Former champions fall short at Augusta

"It's a humbling experience out there because you're trying so hard," Fred Couples said Sunday after Mickelson won his second green jacket in three years with a two-shot victory.

"Some of those putts were left in great spots and I just couldn't make any of them. ... It's a letdown."

With Mickelson and Couples paired together in the final group, and Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Jose Maria Olazabal giving chase, the final round of the Masters had all the makings of an epic finish.

Woods was seeking his fifth green jacket, with his father battling cancer back in California. Singh was trying to end a nine-month drought. Couples was hoping to become the oldest Masters champion six months shy of his 47th birthday -- and on the anniversary of Jack Nicklaus' last title, no less. Olazabal was looking for his first PGA Tour victory since 2002.

"I felt this great feeling of accomplishment to be able to beat guys like Tiger and Retief and Ernie and Vijay and Fred," Mickelson said. "To come out on top, it's a great feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment."

For him. For the others, it was an epic bust.

By the end of the day, the parade of former champions couldn't even hold onto second place. That belonged to Tim Clark, known best as the South African who isn't Ernie Els or Retief Goosen.

Clark finished two strokes behind Mickelson at 5-under 283, while Couples, Olazabal, Woods, Goosen and Chad Campbell were another stroke back at 4 under. Singh tied for eighth at 3-under.

"As good as I hit it, that's as bad as I putted," Woods said. "If I had putted halfway decently, I'd be giving Phil a battle."

Olazabal, the winner at Augusta National in 1994 and 1999, at least made things interesting. Beginning the final round at 2 over, he had birdies on three of his first four holes to post a 32 on the front side.

"When I looked at the leaderboard and saw how the guys were not making a charge, I thought, `Well, let's see how well I can play the back nine,"' said Olazabal, who played 10 groups ahead of Mickelson.

He shook off a bogey at No. 11 and closed within a shot of the lead with an eagle at the 15th. But he cooled off with a three-putt on the par-3 16th, then had to work to save par on his final two holes.

Woods was dismal on the greens, but at least he was consistent. He flubbed short putts on the front nine and the back nine. He pushed them and pulled them. He never could get his speed right.

He three-putted from 15 feet for bogey on No. 11, and missed a 12-footer for birdie on No. 12. He missed eagle putts inside 15 feet on both Nos. 13 and 15, and couldn't make a 10-footer for birdie on No. 14.

He had three three-putts in all, equaling the first three rounds combined and the most Woods could remember in a single round at Augusta.

"I absolutely lost it out there on the greens," Woods said. "I'll probably go snap this putter in about eight pieces."

Singh played well, but was never spectacular. He was at 4-under by the turn, but couldn't pick up any more ground.

The most disheartening of the collapses was by Couples.

One of golf's most popular players, fans were rooting for him to show a bit of immortality. He has one victory in the last eight years, at the 2003 Shell Open, and he threw away a chance at the Nissan Open earlier this year. He left an 8-footer for the lead short at No. 13, then bogeyed three of the last four holes.

But this was the 20th anniversary of Nicklaus' victory for the aged, his sixth -- and final -- Masters title at age 46. What better way to celebrate than to have Couples win it, replacing Nicklaus as oldest champion by about three months.

If the ages weren't omen enough, Couples' Masters badge this week -- assigned in order of player registration -- was No. 86, same as the year of Nicklaus' famous charge.

"When I teed off," Couples said, "I was, in my mind, one of the four, five, six guys that had a chance to win."

For a while, it looked as if he just might. A birdie on the first hole pulled him even with Mickelson, and they went birdie-for-birdie on the seventh. But he missed five putts of less than 10 feet, and followed his most spectacular hole of the day with his most disastrous.

After putting his tee shot about a foot from the creek on the par-5 13th, he recovered to drop a 15-footer for a birdie that kept him within two strokes of Mickelson. But on 14, he blew a 4-foot birdie putt to pull within one shot. It caught the lip and spun 6 feet away, and he missed that one, too.

"I'm beating myself up, but it just really came down to one minor, minor casualty and that was on 14," Couples said. "I mean, I can live and die with three-putting and some of the other stuff. But that really is a putt where it would have been a heck of a lot more fun to make and see what would have happened."