MASTERS UPDATE 11/04/2023: Spanish superstar Jon Rahm claimed his first green jacket after emerging triumphant on a marathon final day at Augusta National.
Rahm finished at 12-under to beat Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson by four shots, with Jordan Spieth, Russell Henley and Patrick Reed tied for fourth at seven-under.
Rahm trailed Koepka by four shots when the weather-delayed third round resumed early on Sunday morning and halved the deficit immediately, pouring in a birdie putt after Koepka missed a par save.
The two-shot margin remained as Koepka and Rahm began the final round but Rahm surged to the lead and won the tournament with a three-under 69 while Koepka faded with a three-over 75.
Mickelson produced the best round of the day, firing a stunning seven-under 65.
The Masters is Rahm’s second major victory after he claimed his first at the 2021 US Open at Torrey Pines. The 28-year-old also reclaimed the world No.1 ranking following the Masters win.
FINAL SCORES
- 1 Jon Rahm -12
- T2 Phil Mickelson -8
- T2 Brooks Koepka -8
- T4 Jordan Spieth -7
- T4 Patrick Reed -7
- T4 Russell Henley -7
- T7 Viktor Hovland -6
- T7 Cameron Young -6
- 9 Sahith Theegala -4
- T10 Collin Morikawa -4
- T10 Xander Schauffele -4
- T10 Matt Fitzpatrick -4
- T10 Scottie Scheffler -4
Australians
- T34 Cameron Smith +4
- T39 Adam Scott +5
- T39 Jason Day +6
- MC Min Woo Lee
- MC Harrison Crowe
Cue the saccharine piano music and get excited because the 2023 Masters is just around the corner. It’s the start of golf’s major season and despite all the self-indulgent pomp surrounding azaleas, dogwoods and Bobby Jones, the Masters is a special golf tournament.
Who will be presented with the green jacket in 2023, in a tournament shaping up as a vital plebiscite on the future of men’s professional golf?
The 2023 Masters is held at the the prestigious Augusta National Golf Club and starts Thursday April 6 and finishes Sunday April 9.
What’s the 2023 Masters looking like?
Defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is one of the nicest guys you’ll meet in golf.
The world No.1 is humble, unassuming and plays a fairways-and-greens brand of golf that might be unexciting to watch, but gets the job done remarkably well.
After winning the green jacket last year, Scheffler admitted to shedding some tears in the morning prior his final round as nerves took hold.
But that sensitivity belies a ruthless competitive streak when he hits the course.
In short, Scottie is a complete bad ass when he’s competing.
Barring his four-putt of ignominy on the final green — when the tournament was won anyway — Scottie simply did not flinch in last year’s final round.
He beat Rory McIlroy by three strokes and has already won twice this year, notching mega wins at the Players Championship in March and Phoenix Open in February.
If Scottie wins again, he’ll be the first player to claim back-to-back Masters wins since Tiger Woods in 2001-02.
Still on Scottie, part of his duties as the current Masters champion meant curating a menu for the Champions Dinner.
The annual nosh-up for the select group of Masters winners is held on the Tuesday of Masters week.
Early reports suggest Scheffler has played it relatively safe.
For starters, he has gone for cheeseburger sliders - a tip of the cap to Tiger’s famous 1998 menu - followed by a slightly more daring Firecracker Shrimp.
His choice of Tortilla Soup sounds weird but Scottie steers things back on track with the classic option of steak or seafood for mains (as a Texan, he keeps it local with a selection of Texas Ribeye or Blackened Texan Redfish).
Rounding out the menu is a chocolate chip cookie served with ice cream.
It’s probably not going to edge Adam Scott’s superb 2014 surf-and-turf inspired menu.
But it won’t polarise opinion like Sandy Lyle’s notorious 1989 selection, which featured a serving of haggis in tribute to his Scottish homeland.
Whichever way this year’s Masters goes, it could be a pivotal turning point in the current stalemate of professional golf.
If one of the 18 LIV Tour members playing at Augusta were to win the green jacket, it would provide untold currency to the upstart tour.
What’s abundantly clear is the people who run the Masters won’t be hectored by the PGA Tour into deciding who can and can’t play in their tournament.
