 10, then birded No. 13 and found himself two shots behind Duval.
Furyk faltered with a bogey at the par-5 15th hole but birdied Nos. 16 and 17 and was one shot off the lead. He parred the 18th and watched with everyone else as O'Meara birdied the last to win.
Cameron Smith, Ponte Vedra Beach
The Australian native seems to have a knack for playing Augusta National well and at the age of 30 presumably will have his chances.
Smith has four top 10s at Augusta National and his best finish was in 2020 when the tournament was played in November because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith then did something no one else had done before – not Woods, not Nicklaus, not Palmer, not Hogan, not Snead, not Nelson – he shot four rounds in the 60s in one tournament (67-68-69-69), finishing at 15-under par 273.
Unfortunately for Smith, Dustin Johnson wrapped 65s in the first and third rounds around a 70, then closed with a 68 to shoot a record 20-under 268 and beat Smith by five shots.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Len Mattiace in 2003, David Duval in 1998 were Masters close calls
