AUGUSTA, Ga. – The memories at the Masters aren’t just about golf for Arnold Palmer.

He rolls off names from the past as if he had just seen them earlier in the day. He can tell you not only how many people were at the champions’ dinners in the 1960s, but who they were and maybe even where they sat.

Names like Nicklaus, Hogan and Snead, of course. But Ralph Guldahl and Horton Smith get almost equal billing, even if their names have been lost to most somewhere in golf history.

Palmer even remembers the real name of his first caddie at the Masters 59 years ago. Nathaniel Avery went by the nickname Iron Man, and he helped the young Palmer to a 10th-place finish.

“He was great and told me where to go and what to do, and that was the end of it,” Palmer said.

Ask him about Bobby Jones, though, and he really perks up. If Palmer is a link for most to the past at Augusta National, the great amateur champion and Masters co-founder is his own personal link to the days the tournament began.

“I know a lot about him; a lot of you people in this room have no idea how much I know about him,” Palmer said Tuesday. “He was a great guy and I revere the thought that I had the opportunity after reading, when I started reading about him about 12 years old, reading about him and what he did; and then being here at Augusta and having drinks with him, shaking hands with him, talking to him about the game and what he thought of the game.”

Jones’ putting stroke was one Palmer admired, even dreamed of.

“I can occasionally think of sleeping and waking up in the middle of the night and watching him putt, and thinking about how smooth he was and how good he did the things he did on the golf course,” Palmer said. “And that pleases me.”

At the age of 84, Palmer also is pleased to be back at the Masters. He first played here in 1955, winning $696, more than enough to gas up the car and tow the trailer he shared with his wife on to the next tournament stop.

He won the green jacket four times, and this year’s Masters is the 50th anniversary of his last win. He thought he would win more and win other majors, but it was the last big win of his career.

Looking back, Palmer believes winning the Masters four times in a space of seven years may have satisfied him too much. The extra gear just wasn’t there after that, though it was hard to figure out at the time.

“It may have caused a letdown and caused me more than I had anticipated,” Palmer said. “Had I had the same driving desire to win before, I might have won a few more Masters or a few more Opens or a couple PGAs, who knows. Psychologically, it affected me.”

Palmer, who will be the subject of an exhaustive three-night documentary beginning Sunday on the Golf Channel, said Tiger Woods might be struggling with the same thing.

“There is a drawback that relates to myself a little about the psychological aspects of the game and the fact that you’ve won and you’ve won the tournaments that you were working to win, and that is still there,” he said. “It’s going to be he’s going to have to overcome that. He’s going to have to overcome the fact that he won as much as he did, and he’s going to have to refresh that in his mind and his psychological approach to the game. If he can do that, I see no reason in the world why he can’t come back and be as good a player as he ever was.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Adam Scott has gone to majors for more than a decade looking at Tiger Woods as the player to beat.

Now that Woods is out of the Masters for the first time in his career that “player to beat” could be just about anyone.

Scott is the defending champion and can go to No. 1 in the world this week. Las Vegas lists Scott and Rory McIlroy as the betting favorites, narrowly ahead of Phil Mickelson, Jason Day and Matt Kuchar.

McIlroy has never finished in the top 10 at the Masters, which is a little misleading. He had a four-shot lead entering the final round in 2011 and shot an 80. McIlroy looked at the tee times for Thursday and predicted that 70 players could win the green jacket.

TEE-TIMES AND PAIRINGS RELEASED FOR 1st & 2nd ROUNDS: Tee times for the 2014 Masters Tournament have been released and there is no shortage of star power in this major championship field.

Tee-times and pairings for Canada’s Graham DeLaet and Mike Weir are pictured below.

Click here for full pairings.

IKE RAMIFICATIONS: It’s bad enough that Augusta National had to remove the famous Eisenhower Tree from the 17th fairway because of damage from an ice storm.

That might have been the hardest decision, but the easiest to execute.

The loss of Ike’s tree led to other changes that the club felt needed to be made. And this is a major that spares no expense at trying to do everything just right.

Augusta National had already mailed out some 2,000 media guides, with a glossy cover, color photos and 420 pages of information. A week or so after the tree came down, the club sent the media guide back to the printer to update the mention on page 28 of the tree. Everything was changed to past tense, and it mentioned how it was taken down in February 2014 after an historic ice storm.

The club didn’t stop there.

It removed all the calendars on sale in the merchandise shop because they had photos of the Eisenhower Tree, redoing the calendars with a different image of the 17th hole. It also changed the yardage books and spectator guides that are on sale this week to reflect that the tree is no more.