The Masters haven’t bought into the politics; they just want the world’s best players competing in one of the world’s greatest tournaments.
The LIV tour has attracted its share of mouthy protagonists but they have nothing but respect for the institution that is the Masters.
If a LIV player does succeed in winning the green jacket this year it will validate the nascent tour on arguably the grandest stage in golf.
It all adds to the intrigue of the 2023 Masters.
The top three golfers in the world, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm have been sharing the spoils between them this year.
Scheffler has won twice, as has Rory, while Jon Rahm has won three times.
It’s hard to remember a time when the top three players in the world have been so dominant heading into a Masters.
It’s exciting but is it Rory’s time to finally break a nine-year winning drought in the majors?
Despite a runner-up finish last year, Rory has a concerning level of scar tissue at Augusta National.
But Rory’s best golf is almost unbeatable, a fact Lucas Herbert summed up so succinctly prior to playing him at the Dell Match Play: “He’s a great player. If he turns up with his A-game I think I'm in a lot of trouble”.
You suspect the rest of the Masters field would agree with Herbert’s sentiment.
It’s been in the pipeline for a while but the 2023 Masters will see a new tee in action on the 13th hole.
Augusta National purchased land from the adjacent Augusta Country Club back in 2017, with the view of eventually pushing the tee further back on what is one of Augusta National’s most interesting holes.
The 13th previously played as a 510-yard par five with a right-to-left dogleg.
However, players regularly cut the corner with their drives to leave just a wedge into the green.
The hole became a tantalising opportunity to make eagle, or birdie at least, but the new tee adds 35 yards and makes the drive much more difficult to sling around the corner.
It should result in more defensive play off the tee and leave players with a longer second shot if they decide to go for broke.
Expect more players to lay-up, especially if they fan their drive down the right side.
The Spanish superstar has been on a tear of late but is on a minor form slide coming into the Masters.
Jon Rahm failed to progress out of the group stage at the Dell Match Play, winning just one of his three matches, and withdrew from the Players Championship after picking up a stomach bug.
But prior to those events he’d won five of his eight starts, which is ominous form heading into the year’s first major.
Rahm’s class and proven ability to win a major should see him in the mix at the Masters.
There will be five Aussies at this year’s Masters, one fewer than last year.
Jason Day returns after missing the 2022 Masters while 21-year-old Sydneysider Harrison Crowe makes his debut after winning the Asia Pacific Amateur in Thailand last year.
Adam Scott tees it up again this year via the lifetime exemption he received when winning the green jacket 10 years ago.
And Perth’s Min Woo Lee, who finished 14th on debut last year, returns after a late but impressive run to move inside the world top 50 and secure a Masters start.
Lee lit up the front nine in the final round last year, shooting 30 to enter the record books with the equal-best front nine score at Augusta.
But of the Aussies, Cam Smith looms largest.
Winner of the Open Championship last year, Smith played in the final pairing at last year’s Masters and will be desperate for another crack this year.
The mulleted and moustachioed Queensland legend will be out for redemption at Augusta this year.
Cameron Smith played alongside Scottie Scheffler in the final pairing and got to within a shot early on the front nine on Sunday.
However, it all unravelled quickly on the 12th hole when he chunked an approach shot into Rae’s Creek before skulling his next shot from the drop zone in the junk behind the green.
His triple bogey abruptly ended his charge and he wound up finishing fourth.
Scar tissue is something you don’t want to accumulate at a place like Augusta — just ask Rory — but Smith’s chipping and putting is simply without peer in the game and that’s why he’s such a threat around Augusta National.
The only question mark is his lack of competitive rounds since joining the LIV Tour.
But Cam Smith in a green jacket on Sunday night would be a great story of redemption — and a bonanza for the LIV Golf tour.
In the great Australian tradition of claiming others as our own, South African amateur Aldrich Potgieter can arguably be included as the sixth Aussie to tee it up at the Masters.
The teenager won the British Amateur to punch his ticket to Augusta but spent many years honing his game in Perth.
He played pennant golf for Joondalup Country Club and was part of the winning team in 2021. He also won the WA Amateur Championship the same year.
