AUGUSTA, Ga. — It all comes down to this.
Four players were within five shots of the lead as the final round of the 2023 Masters began Sunday afternoon at Augusta National Golf Club, setting up for what could be a thrilling finale to what has been an interesting week.
One of the biggest storylines of the week was the presence of 18 LIV Golf players in the field, and one was at the top of the leaderboard. Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka held a two-shot lead over world No. 2 Jon Rahm when the final 18 started.
The total purse this year is $18 million, with $3.24 million going to the winner of the green jacket.
Who will come out on top? Follow along below for live updates from the final round of the 2023 Masters at Augusta National.
Masters 2023 leaderboard: Get the latest news from Augusta
Rahm wins first green jacket, second major
Jon Rahm is a Masters champion.
Rahm shot a final-round 69 to win the 2023 Masters Tournament by four shots over Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka, his first green jacket and his second major champioship.
Jon Rahm set to win on Seve Ballesteros' birthday
Jon Rahm is about to become the first European player to win the U.S. Open and the Masters, with the latter set to come on the birthday of another legendary Spanish golfer, Seve Ballesteros.
Rahm met Ballesteros at a prize-giving ceremony when he was around 12, four years before the shot-making maestro’s passing.
“My dad almost had a heart attack,” Rahm recalled. “I have that memory. I never got to meet him again, never got to speak to him again.
“You know, Seve is a great hero of mine and to do something he took his whole career to do in just a few years is quite humbling, I’m not going to lie. It might not be the strongest field I play all year but sometimes this could be the hardest to win, right?
“When I’m at home, I’m supposed to win, everybody is betting on me to win and to come out and play a Sunday like I just did it’s hard to describe. It was my lowest round, my lowest score out here, it was pretty much a perfect week.”
Amateur Sam Bennett has plenty to play for
Sam Bennett still has much to play for with three holes remaining at the 87th Masters. The reigning U.S. Amateur champion and fifth-year senior currently sits in 17th place, eight strokes behind leader Jon Rahm. The top 12 earn finishers receive an invitation to return in 2024.
Bennett, who has Texas A&M coach Brian Kortan on the bag at Augusta National, entered the final round in a share of seventh. Prior to that, Deane Beman (1964) was the last amateur to be in the top 10 at Augusta National through three rounds.
On Monday, Bennett’s college team will host the Aggie Invitational, a 36-hole grind at the par-72, 7,227-yard Traditions Club.
Lynch: The end has never seemed closer for Tiger Woods
No permission to stand down need be granted. Woods is battling because he thinks he can still add to a legacy that is exquisite but incomplete. Only when he admits that he can no longer win will the passages of grief and, finally, acceptance begin. For us as much as for him.
Catching up with Jena Sims Koepka
Golfweek caught up with Jena Sims Koepka on Sunday to chat about the couple’s episode in the Netflix’s ‘Full Swing” series, her quest to be part of the SI Swimsuit franchise and Brooks’ march toward a fifth major.
LIV Golf well-represented at top of leaderboard
Even if Jon Rahm holds on to win this thing, the LIV Golf contingent has clearly represented itself well, with Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed all near the top of the leaderboard late in the afternoon on Sunday.
Reed doubled the second hole in the final round, dropping to 1 under, but got hot from there, using birdies on Nos. 3, 6, 7, 8, 12 and 13 to get within three shots of the leaders. The Augusta native won a green jacket in 2018 and has top-10 finishes in both 2020 and 2021.
Mickelson posts lowest final round at Masters, tied for second
Phil Mickelson shot a 75 in the third round and most had written off any longshot chance he had at winning.
But Lefty, a three-time champion at the Masters, stormed back Sunday with a final-round 65, his lowest final-round score at Augusta National, closing out his round with a rousing birdie putt on 18.
Clubhouse leader. #themasters pic.twitter.com/knz660UE7F
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 9, 2023
Mickelson birdied Nos. 12, 13, 15, 17 and 18 to get to 8 under and move into a tie for second with fellow LIV golfer Brooks Koepka, two back of fellow former Arizona State Sun Devil Jon Rahm.
No. 10 plays toughest at Augusta National, could be instrumental
Historically the toughest hole at Augusta National is No. 10, known as Camellia, the tee shot requires a hard hook to gain extra distance. Drives that go too far right will leave a long second shot; if they go too far left, trees are a problem.
Rahm and Koepka are nearing this stretch.
Shot of the day?
Let’s go the par-3 16th, where Sahith Theegala did his best Tiger Woods impression with an amazing chip from deep in a sea of patrons.
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
Jordan Spieth is making things interesting on Easter — again
Jordan Spieth’s last two PGA Tour victories have been on Easter Sunday. Spieth, who is making his 10th Masters appearance, has a dazzling record at Augusta National, including winning the title in 2015.
It’s been another crazy rollercoaster on Sunday for Spieth, who has posted eight birdies and two bogeys through his first 15 holes to get within three strokes of leader Jon Rahm.
Jon Rahm takes lead from Brooks Koepka
Jon Rahm took over the top spot on the leaderboard at the 2023 Masters, but he didn’t need to do anything spectacular to do so.
While Brooks Koepka made bogey on the fourth and sixth hole at Augusta National, Rahm remained steady by posting par on each.
Rahm had four top-10 finishes in six previous starts at the Masters.
MORE: A look at the best final rounds between players in the final pairing
Gary Woodland enjoying best Masters showing
Gary Woodland has had a rough go of things in most of his trips to Augusta National, missing the cut six of 10 previous starts at the Masters. But Woodland pulled within four of leaders Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm on Sunday by virtue of consecutive birdies on No. 7 and 8 before dropping a shot on No. 9.
The largest final-round comeback at the Masters came from Jack Burke Jr., who caught 24-year-old amateur Ken Venturi despite trailing by eight shots. Burke, who is now 100 and the oldest living Masters champ, shot a 71 while Venturi finished with an 80.
Woodland had never finished in the top 10 at this event.
Lay up or go for it: How are players handling the new tee on No. 13?
One of the storylines entering the week was the new tee box on Azalea, the par-5 13th hole at the end of Amen Corner. Thirty-five yards were added, with the goal of restoring the risk/reward element “that was intended in the original design of the hole,” according to chairman Fred Ridley.
Of the 25 players who started their rounds on the back nine, here’s how they played the 13th:
- 13 laid up (9 from the fairway)
- 9 went for it and didn’t make it
- 3 went for it and made it
Seven players made birdie, 10 made par, five made bogey and two made double bogey or worse (shoutout Keith Mitchell’s quadruple-bogey 9). The lone eagle was a hole-out from a layup by Mito Pereira.
Third time's a charm for Lefty
Phil Mickelson rolled in long birdie putt on the par-3 12th hole, the third time this week he’s birdied the hole called Golden Bell.
Mickelson also birdied it in rounds one and two and his birdie Sunday got him to 4 under and back in the top 10 on the leaderboard.
Twenty years ago, Scott Verplank birdied the 12th in all four rounds.
Mito Pereira goes triple bogey/hole-out eagle in Amen Corner
Mito Pereira had himself a wild time in Amen Corner on Sunday.
On the famed par-3 12th, his tee shot flew the green. He then chipped across the putting surface into the water. After a second chip on, he two-putted for triple bogey.
Then on the par-5 13th, the hole everyone was talking about leading into the event, Pereira holed out with his third shot for an eagle.
Reminder: Augusta National was used for raising animals during WWII
The Masters was not played during the years 1943, 1944 and 1945 because of World War II. As incredible as it seems today, to help with the war effort, turkey and cattle were raised on the Augusta National Grounds.
That’s just one of a dozen great tidbits you might not know about this special place.
Leader Brooks Koepka opens with wayward tee shot
The leaders are off for their final round here at Augusta National, and the player everyone is chasing, Brooks Koepka, hooked his opening drive well left and into trouble.
Koepka, who won LIV Golf Orlando last week, is seeking his fifth major championship. Only 20 men have achieved five or more major wins.
“The whole goal is to win the Grand Slam, right,” he said on Friday. “I feel like all the greats have won here and they have all won the British Opens as well. Look, I guess it’s one more box for me to tick to truly feel like I’ve done what I should have accomplished in this game.”
Scottie Scheffler solid if unspectacular in defense
Scottie Scheffler is likely too far back to make a run at the leaders on Sunday, but the 2022 Masters champ sandwiched a pair of good numbers around a second-round 75. He opened the final round at 2 under, with a top-10 finish still in his sights.
Scheffler grew up in Dallas at a time when Jordan Spieth, three years his senior, was setting a high bar for golfers in the area, but Scheffler kept pace by winning all those Legends Junior Tour and North Texas PGA tournaments and battled head-to-head with fellow future PGA Tour pro Will Zalatoris, who met Scheffler when he was 9. Zalatoris described him as “goofy.”
“He wore pants to every tournament even if it was 110 degrees,” Zalatoris recalled.
But there was a method to Scheffler’s madness. “Because I wanted to play golf on the PGA Tour,” he explained. “I would wear pants and a collared shirt to like third-grade class and get made fun of and rightfully so.”
Brooks Koepka talks after third round
Brooks Koepka shot a third-round 73 but so did Jon Rahm so the lead is two with 18 holes to go.
After his third round, Koepka met the media:
Q: You’ve been in this position going into the final round of a major, but does it feel different because of the disconnect, because you had to come back this morning?
BK: No, it feels the same. Look, it’s going to be an interesting afternoon. If the wind keeps blowing and keeps swirling like this down there, anything can happen. You’ve just got to be in control of your ball.
Q: What’s your confidence level going into this final round?
BK: It’s pretty good. How could you not be, right?
Good luck trying to claim a Brooks Koepka Masters win for either side in golf’s civil war https://t.co/AGe9mqDIHk via @golfweek
— Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) April 8, 2023
Final round tee times
The second round was suspended until Saturday morning, same with the third round until Sunday morning. The final round is set to begin at 12:30 p.m. ET, with Koepka and Rahm going off at 2:33 p.m. ET.
CBS will air the final round beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
Masters final round: Tee times | How to watch
