- Sergio Garcia's hopes of winning the Masters again are probably over after disaster struck in the first round.
- Garcia hit five balls into the water on the Par 5 No. 15 and finished with the highest score ever recorded on the hole, a 13.
- To make matters worse, most of the balls that ended up in the water looked like good shots initially, but the treacherous Augusta greens are unforgiving.
Sergio Garcia's hopes of defending his Masters championship appear to already be gone after he had a Tin Cup moment on the 15th hole at Augusta National.
Garcia hit five — yes, FIVE! — balls into the water trying to land the ball on the green. After finally getting one ball to remain on the green, he did manage to one-putt for a 13, the highest score ever on the Par 5, by two strokes.
To make matters worse for Garcia, and to show just how treacherous the Augusta greens can be, none of his shots looked terrible. ESPN did not air the first ball to roll back into the water, but his second and third attempts at an approach shot both landed within feet of the hole, only to roll back into the lake.
The meltdown was on. For some reason, Garcia kept hitting the same shot to the same spot on the green, hoping for a different result.
His fourth approach attempt — again, just a few feet to the right of the hole — momentarily looked like it was going to hold up on the green, only to start speeding up and once again roll into the water.
Garcia's bad luck just seemed to get worse.
He was now playing his tenth shot and just tried to rifle the ball past the hole in hopes of it staying dry. That didn't work either.
At this point, Garcia had hit five balls into the water, was playing his 12th shot, and the crowd started to rally around him.
Garcia seemed to relax a tad and even acknowledged the crowd's efforts. When this ball landed safely on the green, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
The entire mess can be summed up by the shot tracker, where it was impossible to see all of the shots.
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