Jason Day
Jason Day labeled his debut US Masters appearance the most exciting week of his career after falling just short of the coveted green jacket.
The 23-year-old Australian came within one shot of equaling the course record at Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday, before ending up in a tie for second after a thrilling conclusion on Monday - all in his first outing at the famous tournament.
Day birdied the last two holes to card a four-under-par 68 and reach 12-under overall, level with countryman Adam Scott.
But rather than dwell on the disappointment of narrowly missing out, Day chose to focus on the extraordinary experience of being in the running over the last nine holes at Augusta.
"It's lived up to everything I expected, and more, which is fantastic," Day said.
"I've had the best first Masters experience, and this is going to go down for a long, long time in the memory bank. I've just had a blast."
"It was unreal. It's the most exciting tournament I've ever played in."
"I was aware of - obviously I wasn't trying to pay too much attention to the leaderboard, but obviously I took a sneak peak here and there."
"You're out there in the middle of the fairway and there's roars around you and you don't know what's going on. And then all you see is that little number pop up on the leaderboards and everyone screaming. And it's an amazing feeling to be out there in the thick of things."
Day admitted that he struggled at first to find his rhythm in the pressure-cooker environment.
"I hit a few loose drives coming out of the blocks and once I birdied two that settled me down a little bit, which was nice," he said.
"But I knew that I didn't have to do too much to have a chance of winning. And in the end that was two-under coming up 17 and I birdied the last two holes to actually have a good chance of winning it."
"I knew that I had to birdie 17 and 18 when Scotty got to 12 (under par)."
"I just said on 17, I need four more good swings. And obviously I finished birdie, birdie which was great and I didn't expect that Charl Schwartzel would come back with four birdies to finish it off, but hats off to him."