And the daily pairing sheets? Those have a course guide on the back, and the template was changed to show the 17th hole without the tree.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Billy Horschel won the Zurich Classic two weeks after the Masters last year, and thus became first on the list of players who earned their first trip to Augusta National. He just had no idea how long the list would grow.

Derek Ernst won at Quail Hollow. Harris English won in Memphis.

Throw in the six amateurs, and then cap it off with Matt Jones being the last man in by winning the Shell Houston Open. The final tally is a record 24 players who will be making their debut at the Masters this year.

This is the 78th Masters, and only three players have won on their maiden voyage around this pristine golf course. Horton Smith won the first one in 1934. Gene Sarazen won the following year. It then took 45 years to get another Masters rookie in a green jacket – Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

There hasn’t been another one since, although the odds have never been better. Nearly 25 percent of the field is at the Masters for the first time.

Smith gets overlooked as a “Masters rookie,” and rightly so. All 72 players were rookies that year.

Here are the best five performances by players at Augusta National for the first time:

5. JASON DAY: He qualified for his first Masters by winning the Byron Nelson Championship for his first PGA Tour victory. The 23-year-old Australian was loaded with far more talent than victories to show for it, but he took a liking to a course that had never produced a champion from Down Under.

Day shot an 8-under 64 in the second round to get within two shots of the lead, and the only reason he didn’t get more attention was because 21-year-old Rory McIlroy was ahead of him. And they played in the same group, along with 22-year-old Rickie Fowler.

This was in 2011, the year McIlroy lost a four-shot lead with an 80 in the final round. Day hung around to the very end, and when he finished with a birdie for a 68, he was tied for the clubhouse lead with Adam Scott. Behind them was Charl Schwartzel, who took the outright lead with a birdie on the 17th and rolled in his fourth straight birdie on the final hole for a two-shot win. Day went home with a silver medal as a runner-up in his debut.

4. HUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM: John Huston became known as the most feared player in golf – on Tuesday in money games with the pros. He won seven times on the PGA Tour, the first won coming in 1990 that made him eligible for his first Masters.

He opened with a 66, leaving him two shots behind Mike Donald. And while he followed with a 74 in the second round, he still trailed by only two shots. Huston had a 68 in the third round to stay within two shots of former Masters champion Raymond Floyd. Better yet, he was in the final group, giving him an excellent chance to become the first Masters rookie to win since Zoeller.

Alas, Huston fell back with a 75 on the final round. The winner came from back in the pack – Nick Faldo made up four shots on Floyd with six holes to play, and then won on the second extra hole when Floyd hit into the water on No. 11. Huston tied for third in his debut. He played the Masters 12 more times and never had a higher finish.

3. POHL’S CLOSE CALL: Dan Pohl made an inauspicious debut in 1982 when he opened with a pair of 75s. That would have missed the cut at most other Masters, but not this one. Conditions were tough by rain the opening two days, leading to the highest cut (10-over 154) in Masters history. He was still six shots behind.

Pohl, the longest hitter on tour, followed with a 67 on Saturday on the strength of back-to-back eagles on the 13th and 14th holes, though he still was six shots out of the lead. And even with the low score of the final round – another 67 – it didn’t appear to do much good. Craig Stadler was six shots ahead going to the back nine until the Walrus started dropping shots. Stadler wound up with a 73, and suddenly Pohl was in a sudden-death playoff.

It didn’t last long. Pohl missed a 6-foot par putt on the first playoff hole at No. 10, and Stadler made par to win. Pohl had to settle for silver.

2. THE SHOT HEARD `ROUND THE WORLD: Gene Sarazen hit the shot that put the Masters on the map and won at Augusta National in his first try. But being a “rookie” at the Masters wasn’t that big of a deal. The Augusta National Invitation Tournament was only in its second year. Sarazen missed the inaugural event, and this “rookie” had already won six majors, the first of them 13 years earlier.

Still, what he did that day cannot be overlooked and will not be forgotten. Trailing by three shots, he hit 4-wood into the hole for an albatross on the par-5 15th hole to force a playoff with Craig Wood. In the only 36-hole playoff in Masters history, Sarazen shot even-par 144 to win by five.

He remains the only player to complete the career Grand Slam at Augusta National.

1. FUZZY’S FIRST MAJOR: Zoeller whistled his way into the record books as the first major champion to win a sudden-death playoff. The Masters went away from the traditional 18-hole playoff in 1979, and it turned out to be memorable.