After leaving Perth late in 2021, Aldrich joined the South African high-performance golf program but made a quick dash back to Perth last year to play in the WA Open at Yokine.
He may be playing under the South African flag but Aussie Aldrich has a nice ring to it.
The grand campaigners meet again at Augusta and while a Tiger/Phil pairing will still capture headlines it’s hard to see either figuring in the finish.
Tiger played last year and made the cut, which was a phenomenal achievement after being sidelined by injury for over a year following his 2021 car accident.
The undulating terrain of Augusta will again test out his body and while you can never completely write off Tiger Woods chances at the Masters, a win this year would surpass his remarkable Masters win in 2019.
Meanwhile, three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson will just be glad to be back this year after sitting out the 2022 Masters.
While he wasn’t officially uninvited, Phil voluntarily sat out last year in the wake of his infamous “scary mother…..” comment in regard to the Saudis who fund the LIV Tour he now plays on.
Phil’s best golf has seemingly deserted him, having notched just one top 10 in nine starts on the LIV Tour.
But winning the 2021 US PGA Championship as a 50-year-old should provide him with all the belief he needs to pull off another miraculous win.
There are few players in the game with athletic talent as pure as Dustin Johnson.
DJ won the Masters in 2020 and has the ability to make the game look incredibly easy.
He left the PGA Tour last year to join LIV and you sense he’s missed by all on the PGA Tour —if they could get one guy back, it would likely be DJ or Cam Smith.
The trouble facing DJ is the lack of golf he’s played.
Since last year’s Open Championship at St Andrews he’s only played 22 competitive rounds and has only notched one top 10.
But if DJ can hit top gear expect him to contend for a second green jacket.
Will Zalatoris has played in just two Masters and has only been beaten by a total of six players.
The stick-thin American finished runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in 2021 and tied sixth behind Scottie Scheffler last year.
But his overall record in majors is insanely good: from 10 starts he’s finished inside the top 10 six times.
He lost a play-off to Justin Thomas at the PGA Championship last year but claimed his first career win at the St Jude Classic in September.
Augusta obviously suits Zalatoris’ game and you expect his name will appear near the top of the leaderboard at some point.
Wednesday of Masters week features the Par 3 contest, the traditional curtain raiser to the Masters tournament.
The emphasis is on fun, with players bringing their significant others and family members inside the ropes.
But no-one has ever won the Par 3 contest and the Masters in the same week.
Mike Weir and Mackenzie Hughes were declared joint winners of last year’s Par 3 contest, which was suspended due to inclement weather.
Could this be the year the curse is broken?
One of the biggest dramas at last year’s Masters wasn’t Cam Smith rinsing a ball on the 12th in the final round.
It concerned one of Augusta’s most loved concession stand items - the Peach Ice Cream Sandwich.
It’s been around for decades but supply chain issues - believed to be linked to the peach component of the dessert - meant it was off the menu.
It was a source of great disappointment for the patrons, who are accustomed to the ridiculously cheap but high-quality food and beverages inside the gates.
However, in a small win for the patrons this year, the frozen treat returns as the Berry Ice Cream Sandwich.
It’s still not the same but full credit to Augusta National for the effort to right past wrongs.
Augusta are fiercely protective of their reputation.
They like to control every aspect of their precious tournament and its wholesome image.
Gary McCord, a former pro golfer who went on to become one of the best known on-course commentators of his generation, found this out the hard way.
Working for the CBS network, McCord described Augusta’s wickedly fast greens as being “bikini waxed” in 1994.
The comment didn’t go down well with Augusta’s hierarchy, who demanded McCord be removed from CBS’s coverage team for the Masters.
McCord’s commentary career would last 30 years before he was cut loose but he would never again set foot on Augusta’s hallowed turf after that incident.
It explains why patrons are scared-straight into behaving while on site, with rules such as no running on the ground enforced with little leniency.
No-one wants to get kicked out of the Masters for bad behaviour because once you’re out, you’re out for life.
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Written by Jamie Martin Jamie Martin is currently locked in a battle to keep his handicap hovering around the mid-single digits. Despite his obvious short-game shortcomings, Jamie enjoys playing and writing about every aspect of golf and is often seen making practice swings in a mirror. |