South African duo Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen both finished under par in their final rounds at The Masters on Sunday, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
Oosthuizen recovered from a tough Saturday to close with a 71 and a tie share of 41st place. The 2010 Open winner began with a par and then a sand save birdie on 2, the site of his famous albatross. In fact, the pin was in the same place as it was back in 2014 when he made a two on the par five and was on course to hit it stiff again but instead of finding the slope to take it to the hole, his ball drifted into the sand.
Nine pars followed before a double on the tricky 12th hole hampered his move up the leaderboard. He responded with a par four on 13 but failed to birdie the last par 5 on the course.
Oosthuizen finished level for the back nine after finishing birdie, par, par to end what was a frustrating Masters appearance where he struggled with his game all week.
Fellow South African Branden Grace went two better than Oosthuizen on Sunday but still failed to finish level or better for the tournament. Grace birdied just two of the par fives – key to scoring well at Augusta but did manage to get shots back at 6 and 7 to go out in 33.
A bogey at 10 slowed him down on Sunday but after navigating Amen Corner in -1, he went home with four straight birdies before closing with a bogey 5 to end his round -2 and a tournament total of +3. At the time of writing, Grace was in a tie for 28th place, far from his pre-tournament goal of a run at the green jacket.
Earlier, Ernie Els faded into the Augusta shadows closing with a six over par 78.
