Masters Momentum: Who won the 2017 Masters tournament?

Recent form is a sought-after variable heading into Augusta. The Masters Momentum series concludes with a look back at The Masters 2017.

Every year a select field rolls into Augusta National at the beginning of April with green in their eyes. To the winner goes the money, the accolades but more importantly, golf’s most famous prize: the green jacket. Some players go their entire career never coming close to playing in The Masters, let alone donning a green jacket. Last year, however, Sergio Garcia reached that mountaintop, winning the 2017 Masters tournament.

The opening two rounds of the 2017 Masters saw a wide array of top contenders battling it out for the lead while odds-on favorites faltered early. Speaking to the difficulty of Augusta National, former champions Bubba Watson and Danny Willett missed the 6-over cut line. After shooting a two day opening total of 8-over, Watson even went as far as to famously rip media members following the cut.

On Thursday, Charley Hoffman ran out to a 7-under 65 to close the opening 18 holes of play on top of the leaderboard. In his fourth Masters appearance, Hoffman birdied five of his closing seven holes to enter Friday with a four-shot lead. Friday’s infamous Masters greens fought back as Hoffman endured a 10 swing turnaround shooting a 3-over 75.

Headed to the weekend, Hoffman shared the lead with a field of international sensations. Spain’s Sergio Garcia and Germany’s Thomas Pieters stayed steady over the first two days to join the leaders at 4-under. Fan favorite Rickie Fowler fired back from his first round 73 with a 5-under 67 on Friday to send a shockwave of excitement through the gallery entering the weekend.

After an unexpected quadruple bogey in round one, the 2015 Masters Champion Jordan Spieth dug in his heels and worked his way into contention sitting at 4-under for the tournament by the end of the business day Saturday. Often categorized as “moving day,” Saturday certainly moved the needle for many top green jacket prospects. Hoffman stayed put at 4-under while Justin Rose shot a 67 to join Garcia for the tournament lead at 6-under with only 18 holes remaining.

No matter the year Sunday at the Masters is never short of memorable moments. While he didn’t take home the top prize, perennial contender Matt Kuchar made some fireworks of his own. Always a solid ball striker, Kuchar took 7-iron in hand at the par-3 16th hole and with one smooth stroke found the bottom of the cup for a hole in one.

Spieth and Fowler tried to stay close, as did Kuchar and Pieters down the stretch, but when all was said and done Sunday at the 2017 Masters was a two horse race between Rose and Garcia. Both veterans were looking for their first victory at Augusta as they battled for every inch of the course with shot after shot.

After a birdie at the 14th hole to cut Rose’s lead to two, Garcia followed it up with 14-foot eagle putt to tie it up at 9-under. As both contenders came to their birdie putts at 18, Rose narrowly missed his putt, opening the door for Garcia to slam it shut and take the victory. The Spaniard also misread the green and hung the putt to the right as both made par to enter a playoff.

Next: Top 10 shots in the history of The Masters

On the first playoff hole, Rose scrambled for bogey after a wayward tee shot landed in the unforgiving pine straw behind a cluster of trees. With a similar line ahead of him on the green, Garcia needed to make his putt in two strokes to win but he only needed one.

After 76 attempts at a Major Championship and 19 trips to Augusta Garcia finally had his first Majors victory and a green jacket to go with it. With one of the most star-studded fields in recent Masters history in 2018, Garcia will have to carry his momentum from 2017 into Augusta in order to pull off historic back-to-back green jacket victories.

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