9 great moments from the past 10 Masters Tournaments played

We're a just a little excited for the season's first major — The Masters — to tee off in Augusta, Ga.

With that in mind, we dug up nine great moments from Masters week at Augusta National over the last decade, in no particular order.

9. Sergio Garcia's playoff-winning birdie in 2017. Garcia had been too good for too long to not have won a major. And finally, he kicked the door down at the 2017 Masters with a fantastic birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff against Justin Rose to take home his first green jacket. No one could have imagined it would take this long for the man, who at 19, finish runner-up to Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah for major No. 1. This was as sweet a victory as there will ever be.

 

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8. Matt Kuchar's ace on No. 16 during the final round of the final round of the 2017 Masters. It wasn't so much that Kuchar made an ace, which was no doubt spectacular, but the fact that he took the time to give the ball to a youngster sitting by the 16th green that day. Talk about an awesome Masters memento.

 

Masters 2017: Matt Kuchar | 16th Hole, Round 4 pic.twitter.com/GNeyPcbEuk

— Masters Highlights (@MastersMoments) April 9, 2017

7. Adam Scott's birdie putt on No. 18 in 2013. At the time, it looked like this putt might be the one that would win Scott his first major and -- more importantly -- the first green jacket for an Australian. As it turned out, Argentina's Angel Cabrera, the 2009 Masters champion, would force a playoff that Scott would eventually win. But, this putt was special as you can see based on the reaction from the otherwise typically reserved Scott.

 

 

6. Charl Schwartzel's finish in 2011. When you do something that's never been done by a winner in Masters history, it's a big deal. That's precisely what Schwartzel did in 2011. The South African rallied at just the right time to essentially steal the tournament from Adam Scott and Jason Day by birdieing each of the final four holes. A collective 4 under on 15, 16, 17 and 18 at Augusta National with the pressure that comes during the final round of the Masters? That'll work.

 

 

5. Phil Mickelson tree shot on No. 13 in 2010. On his way to winning his third Masters, Mickelson pulled off one of the great shots in tournament history with his second shot into the par-5 13th hole. After his tee shot sailed right into the pine straw, Mickelson found his ball sitting directly behind a pine tree, obstructing his view -- and angle -- to the green. In his typical go-for-broke style, Mickelson proceeded to hit the shot of the tournament, carving the ball around the tree, onto the green and within 5 feet of the hole to set up an unlikely eagle putt. He would miss the eagle try, but tapped in for a birdie on a hole that truly could have been a disaster had that second shot gone wrong. He would go on to win by three shots over runner-up Lee Westwood.

 

 

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4. Jordan Spieth's record-tying performance in 2015. In his first Masters a year earlier, Spieth was tied for the lead with 2012 Masters champ Bubba Watson. When the dust settled on that final round, Spieth would be the runner-up -- quite the feat for a Masters rookie. That's not how Spieth looked at it, however. Instead, it was one that got away and a defeat he looked forward to avenging quickly. Twelve months later, he avenged it in a big way -- a record-tying way. No player got within three shots of Spieth in the final round. When he signed for a 2-under 70 that Sunday, Spieth equaled the tournament scoring record -- 18-under 270 (initially set by Tiger Woods in 1997) -- for a four-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose and his first major championship. It was the first of two consecutive major wins for Spieth, who also finished T4 at the Open Championship and runner up at the PGA Championship that year.

 

 

3. Bubba Watson's wedge shot on No. 10 in 2012 playoff. After missing the fairway wide right at the par-4 10th hole on the second hole of a playoff with Louis Oosthuizen, Watson found himself in a terrible spot for his approach. In a place where most probably would have punched out back into the fairway, Watson somehow managed to hook a wedge through a shoot and onto the green within 9 feet of the cup. Once Oosthuizen made bogey, Watson needed two putts for his first major championship victory all set up by the most incredible of shots at the most crucial time. He cleaned up the par and snagged the first of his two Masters wins in a three-year span.

 

 

2. Louis Oosthuizen's albatross on No. 2 in 2012. OK, so we just covered how Oosthuizen lost the playoff to Watson in 2012. Well, the fact is, he wouldn't have even been in position for a playoff if it weren't for a Masters-first that occurred very early in the final round. Beginning the final round two shots behind Peter Hanson, Oosthuizen soared into an early lead with this shot, which was just the fourth albatross in Masters history (the first caught on camera) and the first on the second hole.

 

 

1. Louis Oosthuizen's ace on No. 16 in 2016. For a guy who has never won the Masters, Oosthuizen's name sure is popping up quite a bit on this list. He tied for 15th at the 2016 Masters, but it included this hole-in-one in the final round on the par-3 16th, one of the coolest shots you'll ever see... and not just because it was an ace. But because it was a bank-shot ace. Remember this?