Spieth’s impressive 21 birdies at Masters not enough to win

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Jordan Spieth made 21 birdies at this 12 months’s Masters, including nine on Sunday whereas attempting to maintain tempo with associate Phil Mickelson.

And it nonetheless wasn’t sufficient to win — and even greatest the 52-year-old Mickelson.

Spieth completed the Masters tied for fourth place at 7 beneath, 5 pictures behind winner Jon Rahm.

However Mickelson additionally tallied 21 birdies, making eight in the final round, together with 5 within the final seven holes to complete at 8 beneath and surge previous Spieth.

“I used to be attempting to truthfully simply match Phil shot for shot coming in,” Spieth stated of the ultimate spherical at Augusta Nationwide.

The 29-year-old Spieth stated he made too many psychological errors all week, saying “psychological fatigue” led to 10 bogeys and two double bogeys.

“I performed approach an excessive amount of golf coming into this,” Spieth stated. “I imply, that is eight out of ten weeks (enjoying golf). So I would like to vary my schedule up going ahead to be a bit of sharper throughout (Masters) week.”

The 2015 Masters champion stated he bought “lazy” choosing targets on some holes.

“I most likely solely had a goal 50% of the pictures this week, and I prefer to have them 100% of the time,” Spieth stated. “I type of was attempting to remind myself, however there was a couple of swings Thursday and Friday the place I might have actually left a couple of on the market.”

SCHEFFLER’S COLD PUTTER

Scottie Scheffler’s bid for a repeat on the Masters by no means materialized thanks largely to his struggles on the inexperienced.

After getting into the week because the No. 1 participant on this planet and the odds-on favourite to win, Scheffler might by no means get any momentum going with this putter and was principally a non-factor. He completed tied for tenth.

Scheffler had 128 putts for the match, which was 18 greater than when he gained the match final 12 months by three strokes over Rory McIlroy. He was tied for probably the most putts of anybody within the discipline by way of the primary three rounds.

“The primary two days, I putted simply terrible,” Scheffler stated. “It was a kind of bizarre conditions the place my good ones weren’t moving into after which my unhealthy ones positively weren’t moving into.”

Scheffler grinned when he lastly rolled in a 40-footer on No. 11 on Sunday to briefly pull inside 4 pictures the lead, however couldn’t seize on that momentum.

THEEGALA THRIVES

Sahith Theegala is understood to many golf followers for his look on the Netflix documentary “Full Swing.”

He proved this week he has a very good golf sport, too.

The 25-year-old Masters rookie shot a final-round 67 to complete at 5 beneath for the championship. That put him inside the high 12 and ties and ensured that Theegala could be invited again to Augusta Nationwide subsequent 12 months.

“I simply needed to place my greatest foot ahead as a result of I’ve been enjoying so effectively,” stated Theegala, who has but to win on the PGA Tour. “I simply actually needed to verify I felt like I bought probably the most out of it. And I actually did. I performed rather well.”

The spotlight of Theegala’s last spherical got here on the par-3 sixteenth, the place he overshot the inexperienced. That gave him a similar pitch to the one Tiger Woods made en path to successful the inexperienced jacket in 2005 and, naturally, Theegala knocked it in.

“It is best to have seen how many individuals stated, ‘Do it for Tiger! Tiger chip-in! And all these items,’” Theegala stated. “I can’t wait to look at the replay as a result of I don’t know what I did. I don’t even know the angle the ball took. I used to be simply blacked out after I hit the chip as a result of I used to be simply so comfortable to get it on the inexperienced.”

LIV’S IMPACT

There have been loads of questions over how LIV golfers would fare on the Masters, however the members of the Saudi-backed tour did fairly effectively. Brooks Koepka led for 3 rounds earlier than collapsing and ending tied for second with Mickelson, and Patrick Reed tied for fourth place.

“The competitiveness, guys coming over and competing, and it’s the primary time actually seeing the PGA Tour guys they had been all nice,” Reed stated. “All of them acted the very same approach, whether or not I used to be a part of LIV or whether or not I used to be part of the PGA tour.”

Reed stated for probably the most half the followers didn’t deal with him any otherwise on the course.

“I heard loads of “go for aces” on the market, had some cheers and the same old occasionally little type of murmurs right here and there,” Reed stated.

BENNETT LOW AMATEUR

After opening the match with a pair of 68s, newbie Sam Bennett from Texas A&M went 76-74 over the weekend to complete tied for sixteenth place, which implies he gained’t get an computerized exemption.

Nonetheless, he completed as low newbie and walked away with some great memories.

“I didn’t play how I needed to this weekend, however this expertise enjoying the weekend at Augusta is unquestionably going to assist me be the golfer I need to be,” Bennett stated.

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AP Sports activities Author David Skretta contributed to this report.

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