Sergio Garcia beats Justin Rose to win first major

We have some facts about Sergio Garcia's fiancée, Angela Akins. Think that's an overstatement?

Fortunately for Garcia (not to mention Augusta National and, let's be honest, the game at large) the tournament announced shortly thereafter that its rules committee had reviewed the video and deemed that no infraction had occurred.

QUOTEWORTHY: "I felt a calmness that I never felt on a major Sunday". After all this time, how could he be?

And one thing Garcia said in victory regarding the sportsmanship on display between him and Rose certainly harkened back to the glory days of Palmer - and Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, who both shed tears during a Thursday morning ceremony honoring Arnie.

Garcia's vindication not only redefined his career, it comes while Spain deals with the fading of the athletes who have put the country at the forefront of the world of sport for the past decade. Yet that story line wouldn't work if he hadn't finished it off. With every setback overcome, Garcia won admiration and respect. It matters because he fought when he might have folded.

So he can look forward to more major victories - and a wedding in July. They can self-fashion, get better, as long as they're unrelenting.

Remember, when discussing the playoff and what preceded it, the entirety of the round.

When he hit the ball in a water hazard on 13, social media exploded with expectations that this was the start of an inevitable collapse from Garcia - but despite his penalty shot he managed to salvage a par. That's a five-shot swing in six holes.

By that point, he wasn't alone. He had to birdie three of his last four holes for a 75.

That is not to say 37-year-old Garcia will fail to add to his first major win, but the best players are too evenly matched in the post-Tiger Woods era to realistically expect him to suddenly run up his major tally in his late 30s.

"Even after making a couple bogeys I was still very positive and I still believed".

Once a longshot, the boxing match has inched closer to reality. When a 12-foot putt he didn't need dropped, Garcia clutched his fist and crouched low in celebration. This was jail, and Garcia had to pick up his ball and drop it again.

He led by three strokes early, playing alongside Rose. But then he birdied No. 14 to get one back.

After Garcia was cleared, he went on to save par on the 13th, which coincided with Rose missing a relatively easy birdie putt and missing the chance to go three strokes clear. He made eagle on the par-5 15th to tie for the lead. Yet somehow the momentum seemed to be Garcia's. "I knew I was playing well enough", Garcia said.

Both Rose and Garcia shot 69 on Sunday. He climbed up the leaderboard with four birdies on the front nine.

There remained quibbles, moments that the loser surely would lose sleep over. When Rose narrowly misses his birdie putt, there's a rumble of anticipation for Sergio's pending putt. Then he made a great putt.

He said the results weren't shocking, "just a little freakish". It was just a lot of things going on through my mind.

Deadlocked after nine holes, the two friends and rivals produced an enthralling back nine showdown worthy of any Masters final round in what became a head-to-head battle after the other challengers fell away.

In 2014, he added a fourth runner-up performance to his career tally, coming in behind Rory McIlroy at the British Open where he closed to two shots behind but could get no closer.

Rose's playoff tee shot soared deep into trees right of the fairway but bounced out onto pine straw while Garcia found the fairway.

When Rose misses his par putt on 17, one patrons exclaims 'yes!' but most groan. It just mattered that he won.

That's why so much of the moment was about more than the moment. It wasn't just the loss to Padraig, it was the way it happened.

He skyrocketed to fame at 19, when he nearly beat Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship.

By Sunday night, though, he was nothing but smiling. "I gave a good account of myself and I'll come back next year and try again". It was that way because his life is changed. "Thrilled to see what the future bring us". But I'm not going to sit here and second-guess a few shots.