Jon Rahm Wins The Masters
The Spaniard holds off Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson to win by four. Final round notes, quotes and anecdotes from a long-but-exciting Sunday in Augusta.
2023 Masters Champion: Jon Rahm (65-69-73-69-276)
Rahm stats: 52 of 72 greens (72%), 48 of 56 fairways hit (86%), 3 of 5 sand saves (60%), 115 putts, 298.7 yard driving distance avg., 5 three-putts
More Rahm: 1 eagle, 19 birdies, 44 pars, 7 bogeys, 1 double bogey
Low Amateur: Sam Bennett (T16, 68-68-76-74-286)
Defending Champion: Scottie Scheffler, T10 (68-75-71-70-284)
Low final round: Phil Mickelson, 65
High final round: Jason Day, 80
Cumulative Field Scoring Average: 72.960
Fourth Round Scoring Average: 73.000
Third Round Scoring Average: 73.434
Toughest Hole, Cumulative: 5th, 4.325 (13 birdies, 170 pars, 86 bogeys, 7 double bogeys, 1 other)
Easiest Hole, Cumulative: 8th, 4.631 (4 eagles, 112 birdies, 139 pars 19 bogeys)
There are great golfers and there are golf geniuses.
Jon Rahm falls into the latter camp and no jury watching or listening Sunday would disagree upon seeing the 28-year-old Spaniard overcome the wrong side of the draw to win the 2023 Masters.
Besides becoming the fourth man from Spain to win here, he’s also the first European to win the Masters and U.S. Open. And then there all of the nutty April 9th coincidences (or not). But first, the genius component to this wildly satisfying win.
Last year Rahm played the final round with a gimpy Tiger Woods and finished T29. But ever the self-proclaimed historian, Rahm took bits of wisdom from sources far and wide and fed them into his constantly-running brain server. He’s gleaned insights from Woods, former champion Jose Maria Olazabal and caddie Adam Hayes among others en route to what seemed like an inevitable victory at the place so good to Spain. Oh, and an early week practice nine tidbit picked up from Tony Finau, who lost to Woods in 2019, helped at Amen Corner.
“I played nine holes with him on Wednesday,” Rahm said while wearing the Green Jacket. “I asked him when him and Francesco hit those shots in the water, ‘Did you actually hit a good shot?’
“He said, ‘Yeah, it was I good shot, it was just a yard too far right and spun in the water.’ Then he mentioned Tiger's shot went left of the bunker to that Sunday pin.”
Rahm, ever the calculating mega talent who merges shotmaking, artistry, cold-blooded relentlessness and a wicked propensity to make left-to-righters, infused that wisdom into his a stress-free final round 12th hole par.
“So when I got there today, dry land is mission No. 1, right?” he said. “So I learned from what I did this morning, try to basically make a hole-in-one to the third round pin and hit a perfect shot because I was about three feet from it, right. That's what I had to do, hit it right over the center of the bunker and hope it hits green. And then after that, hit a great lag putt, tapped it in and moved on.”
Rahm wanted to play Amen Corner even par and did so. But he cited a 14th hole birdie as the final round turning point and when he knew he’d never pay for a Tuesday night Masters week dinner again.
This came hours after commencing a match play showdown with Brooks Koepka with Sunday’s 8:30 a.m. restart four back. But it became a coronation down the stretch, notwithstanding a freakish 18th mishap. More on that in a moment. First, the notion of match play. Rahm had a take on that, too.
“It's not match play, but early on, it kind of felt like it, right?” he said of starting the morning third round restart four back and quickly closing it to two strokes, then commencing the final round two behind Koepka. “Before people made all those birdies, I mean, we were 10, 11, after the birdie on 3, 10-, 11-under, and then the closest was 5-under”
We sort of follow. Go on.
“So it felt like that situation, where I wasn't expecting Brooks to play bad. I can't expect that, right. So I need to bring the fight to him. So when I took the tee on 4, the goal is to keep giving him something to look at, meaning, if I hit a good shot, just for him to see that I have a birdie chance but keep putting the ball in the fairway and keep making good swings for him to feel more of the pressure rather than me, right. Me be the one pushing.”
We noticed.
Rahm only made one bogey as Koepka faded Sunday and finally making birdie at the 13th in a well-documented dry spell dating to the 8th hole of the morning restart.
That Rahm trailed by only four to start Sunday was a minor miracle. Koepka enjoyed the far superior weather in his late-early opening 36 holes. Plus there was whatever the heck he and Gary Woodland were up to in the content collaboration of the year that should have set Koepka back two strokes after two rules committee video reviews. Rahm, meanwhile, faced the worst weather, the stops and restarts, and no one flashing what club they hit on a single hole in a clumsy kickback scheme.
Asked about starting the week off Thursday with a four-putt and facing the less friendly side of the draw, Rahm’s razor sharp mind pounced.
“Did you say I was perhaps on the bad side of the draw?” he asked “Perhaps?
The press room threw him a hearty chuckle for that one.
For all of the brilliant tactical work and shotmaking, the Green Jacket became Ram’s on Sunday because of what the often volatile, temper tantrum-prone father of two adorable little ones did this week. Rahm kept his cool.
“I was calm,” he admitted. “I never got frustrated. I never felt anything was out of control. But obviously you're nervous, right? There's tension out there. That bogey on 9 timing-wise was bad because Jordan and Phil came in making birdies, right. So what looked like a two—possibly more—shot lead, narrowed it down very, very quickly with the chance of them making a birdie on 18, right?”