Much like Pohl, Zoeller was never really in the picture until someone’s misfortune on the back nine. Zoeller was six shots behind going into the last round and closed with a 70. It looked like it would be a good debut at the Masters, nothing more. That was before Ed Sneed, who had a three-shot lead with three holes to play, finished with three bogeys.

That led to a three-man playoff among Sneed, Zoeller and former Masters champion Tom Watson. On the second playoff hole, Zoeller knocked in a birdie putt and leapt into the air to celebrate.

Was it a big deal for a Masters rookie to win?

“They didn’t bring up until the next year,” Zoeller said.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Jason Day goes into the Masters coming off a big win. Trouble is, that was six weeks ago.

Day said his left thumb was ailing even as he won the Match Play Championship to close out the West Coast Swing. He withdrew from Doral. He withdrew from Bay Hill. He hasn’t played a competitive round since that 23-hole victory in Arizona.

And that was match play.

The 26-year-old Australian last competed in a stroke-play event on Feb. 8, when he failed to qualify for the final round at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

“Not really a concern,” Day said Monday. “I think I just need to tighten up a few things, just kind of get a little sharper with my tee shots. I think I’ll be good.”

Day said the rest was a good tonic for his thumb, and he had a cortisone injection a week ago in Ohio. He feels no pain, though he will be taping it as a precaution, and he has been icing the thumb at night.

“It’s more frustrating for me because just coming off the win at the Match Play, I was playing some pretty good golf,” he said. “It was trending in the right direction going into Doral and the Florida Swing there. Just something so small, it’s so frustrating, because everything else is fine. But you need your hands to grip the golf club, and every time it hurt when I swung the golf club. I would kind of flinch at impact, and you just can’t compete against the best players in the world doing that.”

Day is among the best players at the Masters.

Even though the Match Play win was only the second of his PGA Tour career, he was a runner-up at the Masters in his debut in 2011, and last year he finished alone in third. In 2012, Day had to withdraw because of an ankle injury.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The first day of the Masters didn’t last very long.

Storms moved into the area just two hours after the gates opened at Augusta National for the first full day of practice. Players had to get off the golf course. Fans made a steady stream for the exit.

A few hours later, the club said the forecast for even heavier rain meant the course would be off limits the rest of the day.

Masters chairman Billy Payne said fans who had Monday tickets will be sent refunds in May and will be guaranteed a chance to buy tickets for next year’s practice round.

It was the first time in 11 years that the Monday practice was a washout. The gates did not open in 2003 all day.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Three players at the Masters have a chance to replace Tiger Woods as No. 1 in the world.

Masters champion Adam Scott, who squandered a great shot at being No. 1 when he lost a three-shot lead at Bay Hill, would need to finish in a two-way tie for third this week at Augusta National.

Henrik Stenson (No. 3) would need at least a two-way tie for second at the Masters to become the first Swedish play at No. 1 in the world.

Jason Day (No. 4) would have to win the Masters to have any shot at being No. 1.

Woods is not playing the Masters for the first time in his career because of back surgery that will keep him out of golf until the summer.

Masters Trivia Quiz

How well do you know the Masters? Try this quiz:

1. Which player had the lowest final round to win the Masters?

a.) Mike Weir
b.) Gary Player
c.) Jack Nicklaus

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2. Who is the oldest Masters champion?

a.) Jack Nicklaus
b.) Raymond Floyd
c.) Ben Hogan

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3. Name the first foreign-born player to win the Masters

a.) Herman Keiser
b.) Gary Player
c.) Sandy Lyle

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4. Name the only player to make a hole-in-one on No. 4 at Augusta National in the Masters.

a.) K.J. Choi
b.) Padraig Harrington
c.) Jeff Sluman

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5. Who is the only player to win the Masters and put on the green jacket himself?

a.) Jack Nicklaus
b.) Nick Faldo
c.) Tiger Woods

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6. Name the Masters champion who made birdie on his final four holes.

a.) Arnold Palmer
b.) Mark O’Meara
c.) Charl Schwartzel

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7. Name the player to compete in 50 consecutive Masters.

a.) Arnold Palmer
b.) Gary Player
c.) Doug Ford

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8. Name the last player to win the Masters in his first attempt.

a.) Charles Coody
b.) Ian Woosnam
c.) Fuzzy Zoeller

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9. Which amateur had the 54-hole lead only to shoot 80 in the final round?

