There were tears in Chris DiMarco (Stats | Bio) 's eyes Sunday after his round at the Masters Tournament.

DiMarco, who played in the final pair with Phil Mickelson (Stats | Bio) , dropped from a tie for first to a tie for sixth. Falling apart in a major opportunity is DiMarco's burden to carry now, not his playing partner's.

"I had my chances," DiMarco said. "I could have birdied 15. It just seemed I was about a foot off all day. At 14, I hit a great 6-iron that rolled 6 inches through to the fringe. If it stops 6 inches short, it would have rolled down to the hole. It's just one of those things that happen in golf."

DiMarco rolled his eyes in an attempt to let his anguish fade. Then he spoke not of his own misfortunes, but Mickelson's breakthrough.

"This ends on a sour note for me," he said. "But it was pretty fun to watch Phil win his first major.''

DiMarco will be linked to Mickelson's mastery of Augusta.

"I'll take an assist on 18," DiMarco said. "I had the exact same line on my putt he did. Phil saw my ball break the way it did. This was meant to be for him. This was but a matter of time for him."

Mickelson had a special request for DiMarco as he lined up his bogey putt on No. 18. Mickelson's ball was 3 feet from his.

"He kind of snickered when he saw my ball," DiMarco said. "He said 'Show me something,' so I guess I did. It was a cup to a cup-and-a-half outside right. Mine broke outside right. His broke in. I'm glad his ball did."

Neither DiMarco nor Mickelson sent fear rippling across leaderboards early. Mickelson went out in 38, DiMarco in 39.

"We talked quite a bit trying to pump ourselves up," DiMarco said. "Neither one of us got off to a good start, so we said to each other early on whoever wins this tournament is going to come from this group. I'm glad somebody from our group did."

DiMarco's downfall came on No. 6, a hole he was three shots below par on across the first three rounds. It was the first of his two double bogeys Sunday.

"The pin was set where I have to go at them," DiMarco said. "The winds picked up. I hit a solid 6-iron. I never thought I could hit it 25 yards over the pin."

He missed a birdie on No. 3 by a foot and the ball rolled down a slope, leading to the first of Sunday's three bogeys. He three-putted at No. 4 for another. It was a list of evils.

"There's a whole lot of sand in that bunker on 18," he said. "I wasn't meaning to hit that."

A mulligan, in the form of a Mickelson question, returned the light back into his eyes.

"You could just tell this was going to go down by the way Phil did this," DiMarco said. "There was no way he was going to miss that putt after he'd made the putt on 16, the birdies on 13 and 14."

And DiMarco, despite contending in his third Masters in four years, is at least another year away from feeling what he got the chance to witness.

Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.