Right.
And about the last hole? In 2022 Scottie Scheffler finished off his Masters win with a four-putt. Rahm the details-man noted that debacle as the reason he cherished his widening lead.
Armed with a four-stroke cushion, Rahm clipped the ancient pines with his 18th hole drive and was forced to hit a provisional before word reached the tee that his ball was safe. For the record, he was credited with a 193-yard tee shot.
“I think that was karma,” Rahm said. “I was just telling Adam how great I hit a low fade the entire week. Hit pretty much every -- the fairway all four days on 17, which I've never done. And I was bragging about it a little bit, and, of course, on 18, that happens, right, which was maybe two feet from missing that tree.
“But it will be a good story in the future, I guess.”
As former Masters Champion Trevor Immelman said during the CBS telecast, Rahm thought his miracle par was an appropriate as-Seve-would have done it conclusion. Another reminder that great minds don Green Jackets.
4/9 And Spain In The Masters
Jeepers, were there some stunning coincidences with Sunday, April 9th and Spaniards.
Rahm is the fourth to win joining Ballesteros, Olazabal and Garcia. Also…
The last April 9th finish of the Masters was won by Garcia in 2017.
Seve’s 66th birthday would have been April 9th, 2023.
Rahm’s win is forty years to the day of Ballesteros’ second Masters victory.
His caddie number this week was 49.
In addition to those doozies…
This was the sixth total Masters win by a native of Spain, surpassing South Africa’s five.
Rahm is the second player from Spain to win two different majors (Seve Ballesteros Masters/The Open). And he’s the first to do the Masters/U.S. Open combo.
Mickelson Posts Career-Tying Best 65, Finishes 2nd
Jordan Spieth got the lion’s share of the CBS coverage Sunday as he lit up Augusta National with eight birdies. But as the 2015 champion botched the 18th, Phil Mickelson made his eighth birdie at 5:16 p.m., good for a 65 and all sorts of old guy Masters history and what will Phil do next conjecture.
“Six was a big moment for him,” said Spieth. “That was such a hard hole for him today with the wind. Your normal wind it's a good little par-3, but today it's brutally difficult. When he birdied there into 7, I think he started to get a little pep in his step. Then he kind of carried it on from there.”
Mickelson agreed.
“I think it was with a downhill playing 169, we had a little bit of hurt, but I tried to hit what I call a flattening the apex of an 8-iron so it flies in flat. And it just drove in there and stuck a couple of feet, which is nice.”
After the tournament was decided, Mickelson stuck to his gratitude theme from earlier in the week.
“To come out today and play the way I did and hit the shots when I needed, it's so much fun,” he said. “I'm grateful to be a part of this tournament and to be here competing and then to play well, it means a lot.”
And of course, coffee for wellness.
“But you know, additives in coffee is a big thing for me,” he said in response to a question about his longevity. “Things I eat on the golf course are a big thing. All those things factor in.”
Spieth said he felt no difference in the way Mickelson, the LIV defector and PGA Tour critic, was treated Sunday.
“Once we both started to get it going, it became a really exciting group, and it felt very much like eight, nine, ten years ago,” he said.
Mickelson’s old-guy accomplishments on a Sunday that may prove just as improbable as his 2021 PGA Championship win:
Oldest to record a Top 3, surpassing Sam Snead’s 1963 T3 at 50 years, 315 days
Oldest Top 5 as well, surpassing Jimmy Demaret’s T5 in 1962 at 51 years, 319 days.
The 65 ties Mickelson’s best round at Augusta National (1996 round one).
Previously Mickelson’s best final round was 67 in 2009, 2010 and 2018.
It marks Mickelson’s 16th Top 10 in the Masters
It’s his 10th Top-3 and first top 10 since 2015
This was his second top 10 in his last 20 majors, the other being the 2021 PGA win.
Quotable - Leaders
Rahm starting off his putting green ceremony: ““I want to thank everyone in charge of maintenance this week. You guys did an amazing job.”
Phil Mickelson. “My brother did a great job on the bag this week. When my focus was kind of waning, he would tell me some stories, tell me some dad jokes and just kind of got me refocused and more present. And again, I think that's the biggest challenge for me lately because I feel like I'm executing a lot of shots, but I just need to be a little bit more present.”
More Mickelson. “I know after missing last year, to be here this year, it means a lot to me and it means a lot to me to be a part of this tournament going forward. I love everything about this because it's what I dreamed of as a kid to be a part of, and I've got so many great memories wrapped up here at Augusta.”
Brooks Koepka on his runner-up finish. “It's super disappointing, right? Didn't play good enough to win. Hit some shots where I also feel like I didn't get some good breaks, the ball on 9; on 4 and 6, hit some good shots and just ended up in some terrible spots where it was quite difficult.”
Koepka on the pace of play. “Yeah, the group in front of us [Hovland and Cantlay] was brutally slow. Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”
Koepka on LIV golfers having a big week. “I mean, we're still the same people. So I mean, I know if I'm healthy, I know I can compete. I don't think any of the guys that played this event thought otherwise, either. When Phil plays good, we know he's going to compete. P-Reed, the same thing. I think that's just manufactured by the media that we can't compete anymore; that we are washed up.”
Shot Of The Day - Sahith At 16
Sahith Theegala chips in at the 16th and says after the round that Tiger Woods’ chip in a similar location in 2005 was his first memory of The Masters. His post round thoughts: