‘It wasn’t a great swing’: A chance that passed Chad Campbell by at the Masters

Kenny Perry blundered at the final fence of the 2009 Masters with the Green Jacket at his mercy.

After almost ace-ing the par-3 16th at Augusta National in the final round, the American fiddled his way through the last two holes with bogeys which brought him back to the field.

Chad Campbell admits he was lucky to find himself in a playoff with his fellow American and Angel Cabrera despite shooting a 69 on a tense Sunday in Georgia.

The Texan started the final round two shots behind Perry and Cabrera but shared the lead by the time he walked off the 8th green.

“It’s hard not to look ahead and think about winning,” he told NCG. “It’s hard to stay in the moment and hit the shots and do the things you need to do to win.

“It’s so easy to just look ahead and say ‘I’m going to win this tournament’. You’ve got to stay in the present and just focus on what you’re doing on each shot.

“I thought I did a really good job doing that. I don’t really remember everything too well, I just remember I had a lot of opportunities on the back nine and wasn’t able to make a lot of them.

“I had an eagle putt on 15 and a couple of birdie putts that I missed, just the little things. I had a birdie putt on 18 to end up winning it outright, but it was kind of fortunate getting in the playoff with Kenny.”

On the 72nd hole, Cabrera timidly rolled in a three-footer to tie for the lead after watching his playing partner Perry miss a par putt which would have made him the oldest-ever winner of the Masters at the age of 48.

The scorecards were signed and the trio, locked together on 12-under-par, were back out to the 18th hole – the tournament’s first three-way playoff since Larry Mize defeated Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros in 1987.

“They got us right back out there,” Campbell added. “It was getting pretty close to dark, and I was the second-to-last group and then Kenny was right behind us, so I had to sign my card and hit a couple of putts and then they drove us back to 18.

“It was pretty quick – I don’t remember anybody hitting balls or anything.”

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Chad Campbell: ‘The shot looked terrible, but I only missed my spot by not too far’

You wouldn’t have had Cabrera down as the winner after his wayward tee shot on playoff hole one, or even his second shot which was struck from pine needles right of the fairway and into a tree, leaving a long pitch to the green to save par.

Perry blocked his approach short of the righthand bunker, so Campbell was presented with an opportunity to put the playoff to bed with an inviting look at the yellow pin at the bottom of that unfamous bowl of the 18th green.

“Left, Left,” he told his ball in the air while holding his mud-splattered 7-iron. It didn’t listen.

“It wasn’t a great swing. I had it perfect in the right side of the fairway, perfect 7-iron and everything feeds to that Sunday pin and I think I was in a little hook lie, I wanted to make sure it didn’t go left.

“I was trying to play the slope. The shot looked terrible, but I only missed my spot by not too far. But I could drop 10 balls down there, and you only get one between 10 or 15 feet, to be honest.

“I hit a pretty good bunker shot out to four or five feet and missed the putt.”

Just as he described, the then 34-year-old rolled his ball over the lip, staying agonisingly above ground. He dropped out of the extra-hole slog that saw Cabrera and Perry forge on after they both scrambled for pars.

Cabrera won on hole 10, the second playoff hole, for his second major title.

That major win would always allude Campbell, having been the man in second behind Shaun Micheel at the 2003 PGA Championship as well.

Augusta was a golf course where Campbell felt at home and it represented his best chance of major glory, having also come tied for third at the 2006 Masters.

“I really liked it,” he said. “I knew whenever I got there if it was playing pretty firm, I had a chance to play well.

“If it was playing soft and wet, then it was tough for me because it was so long and not that I was short, but I couldn’t quite fly it to the top of the hill on 1 – it sounds crazy, but when it was cold and wet, you go from hitting a 9,8 or 7-iron into 1 to hitting  5 or a 4-iron.

“So I knew if it was playing firm, I felt like I had a pretty good chance. Visually, the course was set up great for me. It’s probably my favourite course ever along with a lot of people.”

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