Charl Schwartzel’s putt on the 18th green on Sunday helped him to finish in third alone at The Masters, a position which earned him a cheque for R10 391 290, writes WADE PRETORIUS.

‘Was a great week for me, I tried hard, but came up a little short. Big congrats to Sergio Garcia, well played my friend,’ tweeted Schwartzel on Sunday after he closed with a 68 and a total of -6, three behind Garcia and Rose.

Again it was a back nine flurry that saw Schwartzel fly up the leaderboard, after he opened with a front nine 35 on Sunday.

He birdied the difficult 11th and then the par 5 13th, but crucially dropped a shot on 14 after a wayward approach left him no chance of scrambling for par. That bogey all but ended his hopes of catching the leaders, but he kept his focus with valuable FedExCup points on the line.

The 32-year-old responded with a birdie on 15, but couldn’t quite repeat his 2011 heroics, where he birdied the last four holes to win. He made no mistake on 18 as he sank a birdie putt that was almost identical to the one he made to close out his famous victory six years ago.

That putt was enough to keep him ahead of big-hitting Belgian Thomas Pieters and Matt Kuchar, who made an ace at 16. They were forced to share fourth.

Sergio Garcia claimed the green jacket and a cheque for a staggering $1,980,000, while runner-up Justin Rose of England took home $1,188,000 for his efforts.