Steve Flesch's final round of 6-over par has left him a lot to ponder on the ride home from Augusta. (Cannon/Getty Images)

Right around 7:40 p.m. (ET) Sunday evening, South Africa's Trevor Immelman was the envy of every golfer who has ever been on a muni practice green, imagining Jim Nantz uttering the words, "This putt to win the Masters."

Of course, your putt -- or at least mine -- usually slips by the hole. Coincidentally, that was the theme for a host of Immelman's challengers. Although the coveted Green Jacket was there for the taking with Immelman shooting a final-round 3-over 75 -- tying Arnold Palmer (1962) for the highest final-round score ever by a Masters winner -- nobody rose to the occasion in windy, difficult conditions. No key putts were drained, no timely shots were struck to put the pressure on.

No doubt the challengers spent the rest of the night playing the what-if game.

Woods

• TIGER WOODS: What if Tiger and his putter were performing like Tiger and his putter normally do? Woods -- whose birdie at 18 moved him into the runner-up position, although it hardly seems like one -- took 120 putts over the four days, which tied for 29th in the field. He put himself in position Sunday, but he missed two birdie putts from inside eight feet.

"I kept dragging the blade," Woods said in explaining his putting woes. "I wasn't releasing it, wasn't getting the overspin like I normally do. Out here if you're not starting the ball perfectly on line, you're not going to make any putts."

Snedeker

• BRANDT SNEDEKER: What if the floppy-haired youngster, who finished tied for third, hadn't allowed his ball to take an untimely swim in Rae's Creek on No. 13 for the second day in a row? It resulted in a bogey ... and against Immelman's birdie, that made for a two-shot swing.

"I had a 4 iron in that hole and, golly, man, if somebody could tell me how to play that second shot, I'd love to know," Snedeker said. "Two days in a row I've hit it right in the middle of that damn water."

Cink

• STEWART CINK: What if his Masters dream hadn't ended when three successive bogeys starting on No. 9 poured onto his scorecard like a broken fire hydrant on a hot summer day in the city? Cink had started the day with consecutive birdies and was still 1 under on his round until the wheels came off. That three-hole stretch negated his fine play down the stretch (two birdies in the final five holes).

"I really hit one bad shot," Cink said of his bad-luck bogey run.

Flesch

• STEVE FLESCH: What if the four-time PGA TOUR winner hadn't rippled away his best chance at a major in Rae's Creek with a tee shot on the par-3 12th hole that looked about three clubs too short? A par there against Immelman's soon-to-come bogey would have had Flesch trailing by just one shot. Instead, the "other" lefty derailed with four bogeys over his last six holes.

Flesch said he just pulled the wrong club, an 8-iron from 154 yards out. Like many players Sunday, he was victimized by the wind.

"When I was over it, there wasn't much wind at all and I was aiming it left of the bunker," Flesch said. "I hit it solid, but halfway through the flight, it just stood straight up into the wind and I could tell halfway there when it got stood up that it wasn't going to make it."

Among the finishers in the top five -- Immelman aside -- Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington, who each tied for fifth with Flesch, were truly the only players to have a "nice" final round. They shot even-par 72s, same as Woods and Cink, but it felt different. Seeing as they started the day nine shots back, neither Mickelson nor Harrington had any business truly challenging for the title.

Yet hats off to Immelman, who did what he had to do. It's not every day you get to shoot 75 in the final round of a major and win. Nevertheless, it was his near-flawless play through the first three rounds that put the 28-year-old in that to-die-for position.

The only what-if the South African has to worry about is: What if everything in my closet clashes with this Green Jacket?

It's likely he won't care.

ROUND OF THE DAY: The 4-under-par 68 carded by Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez. There were only two sub-70 rounds on Sunday -- the other belonged to Heath Slocum, a 69. Jimenez made the cut on the 3-over number Friday but parlayed himself into a tie for eighth with his 4-under total on the weekend.

SHOT OF THE DAY I: Playing it safe on the par 5s paid incredible dividends for Zach Johnson when he won the Masters in 2007. On Sunday, Trevor Immelman applied that logic at No. 13 -- the final hole on Amen Corner -- by laying up instead of going for the green in two. With a short approach left, Immelman deftly landed his third shot about 10 feet behind the hole and spun it to within two feet of the cup, setting up what, for all intents and purposes, was the birdie that ended the 72nd Masters.

SHOT OF THE DAY II: Nick Watney eagled No. 14, a 440-yard par 4 with a 119-yard sand wedge. The eagle was the 15th on No. 14 in the history of the Masters. Prior to Watney's hole-out, the last person to eagle No. 14 was Tiger Woods in 2006.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Well, he left me a voicemail last night, and I got it when I was leaving the premises. You know, it gave me goose bumps because, you know, he told me that he unfortunately had to leave; he's on his way to the Middle East to do something over there, and that he wouldn't be able to watch the coverage, but told me that he believed in me and I need to believe in myself. And he told me I've got to keep my head a little quieter when I putt. He said I'm just peaking too soon. He told me to just go out there and be strong through adversity, because he said that adversity would come today, and I just had to deal with it. You know, I took that all to heart, and I'm obviously thankful for the message and I'm sure he's proud of me." -- Masters champion Trevor Immelman on the voice message he received from Gary Player following the third round