DAWN BROKE TODAY with Jon Rahm four shots from the Masters lead, and his smile broke beneath the low-slung Georgia evening sun when he had a four-shot lead he knew could not be lost.
Two days of malign weather meant the third round was finished at Augusta National this morning, with Rahm recovering from a four-shot deficit when play resumed to shoot a near-flawless, final-round 69 and overhaul Brooks Koepka.
Koepka truly never brought a challenge: he signed for a dispiriting, three-over 75, meaning he slipped to a tie for second place with, remarkably, Phil Mickelson, who equalled his best-ever Masters round across his final 18 holes.
Rahm’s emotion only revealed itself when he knew it was all done, his face cracking open after a beautiful pitch to the final green. He took off his hat, ran his hand through tousled hair, and his eyes filled with tears. Then he knocked in for par on the last and pumped his fists to the skies.
Rahm is a truly deserving winner: he gave everyone a two-shot lead with a double-bogey on his very first hole and then beat them all. Plus, he saw off the whole field having already beaten whatever the skies chucked at him.
Rahm got the lousy side of the draw across the opening two rounds and so had to fight through the brutal winds and rains of a suspended, two-day second round as Koepka kept warm in the clubhouse. The players on Koepka’s side of the draw totalled 18-over across the first 36 holes, whereas those in Rahm’s accumulated 88-over. There was also the non-two-shot-penalty shadowing Koepka from Thursday, when he was somehow not pinged for his caddie openly mouthing club advice to playing partner Gary Woodland.
For Koepka, LIV’s leading contender, to fade dismally after 54 holes is an irresistibly rich irony. Then add in the fact that Koepka was 12-under after 36 holes, becoming only the 12th man to total that score midway through a major in history. Nine of the previous 11 went on to win the title. The two outliers? Greg Norman. Twice. He now has Koepka for company in the history books as well as at work.
Koepka was seeking a fifth major but found today, just as Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth have learned before him, that the lag after a sprint to multiple major titles is capricious. He is at least back fit and competing at the sharp end of major golf, and this was less a collapse than a painful dissipation: the tight drives irons of the first two rounds became just a little too loose, and the clutch putts that dropped on Friday curled left and right.
Rahm is among the more demonstrative and emotional players on Tour, but here he was almost utterly focused, restrained, patient and, when he had to be, ruthless. Almost. He tightened with the finishing line in sight, leaving tentative putts short on 16 and 17 and then flying to the right from the final tee. Koepka, though, was not in a position to profit or even prey on nerves.
But this was largely the understated stuff of elite sporting performance from Rahm. Starting the morning four behind Koepka, he ended the delayed third round two shots off, was tied by the fourth hole of the final round, led after the sixth, and won by four.
He shucked all pressure from his shoulders; shoulders on which a green jacket will now sit.
The delayed third-round finish offered a change of pace for the morning but this was a quintessential Masters Sunday, with the front two moving their way through the opening holes with narrow focus as roars and cheers popped like fireworks from all corners of the course.
Sahith Theegala flew to the back of the 16th green, heard a few shouts of ‘chip it in like Tiger’ and proceeded to, well, chip it in like Tiger. (His follow-up was even slightly better than Woods in 2005, finishing bogey-par.)
Sahith Theegala chips in for birdie on No. 16 to move into a tie for third place. #themasters pic.twitter.com/NBtrLAW2BV
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 9, 2023
Scottie Scheffler briefly threatened to catapult himself into contention by going four-under through 11, before he then became another defending champion to founder on the treacherous 12th, flying miles over the green and glumly taking double-bogey.
The pairing of Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth, meanwhile, sprayed the leaderboard red, sinking 17 birdies between them.
Mickelson didn’t play here last year after his infamous interview with Alan Shipnuck in which he described Saudi Arabia’s ruling family as “scary motherfuckers.” He returned this week, looking newly-gaunt – he hadn’t been described as all-Bones around here since he changed his caddie – and told everyone he was about to “go on a tear” and, hey, he was speaking the truth once again.
At the age of 52, he shot his joint best-ever round at the Masters, an eight-birdie 65 which ignited on the back nine, birdieing five of the last seven to post the clubhouse lead. Mickelson started his round 10 shots behind Koepka, and walked off the green level with him at eight-under in a tie for second.
