South African Charl Schwartzel ended up as an unlikely hero last night. He birdied the last four holes on the back-nine to win the 75th Masters on the 50th anniversary of Gary Players 1961 title. Coincidentally that had been the first time an international competitor had won the Masters.

The diminutive Schwartzel held out for a victory by two strokes over Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day in the spectacular last day.

It’s a dream for me. It’s obviously the highlight in my golfing career by a long way.

The 26 year old, who had putting problems last year, didn’t look like he’d ever had anything wrong with his finishing club.

Advice had come last year from Nick Price, and Schwartzel practised putting on really quick green surfaces, which had been his downfall:

Every tournament I went to, I just practised the fastest putt I could find … to learn to hit the putts that softly.

Right from the first hole at Augusta yesterday, Schwartzel proved there was just something special about his day. Of course who wouldn’t have wagered a little something on the in-form McIlroy winning the tournament but, it was his to throw away, and he did just that by carding a less-than mediocre 80 in his final round.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRxErV6uJEA

Schwartzel grew up on the family chicken farm outside Jozi and learned to play the game of golf from his father who was a talented amateur that then went on to became a teaching pro, and big inspiration for Charl.

When I was four years old, I played my first nine holes. He told me from the word go the right grip, the right stance, rhythm, posture, balance. There’s five key things that we always worked on.

Whenever something goes wrong, it will be one of those five that have gone haywire somewhere.

Louis Oosthuizen, who last year gave spectators a mouth full of a name to pronounce when he won the British Open, was there to watch one of his best mates pull off the victory too.

Charl said of Louis’ inspiration:

We basically are the best of mates. To see him win there was just such a big inspiration. Just to see him do it made (me) realise that it is possible.

We salute you Charl!

[Source: SuperSport]