When golf's renowned front-runner flopped, Nick Faldo pounced.
Raymond Floyd blew a 4-shot lead on the final six holes of the 54th Masters on Sunday, allowing Faldo to become only the second man to win this storied event two years in a row.The Englishman did it in similar fashion to last year's victory, winning on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff when Floyd's approach found the pond guarding the 11th green.
"It's the most devastating thing that's happened to me in my career," the distraught Floyd said. "I've had a lot of losses, but never like this. At this stage of your career, how many chances are you going to get?"
"When you have a guy that you know is a great front-runner, it sets your course," said Faldo, who won on the second hole of a playoff with Scott Hoch last year. "You've got to play positive-aggresive.
"I thought it was unbelievable when Floyd hit his shot in the water on 11. A guy like that has played so many pressure shots."
"Raymond's not the most fun person to chase," Lanny Wadkins had said earlier in the day after finishing with a 68 and a third-place tie at 283 with John Huston, who shot 75 after starting the day two shots behind Floyd.
"He's an awful good front-runner. He has a lot of determination, lot of guts. He just doesn't want to turn loose. I'll be surprised if anything funny happens."
It did.
The two finished regulation with 10-under-par 278 totals - a closing 69 for Faldo, 72 for Floyd.
Both had pars on the first extra hole, although Faldo had to come out of a bunker to save his. Both had excellent drives on No. 11 - Floyd 275 yards to the right of center, Faldo 300 yards to the left of center.
When Floyd's second shot found water, Faldo knew he just had to get it comfortably on the green.
He did.
Faldo stopped it 18 feet from the pin. Floyd, lying 3, took his drop 45 yards from the hole.
"I've got to hole it for par," Floyd said. "The chances aren't good."
He didn't. Faldo then lagged his putt within a foot and tapped in for the par that sewed up the third major title of his career, the $225,000 first prize and the green jacket that goes to the winner.
He had beaten Hoch for his first Masters title after Hoch missed a short birdie putt on the first extra hole. Floyd failed on a 15-footer on the first playoff hole.
Faldo, who won the British Open in 1987 and lost a playoff to Curtis Strange in the 1988 U.S. Open, thus continued the European domination at Augusta - six of the last 11 titles and three in a row have gone overseas. Sandy Lyle of Scotland won the 1988 Masters.
Floyd realized he may have cost himself a second Masters title by getting out of character. He started playing safe, hoping to par in for the victory that would make him, at 47, the oldest Masters winner in history.
Jack Nicklaus won this title for the sixth time in 1986, when he was 46. Nicklaus also was the only back-to-back winner, in 1965 and '66.
It would have made Floyd the first player with a major championship in four decades - he won PGA crowns in 1969 and 1982, the Masters in 1976 and the U.S. Open in 1986.
Floyd's conservative play on the back side of the 6,905-yard Augusta National course was the opening Faldo needed.
"I started playing for pars," Floyd said. "Not consciously, but that's what happened. I just think that was the way the round set up."
Faldo hung tough by saving par with a 15-foot putt from the fringe on No. 12 after hitting his tee shot into the bunker.
"I could have played a career-shot and still hit it in the water," Faldo said. "That might have been the one that kept me going."
He then birdied the 13th, 15th and 16th to get within one shot, which he made up when Floyd three-putted from 50 feet on 17 for a bogey.
Nicklaus, a 50-year-old grandfather, had hopes of winning this crown for the seventh time when he started the day five shots behind Floyd.
Those hopes were drained by a round that included four bogeys on the back side, resulting in a 74-285.
Nicklaus finished sixth, one shot behind Fred Couples, who closed with a 69.
"Of course I'm disappointed," Nicklaus said. "At age 50, I'm not going to get that many chances to win the Masters."
Floyd doesn't figure to have many either, but Faldo does.
The 32-year-old Englishman gave up team sports for golf when he was a child after watching Nicklaus win a Masters on television.
Next year, he'll be trying for three straight, something not even the Golden Bear has achieved.