This time, they were accompanied by a smile.
Garcia has developed an unwanted reputation as golf's almost man, but he shed that moniker at Augusta with a play-off triumph over Justin Rose.
McIlroy needs victory in the Masters to become only the sixth player to have won all four major titles, but never fully recovered from a slow start in the opening round.
He was 19 and already heralded as a star and the most likely rival for Tiger Woods. Hoffman opened with a 65 and had the biggest Masters lead after a first round in 62 years. He shot 75 and along with Fowler tied for 11th, eight strokes behind.
It ebbed and flowed, it was similar in so many ways to the Open Championship finale involving Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson a year ago.
And then he shot 79-83 at Carnoustie and sobbed on his mother's shoulder on his way out. Garcia then proceeded to bogey Nos. "I think we've always known that Sergio is kind of an emotional on and off the golf course kind of guy and when it's all clicking, he's one of the best in the world", Rose added.
I don't know if I'll be the best player to have only won one Major now.
As the Masters heads for its climax, the two outside Top-10 worth keeping a watch will be Rory McIlroy, who needs a Masters to complete his career Grand Slam, and the rising 22-year-old Spaniard, Jon Rahm, who played his third round with the veteran Fred Couples (one-over and Tied-21st), whose Masters win came two and a half years before Rahm was born.
He crouched in disbelief, both fists clenched and shaking, and he shouted above the loudest roar of the day. He shouted multiple times.
Can I interest you in something that sounds nearly like-dare I say?-optimism, from the man whose track record at majors provided absolutely no reason to feel anything but prematurely defeated?
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But having announced his engagement to golf reporter Angela Akins at the start of 2017, the Spaniard now appears happy on and off the course.
But it was Garcia, so often golf's almost man, who finally ended his major drought in the play-off. He did it to win the U.S. Open in 2013 and last summer when he captured an Olympic gold medal in Rio. And his mood in the third round was helped by a stroke of good fortune on the 13th, when his ball looked set to roll back into Rae's Creek only to hold up on a bank, enabling Garcia to get up and down for birdie. "I know how much it hurts him". "The first two days kind of put me out of it and today was a good round to get myself kind of back to good form". "Let's try to keep this as positive as we can, please".
That why his comments all week at the Masters that he had changed his attitude, that he was learning to accept bad bounces, was met with skepticism.
"I felt a calmness I've never felt on a major Sunday", Garcia said. And from that calm emerged the grit that Garcia had lacked.
"I think he's going to have a happy summer". Kuchar, who made a hole-in-one on the par-3 16th hole, shot a five-under par 67, Pieters, a four-under 68, and tied for fourth.
Fowler had a memorable 2014 major season, finishing in the top five of all four events although he did not win. He missed and had to go into a playoff.
"If there's anyone to lose to, it's Sergio".
"I feel like I play as aggressive as anyone round here, but you can't just start to gung-ho it around here and go for shots that aren't on". "Thanks to that, I was able to do it". There is grey in his goatee.
My most honest congratulations to @TheSergioGarcia for that well deserved Green Jacket.
It looked as though it belonged there all along.
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