a.) Rory McIlroy
b.) Billy Joe Patton
c.) Ken Venturi

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10. Who was the last player to win the Masters without breaking 70 in any of the four rounds?

a.) Larry Mize
b.) Zach Johnson
c.) Craig Stadler

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11. Name the last player to win the Masters with a final round over par.

a.) Craig Stadler
b.) Trevor Immelman
c.) Jack Nicklaus

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12. Name the only Masters champion who started the final round outside the top 10.

a.) Nick Faldo
b.) Art Wall
c.) Gene Sarazen

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13. What previously occupied the land that was purchased to build Augusta National Golf Club?

a.) Fruitland Nurseries
b.) Girl Scouts of America headquarters
c.) Waffle House

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14. Who has finished in second place the most times at the Masters without ever winning?

a.) Greg Norman
b.) Tom Weiskopf
c.) Johnny Miller

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15. Who won the Masters by the most shots?

a.) Raymond Floyd
b.) Jack Nicklaus
c.) Tiger Woods

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16. Who did Gene Sarazen defeat in a playoff in 1935 after making an albatross on the 15th hole of the final round?

a.) Craig Wood
b.) Horton Smith
c.) Greg Norman

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17. Which writer coined the phrase “Amen Corner” for the 11th, 12th and 13th holes at Augusta National?

a.) Grantland Rice
b.) Herbert Warren Wind
c.) O.B. Keeler

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18. Who has the lowest 72-hole score at the Masters without winning?

a.) Ernie Els
b.) David Duval
c.) Retief Goosen

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ANSWERS

• 1. b
• 2. a
• 3. b
• 4. c
• 5. a
• 6. c
• 7. a
• 8. c
• 9. c
• 10. a
• 11. b
• 12. b
• 13. a
• 14. b
• 15. c
• 16. a
• 17. b
• 18. b

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A look at some of the anniversaries this year at the Masters:

75 years ago (1939): Ralph Guldahl technically became the first winner of the Masters because the name of the championship was changed in 1939 from the Augusta National Invitation Tournament. The opening round was postponed by rain, leading to a 36-hole Sunday. Guldahl, a runner-up at Augusta each of the previous two years, had a 33 on the back nine and closed with a 69 for a one-shot win over Sam Snead. Guldahl finished at 279, the first sub-280 performance in a 72-hole major.

50 years ago (1964): The fourth and final Masters that Arnold Palmer won was by far his easiest. After one-shot victories in 1958 and 1960, and a playoff win over Gary Player in 1962, Palmer went wire-to-wire (including a tie in the first round) to win by six shots. Three rounds in the 60s gave him a five-shot lead over Bruce Devlin, and Palmer closed out victory with a 70. He won by six shots over Dave Marr and defending champion Jack Nicklaus. Palmer set the record with four green jackets, which Nicklaus surpassed with his fifth win in 1975. It was the last major Palmer won.

25 years ago (1989): Nick Faldo rallied from five shots back in the final round with a 7-under 65 to force a playoff, which he won on the second extra hole against Scott Hoch. Faldo had to return Sunday morning due to rain and wrap up a 77 in the third round. He switched putters before returning for the final round, and it paid off. In the playoff, Faldo hit into a bunker on No. 10 and made bogey. Hoch had a chance to win with a par, but he famously missed the 3-foot putt. On they went to No. 11, where Faldo won the first of his three green jackets by holing a 25-foot birdie putt.

20 years ago (1994): Jose Maria Olazabal had 14 wins in Europe and a successful partnership with Seve Ballesteros in the Ryder Cup. He came into his own at Augusta National, closing with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory over Tom Lehman. Olazabal was tied for the lead when his second shot to the par-5 15th narrowly stayed up, and he holed a 30-foot eagle putt from the fringe. For the week, the Spaniard had 30 one-putt greens, chipped in twice and saved par all six times he was in the bunker. He was sixth European winner in seven years.

10 years ago (2004): Finally, Phil Mickelson won his first major championship when he made an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole to end a tense duel with Ernie Els. Mickelson made five birdies on the last seven holes for a 31 on the back nine and closed with a 3-under 69. Els closed with a 67, narrowly missing a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. The South African was on the putting green preparing for a playoff when he heard the enormous roar for Mickelson’s winning birdie putt. Until that day, Mickelson had been 0 for 42 as a professional in the majors. He would go on to win majors in each of the next two years.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The following 97 players have qualified and are expected to compete in the 78th Masters, to be played April 10-13 at Augusta National Golf Club. Players are only listed in the first category for which they are eligible.

