McDowell looks on as Toms birdies the 18th to force sudden-death.Graeme McDowell is a confidence player. When he’s up, he’s sky high. When he’s down, he’ll try and convince himself he’s sky high. This time, he couldn’t hide the truth. It was written all over his scorecard - a 79 in the final round of the Players Championship at Sawgrass. From hero to zero as they say. Or in this case, from third round leader to 33rd.

He wasn’t the saddest man on the property at the end of a long, long day - that was David Toms, who three-putted at the first extra hole to hand the title to KJ Choi, missing a three and half footer for par on the 17th green just minutes after holing from 17 feet for birdie on the 18th to force a play-off after they had shot 70 to tie on 13 under par.

McDowell led by a shot from the eventual protagonists after 54 holes when he completed his delayed third round in 68 to top the leaderboard on 12 under par. It could have been a three-stroke lead had he not seen his approach to the 18th from the right rough, kick bizarrely through the green and into the water for what proved to be an extremely costly double bogey.

Photo: Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ieRory McIlroy suffered a nightmare Masters meltdown as stablemate Charl Schwartzel birdied the last four holes to clinch a thrilling two-shot win at Augusta.

What a week. What a winner. What a performance. 

Phil Mickelson became the Masters champion for the third time when he holed an ten foot birdie putt on the final green to win his fourth major title and fell into a tearful embrace with his wife Amy, who is battling breast cancer.

It was like the old joke about the elephant wearing sunglasses because he didn’t want to be recognised. 

Tiger Woods, wearing shades between shots to protect his eyes from the pollen, is perfectly placed to make a weekend charge for his fifth green jacket and 15th major title after carding three birdies and a bogey in a second round 70.