Bubba Watson Wins Masters In A Sudden-Death Playoff

Two weeks ago, Bubba Watson had neither major golf championship titles nor children.

Today, he has one of each.

Watson's playoff victory over Louis Oosthuizen on Sunday was the 15th in Masters Tournament history -- and the ninth since the tourney adopted the sudden-death format in 1976 -- according to the host Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.

Both the American Watson and the South African Oosthuizen completed the regulation 72 holes at the Masters with scores of 278, 10 under par. In the final round on Sunday, the former shot a 68 and the latter shot a 69.

Their sudden-death playoff began on the par-4 18th hole, which both parred. Then it ended on the par-4 10th hole. Watson parred it, Oosthuizen bogeyed it, and that was that.

The victory gave Watson not only his first Masters' green jacket but also his first major golf championship title. (The other three major tournaments held each year are the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and British Open.)

Speaking of winning the Masters in an interview afterward, Watson said, I've never had a dream go this far ... so I can't really say it's a dream come true.

However, Watson said: It's a blessing. To go home to my new son, it's going to be fun.

Watson, 33, and his wife, Angela, 34, adopted a month-old boy named Caleb on March 26.

All things considered, Watson appears to have done pretty well the last month.

On Sunday, Oosthuizen also did pretty well, as the golfer became only the fourth in the 76-year history of the Masters to record a double eagle, which is a hole made three strokes under par. The extremely rare achievement came on the par-5 second hole.

Of course, the 2012 Masters is memorable for other reasons, having nothing to do with the state of play on the course.

The tournament was conducted during a nationwide debate over Augusta National's all-male membership policy.

On March 28, Bloomberg News reported on the cognitive dissonance between the policy and Virginia Rometty's status as CEO of the International Business Machines Corp. IBM is one of three major corporate sponsors of the event, and the previous four CEOs of the company have been Augusta National members.

William Porter Payne, chairman of the club, repeatedly refused to discuss its membership policy during a news conference on April 4, the day before the tourney began, Bloomberg said.

Apropos of nothing, we note the Masters' winner was awarded $1.44 million and that the total purse for the tournament was $8 million.

Click here for ESPN's final leaderboard for the 2012 Masters Tournament.