MASTERS CHAMPIONS: Adam Scott, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Jose Maria Olazabal, Mark O’Meara, Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson.

U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONS (five years): Justin Rose, Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Lucas Glover.

BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONS (five years): Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Louis Oosthuizen, Stewart Cink.

PGA CHAMPIONS (five years): Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer, Y.E. Yang.

PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPS CHAMPIONS (three years): Matt Kuchar, K.J. Choi.

U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPION AND RUNNER-UP: a-Matt Fitzpatrick, a-Oliver Goss.

BRITISH AMATEUR CHAMPION: a-Garrick Porteous.

U.S. AMATEUR PUBLIC LINKS CHAMPION: a-Jordan Niebrugge.

U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPION: a-Michael McCoy.

ASIAN AMATEUR CHAMPION: a-Lee Chang-woo.

TOP 12 AND TIES-2013 MASTERS: Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Thorbjorn Olesen, Brandt Snedeker, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Tim Clark, John Huh.

TOP FOUR AND TIES-2013 U.S. OPEN: Billy Horschel, Hunter Mahan.

TOP FOUR AND TIES-2013 BRITISH OPEN: Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter.

TOP FOUR AND TIES-2013 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP: Jim Furyk, Jonas Blixt.

PGA TOUR EVENT WINNERS SINCE 2013 MASTERS (FULL FEDEX CUP POINTS AWARDED): Derek Ernst, Sang-Moon Bae, Boo Weekley, Harris English, Ken Duke, Bill Haas, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker, Ryan Moore, Dustin Johnson, Chris Kirk, Scott Stallings, Kevin Stadler, Russell Henley, John Senden, Matt Every, Steven Bowditch, Matt Jones.

FIELD FROM THE 2013 TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP: Steve Stricker, Roberto Castro, Nick Watney, Brendon de Jonge, Luke Donald, Gary Woodland, Kevin Streelman, D.A. Points, Graham DeLaet.

TOP 50 FROM FINAL WORLD RANKING IN 2013: Hideki Matsuyama, Thomas Bjorn, Jamie Donaldson, Victor Dubuisson, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Francesco Molinari, Rickie Fowler, Matteo Manassero, David Lynn, Thongchai Jaidee, Peter Hanson, Joost Luiten, Branden Grace.

TOP 50 FROM WORLD RANKING ON MARCH 30: Stephen Gallacher.

(a) denotes amateur

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Harris English got his first Masters week off to an ideal start Sunday – he made an ace on the 12th hole.

And it came with a little help from Brandt Snedeker.

They played a practice round with Augusta National members Dave Dorman and Toby Wilt, who teamed with Snedeker to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last year. When they got to the menacing 12th hole, Snedeker hit a three-quarter 9-iron to the front-left hole location.

English’s caddie suggested about the same, and that’s when Snedeker stepped in with these words of advice: “Just rip a wedge.”

“I’m 1-for-1 as a caddie,” Snedeker chirped after the round. Turning to English, he said, “What have you been doing all year? This is easy.”

English is among a record 24 players playing the Masters for the first time, though Sunday wasn’t his first time playing Augusta National. He played every year in college at Georgia. Even so, it was a good way to ease into a busy week.

And it was a long time coming. English said it was the second hole-in-one of his life, and his first as a professional.

The other one?

“Huntsville Country Club, when I was 14,” he said. “I hit a 5-iron. Hooked it left and it kicked right.”

This was a wedge from 142 yards that covered the flag. And he was at Augusta National. Big difference.

HAPPY RETURNS: Adam Scott returned to Augusta National on Friday and took one last privilege as the defending champion. He took his father out to play the course.

“It was the highlight of his golfing life,” Scott said Sunday. “I think for him following me around here for so many years, to get to stand in the middle of the fairways and get the perspective was just great. And for me just playing with him, well, it was pretty special.”

Perhaps the best part was going down the 10th hole, where last year he hit 6-iron to 12 feet and made the birdie putt to beat Angel Cabrera on the second playoffs hole. It was a good time, as Scott said his coach told him, to “stop and smell the flowers.”

“Walking down there the last couple of days thinking about,” Scott said, still amazed at the feeling. “It’s had an incredible impact on me. Reliving it has been nice, even these last couple of days, as well.”

What he’s not looking forward to this week is leaving the green jacket behind – unless he was to win again.

Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods are the only players to win back-to-back at the Masters.

“I’m quite determined to not leave it here,” Scott said.