Mickelson has a lifetime exemption to play at the Masters, so for as long as he remains out of mind on the LIV tour and out of favour for his support of the same, he can come back to Augusta and soak up the appreciations of a crowd where past status is just as obsessively protected as the traditions and the azaleas.
“To come out today and play the way I did and hit the shots when I needed, it’s so much fun”, said Mickelson. “I’m grateful to be a part of this tournament and to be here competing and then to play well, it means a lot.”
Mickelson’s pairing with Jordan Spieth fizzed all day, with patrons strapping themselves in for one of the wildest, most stomach-churning rides in golf. Spieth started the day 10 shots back from Koepka and ended the day a shot behind him. He birdied nine holes and stood on the 18th tee tantalisingly close to the lead. But in a flourish of utter Spiethness, he hooked his tee shot left into the trees, and was left pleading, “please don’t be behind the tree, give me one fucking shot at this” as he walked up the fairway to assess the damage. He made bogey as Mickelson made birdie to take him out of contention.
“I just hate bogey on the last hole”, sighed Spieth, “It’s the worst feeling.”
Viktor Hovland launched himself into contention with a five-birdie run on the back nine this morning but quickly took himself out of it in the afternoon with a double on the par-three sixth and another bogey on nine, signing for a two-over 74. His playing partner, Patrick Cantlay, was equally zestless, shooting 75, his interminably slow play holding up the leaders behind him.
Patrick Reed and Russell Henley climbed into a tie for fourth spot alongside Cameron Young, while amateur Sam Bennett’s remarkable week ended with a two-0ver 74 and a tie for 16th place. He finished alongside Shane Lowry, whose cold putter scuppered any chances of a final-day charge. Lowry opened with back-to-back birdies but lost all momentum with a three-putt bogey on the third green. He closed with a one-over 73 that could have been much better but augurs well for the last three majors of the year.
But as the day’s shadows lengthened and the contenders winnowed, Rahm tightened his grip across the field.
Koepka’s advantage when the leaders resumed their third round this morning on the seventh green was four shots, but it was halved by the time he stood on the eighth tee. Koepka proceeded to make birdie on eight, which was his last until the 13th hole…of his final round.
He spent the day lacking all inspiration, carding nine bogeys across 25 holes. He had just one across all of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Koepka’s starting two-shot lead was halved when Rahm made birdie on three and it was all square after the par-three fourth, with Koepka making bogey having landed in the front-right bunker.
Rahm’s utter control on the greens was something to behold: one of many pace-perfect two-putts for par dropped on the fifth hole. Koepka ran into more par-three trouble on six, clubbing over the green. Rahm steadily poured in a par putt where Koepka could only make bogey, and, for the first time since posting his opening-day 65, Koepka slipped behind.
He never recovered. Rahm left a birdie behind him on seven but Koepka didn’t grab the opportunity. Instead, he hooked left off the eighth tee and while he salvaged par, Rahm slickly added another birdie. This, he reflected in Butler Cabin, was a key moment.
One of Rahm’s few errors was a misread putt on nine, but his bogey was matched by yet another from Koepka.
There are fewer graveyards more picturesque than the 12th hole at Augusta National, with the swirling winds making the par-three all the more threatening. Rahm stood on the tee with a two-shot lead, as the crowd hushed and the atmosphere pulsed with the creeping expectation of something grimly memorable.
“Okay, hit your shot”, said Rahm’s caddie, and Rahm flew the ball safely into the heart of the green. It wasn’t the hole on which Rahm lost the Masters. It was where he won it. Koepka went to the back-left for the second time today and made bogey.
Koepka finally made a first birdie of the round on 13, but his problem was Rahm did too. From there the Spaniard kept his nerve, with a divine approach to 14 and a stress-free landing on the 15th.
Rahm took a four-shot lead into the final three holes, and he showed the first sign of the awesome weight of achievement, leaving tentative putts short on 16 and 17. Koepka, meanwhile, finally found a spark to birdie 16, but then eased Rahm’s nerves with an inaccuracy off the 17th tee for yet another bogey. Rahm’s tee-shot from 18 was wild but it was only a momentary lapse.
An attritional, abnormal Masters was given the rightful champion.
Written by Gavin Cooney and posted on the42.ie
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