Zach Johnson, without a single top-10 finish in 11 previous majors and with nothing better than ninth place in a tournament all year, produced the round of his life yesterday to win an extraordinary Masters.
The 31-year-old, ranked only 56th in the world, triumphed after Tiger Woods, seeking his third successive major and 13th in all, climbed into the lead and then tossed it away with a series of errors.
And Johnson also did it after England's Justin Rose, one behind with two to play, had a horrid double bogey on the 17th that left him with another bad memory at Augusta three years after losing top spot with a Saturday 81.
Johnson, who last September played his first Ryder Cup, won with a fine closing 69, but with a one-over-par aggregate of 289 that matched the highest in the tournament's long history.
Woods finished joint runner-up alongside South African duo, Retief Goosen and Rory Sabbatini, both of whom held the lead on their own earlier in the day, but could not sustain their challenge for a first green jacket.
Goosen has now had two seconds and two thirds in the event and this second place was achieved after he survived the cut right on the limit of eight over.
Johnson, having hugged his wife Kim and kissed their baby son Will, said: "This is very, very surreal. I've dreamed about it for years.
"I really wasn't looking at the leaderboards. I kept saying to my caddie 'Should I look, should I look?' I only really peeked on the 17th.
"I bogeyed that, but executed really well from then on. I stuck to my game plan. I didn't go for a par five in two all week." He played them in a wonderful 11 under but was 12 over for the rest.
"It was my day, I guess," added Johnson before being helped into a green jacket by defending champion Phil Mickelson, whose hopes of retaining the title effectively ended when he started out with a triple bogey.
It was Woods rather than Mickelson, though, who knew a chance had slipped by.
"This was not disappointing today," he said after his 72. "I threw it away the two days (Thursday and Saturday) I finished with two bogeys."
Rose ended up tied fifth with American Jerry Kelly, but it was another case of what might have been. At least he was far from alone in that.
Even with a dramatic eagle on the long 13th Woods found himself needing to make up two shots and that became three when Johnson, winner of only one US Tour title previously, sank a 10-foot birdie putt at the short 16th.
The world number one went looking for another eagle at the 530-yard 15th, but failed to carry the lake short of the green - a stretch of water that also ended Padraig Harrington's hopes. The Dubliner closed with a 73 to tie seventh.
Rose, however, had had his fourth birdie in eight holes there - and that after appearing to fall out of the race with two double bogeys in the first three - and when he hit a glorious iron to within three feet of the flag at the 16th just as Johnson was bogeying the 17th the gap was suddenly down to one.
Johnson then missed the green on the last, but played a superb chip to within inches of the cup for the par that once Woods and Rose had wilted gave him his first major - and left Europe still searching for their first winner since Paul Lawrie at the 1999 Open.
So Woods will not go to the US Open in June for a second "Tiger Slam" and he has still to win a major when trailing with a round to go.
There were no shortage of European contenders for most of the week but Harrington, who was in the water on the 15th three days out of four and scored eight, four, seven and six there, finished with a 73 to tie for seventh with 54-hole leader Appleby.
The Australian managed only a 75, while Paul Casey and Luke Donald tied for 10th - Donald after making a move by pitching in for eagle at the eighth and then tumbling to a triple bogey on the next.
Appleby took a one-shot lead into the day, but had the extra pressure of playing with Woods - and it showed when he carved his opening drive under a bush and double-bogeyed.
Woods could have been out in front on his own at that point, but came up short with his approach for a bogey that meant a six-way tie also involving Sabbatini, Goosen, Johnson and local man Vaughn Taylor.
Johnson broke the deadlock with a second successive birdie at the third, but Woods, despite hooking into the trees, made four on the long second with a pitch to two feet and did have sole possession of top spot when Johnson three-putted the fifth.
It was then, however, that the magical shots for which the Masters is known started to happen.
Goosen was deep in the woods left of the seventh, but found a gap and hit it to seven feet, while up ahead Sabbatini faced a near semi-circular 60-footer for eagle on the eighth and incredibly made it.
He leap-frogged over Woods as a result, but bogeyed the ninth and Goosen, with another birdie at the eighth, was the one who headed into the back nine with the lead.