AN INSPIRING SUNDAY: By all accounts, the Drive, Chip and Putt competition was a huge success at the Masters. Club chairman Billy Payne said the idea was to inspire young kids to get involved in golf and be motivated to earn a trip to Augusta National.

Ian Poulter said his 9-year-old son, Luke, was watching from home.

“My son is home on the sofa watching,” Poulter said. “I told him, `This should get you excited to go play.’ Hopefully, he’s on the range.”

Poulter said he spent a good part of the morning watching the Golf Channel coverage and couldn’t imagine what it was like to be a parent.

“I remember my mum and dad watching me play here for the first time,” he said. “For the parents of these kids, they’ve got to be a complete bag of nerves. This is brilliant. It’s cool for the kids.”

Poulter was inspired for other reason. While watching coverage, he noticed one young boy wearing his clothing line.

“I’ve got to go find him,” Poulter said, and off he went.

DIVOTS: Matt Jones became the 97th player into the field by winning the Shell Houston Open on Sunday. That makes it a record 24 Masters rookies this week. … British Amateur champion Garrick Porteous has a rare distinction at Augusta National. He is the first Masters competitor to play the 17th hole without the Eisenhower Tree. Porteous played a practice round on Feb. 17, the day after the ice-damaged tree was removed.

HUMBLE, Texas – Matt Jones earned his first trip to the Masters with a remarkable 42-yard chip-in on the first playoff hole, outdueling Matt Kuchar on his way to winning the Houston Open on Sunday.

The win is the first on the PGA Tour for the Australian, who made a 46-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to reach the playoff. He ended it one hole later, chipping over the right front bunker on the 18th and watching it roll in.

Kuchar, who bogeyed the final hole of regulation, then missed his bunker shot to give Jones the win – earning him nearly $1.2 million and a trip to Augusta National.

Jones, who began the day six shots back of Kuchar, shot a final-round 66 and ended the tournament 15 under overall.

In September, Jones lipped out an 8-foot birdie putt on the last hole of the BMW Championship – a putt that would have earned him a trip to next week’s Masters by sending him to the Tour Championship.

He waited until the last possible moment to make amends for that miss on Sunday, doing so in impressive fashion.

Jones sent his tee shot on the first hole of the playoff into the right fairway bunker. He then landed just short of the greenside bunker with his second shot, while Kuchar found the bunker from the fairway.

It was the second straight miss of the 18th green from the fairway for Kuchar, who sent his fairway metal on the 72nd hole into the water before recovering to make bogey and reach the playoff.

Jones didn’t leave Kuchar any room for error in the playoff, sending his chip over the greenside bunker and watching as it rolled in – much to the delight of the Golf Club of Houston gallery.

Golfers were sent off in threesomes early Sunday morning for the second day in a row because of the threat of strong storms in the Houston area. The rain, heavy at times, began early during the final pairing’s round, but the pros finished without any delays.

Kuchar started the day with a four-shot lead over Garcia and Cameron Tringale, but he bogeyed the first hole and was 1 over on the front nine.

That allowed Jones, who began the day at 9 under, to briefly tie for the lead at 14 under following a birdie on the par-4 11th.

Kuchar answered moments later with a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 10. The putt gave him a one-shot lead at 15 under, a lead that seemed solid until the final hole of regulation.

With Kuchar watching from the tee, Jones bounced back from a bogey on the 17th to make a 46-foot birdie putt on No. 18. That sent him to 15 under overall, one shot back of the lead.

Kuchar hit the fairway before his second shot found the water – opening the door for Jones to earn the win and his improbable trip to next week’s Masters.

It was the second straight final-round disaster for Kuchar, who shot a 75 in the final pair of last week’s Texas Open on his way to finishing fourth.

Garcia finished in third at 13 under, while Tringale was fourth at 12 under.

Rory McIlroy matched the low round of the tournament with a 7-under 65 on Sunday, finishing tied for seventh at 8 under overall.

Phil Mickelson, who won the tournament in 2011, was 1 under on Sunday and finished 7 under overall in a tie for 12th – a week after he was forced to withdraw from the Texas Open because of a muscle pull in his right side.

Graham DeLaet climbed four spots up the leaderboard Sunday thanks to a 2-under 70. The Weyburn, Sask. native finished 5-under-par, leaving him tied for 19th with four others, including Jonathan Byrd and former Masters champion, Charl Schwartzel.

Calgary’s Stephen Ames carded a 4-over 76 on the day. He tied Bubba Dickerson for 74th at 9-over 297.