Trevor Immelman celebrates his win with son Jacob at the Augusta Masters on Sunday. (AFP)

Augusta: As Trevor Immelman walked up the 18th fairway early on Sunday evening at the Augusta National Golf Club, he carried no other burden than the one plainly in front of him, the one you could see. Just steer one last putt into the hole and win the Masters.

Sometimes, shouldering the weight of expectations is a heavy load and there are many for whom it is impossible. For Immelman, the lifting simply took a little longer.

A child prodigy, tapped on the shoulder as a teen and told he was surely destined for something special, his swing compared to no less than Ben Hogan by legendary South African countryman Gary Player — that was the lad from Cape Town.

On a blustery day when the greens dried out and the scores soared, Immelman kept his feet on the ground, shot a 3-over 75, held on despite a double bogey at the 16th and won the Masters by three shots over Tiger Woods.

“Here I am, the Masters champion,” Immelman said. “It’s the craziest thing I ever heard of.”

Immelman’s rounds of 68, 68, 69, 75 added up to an 8-under total of 280. His closing round equals the highest score by a winner since Arnold Palmer in 1962, if it matters.

What should matter, more than the $1.35 million Immelman earned for the victory, is that he earned his own green jacket, eased into it by last year’s champion Zach Johnson.

And so the first South African since Player to win the Masters is not Ernie Els or Retief Goosen or even Rory Sabbatini, it is instead Immelman, a 28-year-old, smooth-swinging, low-key, unflappable, shot-making, cool-headed major champion... and no longer a work in progress.

Player left an encouraging voice mail on Immelman’s cell phone on Saturday night and told Immelman he believed he would win. It was the right call. “It gave me goose bumps,” Immelman said. “He told me I needed to believe in myself. He just told me to go out there and be strong through adversity. He told me adversity would come today, and I would have to deal with it.”

And so he did. Clinging to a two-shot lead at the turn, Immelman saved par at the 11th after he blocked his approach to the right, but made his putt from the fringe. “I was happy to see that one go in.”

The first player to lead or share the lead after each round since Seve Ballesteros in 1980, the 29th-ranked Immelman is also the first player in his 20s not named Woods to win the Masters since Jose Maria Olazabal in 1994.

For Woods, his final round of 72 added up to his second consecutive runner-up finish at Augusta National, but he was never closer than the three-shot final margin.

His well-publicised goal of winning all four majors this year is over, and Woods joked about it. “I have learned my lesson now with the press,” Woods said. “I’m not going to say anything.”

Stewart Cink tied for third after his closing 72, the same position as Brandt Snedeker, who shot a 77 after beginning the day only two shots off the lead. Steve Flesch’s 78 dropped him into a tie for fifth with Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington.

The beginning of the end for Woods came at the end of Amen Corner, the 510-yard 13th. He drove it left into the pine straw, but punched back out on the fairway and then spun his approach back about four feet below the hole with an excellent chance at a birdie. But he missed.

Gone was the memory of his 30-foot birdie putt at the 10th and so was his best shot at catching up. Woods also missed a three-footer for birdie at the fourth.

“I just didn’t make any putts all week,” Woods said. “All week, I was dragging the blade through. I just didn’t quite have it. You have bad weeks, you have good weeks. Certainly this week was not one of my best.”

At least Woods was in good company with his misery. One by one, the contenders fell by the grassy wayside. Casey, who started the day in fourth, dropped six shots in a five-hole stretch on the front, a distasteful period called double bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey and wound up with a 79.