Five of the best - Masters thrillers of the modern era

Masters week means re-acquainting oneself with the tournament's glorious, accessible archive. Full final-round broadcasts stretching all the way back to the 70s are sitting there on YouTube.

The modern era of the Masters perhaps begins with Tiger Woods' show-stopping destruction of the field in 1997, a week which brought an end to the decade-long European dominance in the event and ushered in a new epoch in golf.

There's been some thrilling Masters' finishes since then. Here are accounts from five of the most memorable.

An underrated dinger of a tournament which followed hot on the heels of Greg Norman's implosion in '96 and Tiger's blitz in '97.

The front-runner for the first three days was the perennially competitive Freddie Couples, he of the magnificent liquid swing and the dodgy putting stroke. The stylish Italian-American - the family name was originally 'Coppola' - was almost always in contention around Augusta and at the Open Championship but managed only one Major victory, the 1992 Masters.

Seeking what appeared an overdue second Major, Couples sat on six-under on Saturday evening ahead of a leaderboard stacked with the usuals: Mickelson, Olazabal, Furyk, Els.

Before we could get down to the final stretch, Sunday witnessed the heartwarming rally of the Golden Bear. Nicklaus, by then closing in on his 60th birthday, carded a final round of 68 to finish in a tie for sixth. He was joined in that position by future PGA champ David Toms, who struck a remarkable 29 on the back nine.

David Duval, then close to the beginning of his relatively short stint at the summit of the game, rattled off five birdies in eight holes between the seventh and 15th to briefly shoot into a three-stroke lead. The Masters briefly looked to be in