Masters: Schwartzel Wins, McIlroy Destructs, Tiger is Omnipresent

Monday, 11 April 2011 | by Pat's Picks

He hit some trees. He hit a row of cabins. By the time he was finished, 21-year-old Rory McIlroy had made a Masters record—just not the one he was after says Bill Plaschke of the LA Times. McIlroy’s sudden disassembly manifested in a score of 80, which “tied the worst final-round score by a 54-hole leader in the tournament’s 75-year history.”

New York Post sports TV columnist Phil Mushnick wasn’t paying attention to McIlroy’s unraveling—he was too busy being bombarded by Tiger.  Highly critical of the Tiger Woods obsession on CBS, he writes: “It became so silly—rather, it stayed so silly—that when co-leader Jason Day appeared in a taped interview, it was to hear him talking about Woods!”

Oh, by the way, Charl Schwartzel won this year’s tournament. The Augusta Chronicle says four consecutive birdies helped the South African “rise above the mayhem and win a green jacket.”

Below is a clip of McIlroy’s fall from the top of the leader board: