The final round at Augusta began with so many observers assuming the day would conclude with an inevitable coronation of Rory McIlroy. The kid from Northern Ireland swings with such confidence, flair and power that his four-shot lead looked to be enough of a break on the rest of the field.

Of course Australians learned in 1996 - the year of the Faldo triumph/Norman disaster - that no lead is secure enough around Augusta and the pressure of winning the Masters is more than a notch above a regular tour event.

Augusta is a course where wild swings of fortune are possible and, by the time Rory got to the third tee, his four shot lead had been wiped out and his unsteady start combined with the wildly brilliant opening from Charl Schwartzel was a portent of things to come.

McIlroy hammered a long and confident drive down the first but pulled the wedge a little and took three putts out of the fringe. Schwartzel, ahead of McIlroy by 15 minutes, blew a wild iron way right of the opening green but from there he played a fine, long, running chip up the bank, across the steeply sloping green and into the hole.

Two holes later, and from the middle of the third fairway, the South African fired straight at the tiny slither of landing area in the left corner of the green and spun his wedge into the hole for an eagle. We might have guessed then that it was going to be his day.

The hibernating Tiger Woods charged out of the pack as well on the front nine with birdies at the second, third, sixth and seventh and followed that run with a long, hooking three-wood within two metres at the par-five eighth. When he made the eagle there and holed from five metres for a par after an errant drive at the ninth, the former world No.1 looked to be the man to beat.

Tiger then took three putts at the 12th, missed from close range at the 15th for an eagle and then could not manage to eke anything but pars out of the final three holes. He finished at 10 under 278, not quite good enough.

As it is so often at Augusta, the back nine was a wild ride and the course was organized to reward those who played great shots with birdies and three Australians - Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott and Jason Day - made more than their share and gave themselves tremendous opportunities to win.

Ogilvy had played a mediocre round on Saturday to follow his two opening 69s and he was one over par after only a few holes on Sunday. He has an ideal game for Augusta - great putter, long hitter and a beautiful long iron player - and he ripped through the back nine with five birdies from the 12th to the 16th. The final one from a couple of feet at the 16th got him to 10 under but, like Woods, all he could make were fours at the final two holes. So he, too, finished on 278.

Ogilvy wasn't to know but those coming behind would do even better, ruining his hopes of making a playoff.

Scott, armed with a putter a lot longer than his driver, played beautifully and when he stuck an iron a foot from the hole at the 16th, he got to 12 under and a took a two-shot lead.

He hit an awful drive at the 17th but still scrapped out a par after a bunker shot and a three-metre putt for the four. Here was exactly the putt he would most likely have missed with his old putter and it will have done wonders for his confidence.

Playing partner, fellow Queenslander Jason Day, was seemingly in the Scott slipstream all day but he made a 10-metre putt for birdie at the penultimate hole and then played a perfect short iron to within 2.5 metres at the home hole and when he holed that, he and Scott were joint clubhouse leaders at 12-under-par 276.

That seemed a likely playoff number but behind was the quite South African, Schwartzel, with the deadliest putter of all.

In a display that would have made countryman Gary Player proud, he holed from three metres for a birdie four at the 15th, four metres at the next for a two and then after driving into the rough at the seventeenth he hit a perfect iron into the green and holed from 3.5 metres for another three.

Now a shot ahead of the Australian pair, Schwartzel needed a four to win and after a perfect drive up the last, and more-than-adequate iron, he capped off his extraordinary run with a final birdie from five metres.

When the defender Phil Mickelson put the winner's green jacket across the South African's shoulders he did more than crown a champion.

Last summer, Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell won the US Open, Schwartzel's countryman Louis Oosthuizen took the Open Championship at St Andrews and German Martin Kaymer won the PGA in Wisconsin. Schwartzel's Augusta win makes this only the second time in the history of the modern game that four non-Americans hold all four of the sport's major championships.

America has young stars - Rickie Fowler, Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson among them - but it has relied for a decade now on Woods and Mickelson for sustained glory at the highest level. Mickelson is still a brilliant player and Woods showed today he is still capable of brilliant golf but the ‘foreigners' are forging a new era.

It was a day of real hope for Australian golf. Finally it looked like the Norman curse would be broken but instead it proved to be a day for the man who was off to the hottest start and he finished it off with four staggering birdies.

Scott will come again, now that he looks to have some reason to be confident in the putter, Ogilvy is a more than a one-major winner and Day has been a coming star since he was 16.

The game is in good hands here and today showed that we should not be taking their talents for granted.