Snedeker, 27, also struggled to control his emotions. He produced one of the few Sunday roars with an eagle on the 2nd hole, grabbing a share of the lead, but then made only two pars from the 6th to the 16th holes.
"I think I'd put myself in a psychiatric ward," he said during a teary press conference. "I went from extreme highs to extreme lows, and that's what you don't want around here."
Flesch met a watery demise on the par-3 12th. He can blame the swirling winds, but his tee shot barely reached the middle of the creek, and led to a double bogey. Thus deflated, he bogeyed four holes in a row beginning at the 14th.
"I played well all week," he said. "I simply played nine bad holes, and that's the way I'm going to look at it."
Woods avoided the signature disasters of the other pursuers but will still be runnerup for the third time in the last five majors. He had started the day six back, but it would have taken only a 69 to get into a playoff.
"He thought his tournament was over after not birdieing 13 and 15, and bogeying 14," said Woods's playing partner, Stewart Cink. "Lo and behold, we get into the [postround] scorer's area and find out that Trevor had doubled 16. Tiger shook his head and said, "He had to make it interesting, didn't he?'"
"Interesting" is a generous way to describe Sunday's action, as for the second straight year the Masters devolved into a U.S. Open-style war of attrition, and this edition was especially lacking in drama.
Augusta's normally die-hard fans didn't even pretend to be enjoying the spectacle. When the leaders' scores were posted for the 13th hole — showing Immelman's birdie that pushed his lead back to four — the massive bleachers around the 15th and 16th holes began clearing. Augusta National had suddenly become Dodger Stadium.
In only his second year Augusta National chairman Billy Payne has proven himself to be a forward thinker, but he may need to consider revisiting the course's old setups, which almost every year produced memorable Sunday pyrotechnics.
Augusta National has grown brutally long and increasingly narrow, and it still boasts the most frightening greens in championship golf. Unless Payne chops down a bunch of trees and shaves away the second cut, the course will continue to humiliate the game's best players, especially on days when the weather is less than perfect.
"It's a tough, tough course," said Casey, who managed to find a silver lining in his devastating final round: "I broke 80."