That all changed, though, when he three-putted the short 12th as Sabbatini, on in two at the 13th, two-putted for birdie.
By then Woods had fallen three behind, bogeying the sixth and failing to get up and down from sand at the 10th, but Appleby's two on the sixth brought him back into the thick of things alongside Goosen and Johnson on three over, one behind.
The spotlight was on Sabbatini, but he did not enjoy it. First on the 14th he was in the trees for one, over the green for three and he walked off with a bogey five, then bogeyed the 16th as well.
Appleby was the next to slip out of the picture, ending a run of pars by going in the water on the 12th for a double bogey five.
Johnson, on the other hand, pitched to eight feet on the 13th and when he holed from similar range at the next he was two ahead - and four clear of Woods.
When the four-time winner drove against the base of the tree on the 11th the odds on him winning were long indeed, but even though it meant breaking his club he advanced the ball down the fairway and with a brilliant pitch saved par.
Even greater drama followed. His approach to the 13th hung for an eternity on the ridge running down the green, but then trickled down to three feet.
When the eagle putt dropped and was posted on the scoreboards throughout the back nine huge roars went up - and Johnson heard them as he prepared to pitch over the water on the 15th.
He had played safe there by laying up as he had on the 13th, but this time only parred. However, he showed the strength of his character with a 10-foot birdie putt on the 16th and, despite the blip at the next, it came shining through again at the last.
His victory was the first time since Nick Faldo in 1990 that the winner had not come from the final group.
Final collated scores (US unless stated, par 72):
289 Zach Johnson 71 73 76 69 (£664,054)
291 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 73 76 73 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 76 76 70 69, Tiger Woods 73 74 72 72 (£275,459 each)
292 Jerry Kelly 75 69 78 70, Justin Rose (Gbr) 69 75 75 73 (£190,188 each)
293 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 77 68 75 73, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 75 70 73 75 (£118,975 each)
294 David Toms 70 78 74 72 (£106,986)
295 Paul Casey (Gbr) 79 68 77 71, Luke Donald (Gbr) 73 74 75 73, Vaughn Taylor 71 72 77 75
296 Ian Poulter (Gbr) 75 75 76 70, Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 71 79 73, Tim Clark (Rsa) 71 71 80 74, Jim Furyk 75 71 76 74
297 Stewart Cink 77 75 75 70, Tom Pernice 75 72 79 71, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 72 76 77 72
298 Mike Weir (Can) 75 72 80 71, John Rollins 77 74 76 71, Mark Calcavecchia 76 71 78 73, Lucas Glover 74 71 79 74
299 Stephen Ames (Can) 76 74 77 72, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 75 70 81 73, Phil Mickelson 76 73 73 77
300 Adam Scott (Aus) 74 78 76 72, Davis Love 72 77 77 74, KJ Choi (Kor) 75 75 74 76
301 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 77 73 79 72, Fred Couples 76 76 78 71, Yang Yong-eun (Kor) 75 74 78 74, Charles Howell 75 77 75 74, Scott Verplank 73 77 76 75, Dean Wilson 75 72 76 68, Lee Westwood (Gbr) 79 73 72 77
302 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 77 75 79 71, Tim Herron 72 75 83 72, JJ Henry 71 78 77 76, Brett Wetterich 69 73 83 77, Rod Pampling (Aus) 77 75 74 76, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 72 75 76 79
303 Sandy Lyle (Gbr) 79 73 80 71
304 Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 79 72 80 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 79 73 76 76, David Howell (Gbr) 70 75 82 77, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 74 75 78 77, Bradley Dredge (Gbr) 75 70 76 83
305 Jeff Sluman 76 75 79 75, Craig Stadler 74 73 79 79
306 Brett Quigley 76 76 79 75
307 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 76 76 79 76, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 79 72 76 80
308 Rich Beem 71 81 75 81
309 Ben Crenshaw 76 74 84 75, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 74 77 81 77, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 77 75 77 80
310 Arron Oberholser 74 76 84 76
311 Billy Mayfair 76 75 83 77
313 Fuzzy Zoeller 74 78 79 82
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