Lahiri finishes tied 49th, Spieth wins Masters

Augusta, April 13: Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri carded an even-par 72 to share the 49th position after his fourth and fil round while overnight leader Jordan Spieth held on to his four-shot lead to win the 79th Masters Tourment in record-breaking fashion here on Sunday.

World No.34 Lahiri, who had a three-day total of four-over 220, finished his maiden appearance in the Major championship with four-over 292 as total at the Augusta tiol Golf Club. He shared the place with American Jason Duffner.

The current Asian Tour No.1 went about his business professiolly and never dropped a shot. His risk-free approach also didn’t give him any birdies.

But, it was a very good effort considering that he played a flawless round for the first time in four days.

Lahiri had scored one-under 71 in the first round, three-over 75 in the second round, and two-over 74 in the third round. After his extremely cautious performance, he dropped a place to be 35th in the world rankings.

The 27-year-old was the third Indian after Jeev Milkha Sigh and Arjun Atwal to compete at the Masters.

Meanwhile, Spieth scored two-under 70 in the fil round for an 18-under 270 (64, 66, 70, 70), matching the best accumulative score record set by Tiger Woods in 1997.

Spieth’s effort was four strokes clear of five-time Majors champion Phil Mickelson and World No.8 and 2013 US Open champion Juston Rose.

The Texan, who was the first person at the Masters to hold the outright lead after each of the opening three rounds since Greg Norman in 1996, became only the fifth wire-to-wire Masters champion. He joined Craig Wood (1941), Arnold Palmer (1960), Nicklaus (1972) and Floyd (1976) in doing so.

Also, only Woods, by five months, won the Masters at a younger age than Spieth, 21, who will celebrate his next birthday in July. Spieth, who posted an eight-under 64 on Thursday, also became the youngest opening round leader in the history of the elite tourment.

“This was the ultimate goal in my golf life, and to be able to accomplish it at 21 and still have a lot of years left to do it again, I didn’t expect that,” he told masters.com. “When you’re Masters champion, it’s a different legacy.”

Last year’s runner-up Spieth, who fired six birdies on Sunday for a total of 28 birdies in four rounds, also broke Mickelson’s Masters record of 25 birdies over 72 holes in 2001. On Sunday, Spieth was troubled by bogeys on the fifth, seventh, 12th and 18th holes.

“It’s the most incredible week of my life. This is as great as it gets in our sport,” Spieth said during the Green Jacket ceremony.

“This is a dream come true for me...to shoot some low rounds and to see some putts go in out here and to hear the roars, it was remarkable,” he said after becoming the 13th golfer from Texas to win the title at Augusta.

This win also catapulted Spieth to world No.2 in world rankings, only behind Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman took the fourth spot with a total of 12-under 276.

Paul Casey, Ian Pulter and Dustin Johnson shared the sixth place. Fourteen-time Major champion Woods finished joint 17th with a total of five-under 283, while defending champion Bubba Watson shared the 38th spot with seven others.

All the top 12 finishers qualified for the next edition of the Masters. IANS