Australia’s attempts at securing the nation’s second ever green jacket ended with Jason Day registering the fifth Masters top ten of his career as Min Woo Lee stumbled across the weekend.
Day started the final round seven shots back from overnight leader and eventual champion Rory McIlroy but was unable to catch alight in pursuit.
The former world No.1 was rock solid for 16 holes, as he has been all week, but finished bogey-bogey to sign off for a final round of 72.
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The bogeys at 17 and 18 were only his fourth and fifth dropped shots across 72 holes as Day finished -5 in a tie for eighth, six shots off the playoff between McIlroy and Justin Rose.
Day threatened to mount a charge with birdies at the fifth and ninth, the former was courtesy of a putt from the fringe.
But for the second straight day, he struggled to give himself enough looks at birdie as he hit only 50% of greens in regulation.
It left him incredibly frustrated, and his emotions were raw when conducting his press conference shortly after walking off the 18th green.
“I was very patient out there. Just didn’t play the back side very well. Obviously I need to get back to the drawing board on the back side,” Day said in his post-round press conference.
“I played the front side tremendous. Just need to play the back side a little bit better and hole a few putts, and I should be pretty good.
“It’s nice to be like third group from the end, at least trying to give myself a chance at winning the Masters.
“But obviously this is — like I said, I’m pretty gutted right now. It’s annoying to give myself the opportunities out there and not be able to take them. I mean, it’s a step in the right direction. That’s all I can say. It’s hard to walk off the golf course and go straight into an interview even though — I’m pretty headless right now.
“I understand (why interviews happen straight away). It is what it is. We should be able to be professional enough to hold our — at least keep our cool.
“It’s just really hard when you’ve just walked off the golf course and you’re pretty furious with how you played, especially at the end.”
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Meanwhile, Min Woo Lee had a second straight disappointing round with a 74 to fall to +6 for the tournament and finish 49th.
The 26-year-old off set his four birdies with six bogeys playing alongside Justin Thomas, but wrapped up his final round with a trademark hole-out for par from the greenside bunker at the last.
“It was actually a funny story, I didn’t chip in all week and on 17 I hit it in the front bunker and I said to my caddie, I’m either going to chip this in or I’m going to miss the last green on purpose and chip in,” Lee recalled during his post-round press conference.
“I didn’t try to miss it on purpose, but it was in the right bunker. It was funny. I asked him — I normally don’t, but I asked him, hey, what’s the line? What’s the break? And he just laughed, and JT said, knock it in, and it went in; and it was nice for JT to hole it on top.
“Very fun way to finish. It was obviously a tough way to end the weekend and the week. But a bit of maturing and learning and then hopefully we’ll get it next year.”
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Speaking to Fox Sports’ Paul Gow post-round, Lee also said that his fourth Masters appearance was a major learning curve, after a fortnight after claiming his maiden PGA Tour victory at the Houston Open.
He admitted after his third round that being put on the clock by a tournament referee put him off his game, and he needs to develop his maturity to better handle such situations.
“Another fantastic year, just soaking it in on the last hole and really, the back nine. It’s one of the best places in the world and I can’t wait to be back next year,” he said.
“We’ll give it a better crack but a lot of patience. There’s a lot of mental, you’ve got to be technically there, but I think you need a combo of both to be really good here.
“I think yesterday I let it slip on the back nine. I think just a bit of maturing and realising and learning from this moment, and hopefully next year we’ll be better.”
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