Jon Rahm roars from behind to win the 2023 Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jon Rahm spent most of the last few months establishing himself as one of the best golfers in the world. Sunday at Augusta National, he carried through on that promise on the biggest of stages, turning a two-shot deficit into a four-shot victory to capture the 2023 Masters.

Rahm, already one of the finest players of his generation, now has a second major to go with his 2021 U.S. Open victory. He stayed strong as Round 3 leader Brooks Koepka stalled, then faltered, navigating the second nine at Augusta with the savvy calm of a five-time green jacket winner.

For Rahm, the walk onto the 18th green was made with a giant smile on his face. After tapping in for par for a final-round 69, Rahm raised his arms in victory, then put his hands over his face in disbelief. The green jacket was his.

A wild Sunday

On an afternoon of improbable events and astounding shots, perhaps the strangest was this: Phil Mickelson, age 52, held the clubhouse lead late Sunday at the Masters. Mickelson, long ago given up for dead in both golf and cultural senses, rolled in his eighth birdie of the day with an emphatic fist pump, closing a round of 65 — tied for his lowest ever at Augusta.

A few dozen yards away from him, Rahm and Koepka began their back-nine battle with Rahm in the lead by two strokes at 10-under. Although Koepka was clearly leaking oil — he hadn’t birdied a hole since the eighth in Round 3, his approaches wavered and his putts wobbled — he matched Rahm par for par on 10 and 11.

At the 12th, Koepka slipped even further off the pace, chunking his second shot from the fringe and slipping a par putt past the hole to fall to 7-under. Koepka finally managed to end his streak of birdie-less holes at 22 on the newly lengthened 13th. Unfortunately for him, Rahm matched him and ascended to 11-under as they headed toward the 14th.

There, the 28-year-old Rahm would deliver the kill shot on Koepka, a dart from 133 yards out that rolled to within four feet of the pin. Koepka’s 44-foot birdie attempt skirted past the hole on the right and he missed the comebacker, a two-shot swing that widened Rahm’s lead to four on Mickelson and five on Koepka and several others at 7-under.

Koepka, in desperation mode, reached the green of the par-5 15th in two, but was unable to convert the long eagle putt. Rahm, laying up and playing smart golf, failed to roll in a birdie, leaving his lead over Koepka and Mickelson at four strokes.

After an interminable wait for a plodding Patrick Cantlay at the 16th hole, Koepka and Rahm began the long, final three holes of Augusta National. Both put their tee shots on 16 within 20 feet of the tucked back-left pin. Koepka showed he wasn’t quite dead yet by curling in a fast 20-footer, and Rahm couldn’t quite match, cutting his lead to three strokes with two holes remaining.

The Masters marked a new turn in a remarkable chapter in golf history, and a newfound level of prominence for Rahm.

Pre-tournament: A pause in PGA Tour-LIV hostilities

In the year since Scottie Scheffler slid on his green jacket, golf has plunged into civil war. LIV Golf vaulted from an idea to a league to an existential threat to the established order of golf. The breakaway tour attracted many of golf’s most notable players, including six Masters winners, and the PGA Tour quickly adjusted its business model to try to staunch the bleeding.

The four majors — the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship — stand as golf’s pinnacle of achievement, the final arbiter on a career’s merit. While LIV has managed to place many of its biggest names in the majors — there were 18 in attendance at Augusta this week — the breakaway tour’s future major qualification options are limited and, for now, questionable at best.

Between the legal action that LIV and the PGA Tour have fired one another’s way, the accusations and insults that both sides have hurled, and the possibility that this is the last Masters that quite a few LIV golfers will play for some time, anticipation and nerves were high. Would Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson fistfight at Amen Corner? Would the LIV Masters champions start a food fight with their Tour counterparts? The air was tense coming into the week.

But this is Augusta, where tension dissipates among the scent of the azaleas, and everybody is on their best behavior. Players aligned with both the Tour and LIV consciously lowered the temperature, emphasizing that their focus was golf, not politics or discord. McIlroy, the PGA Tour’s avatar and primary defender, exercised a little back-channel diplomacy by playing nine holes of practice with Koepka on Tuesday. Later that evening, LIV and Tour champions alike enjoyed a pleasant meal of cheeseburger sliders and firecracker shrimp, with no LIV talk whatsoever.

Given that 12 LIV players made the cut, and Koepka stayed at or near the top of the leaderboard all week, there will be plenty of debate on the breakaway circuit’s validity, but that’s a topic for next week. Once the tournament began, the focus was (almost) entirely on golf.

Thursday: Koepka’s resurgence

The tournament began, as is tradition, with the ceremonial tee shots by Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson. The three Masters legends only struck one stroke apiece, but if they’d walked on up the fairway and played the hole, it’s unlikely they would have done much worse than Rahm. On his very first hole of the Masters, Rahm four-putted his way to a double bogey. Beset with a volcanic temper earlier in his career, Rahm kept himself cool walking off the green by remembering how Seve Ballesteros handled a similar situation. (Asked how he could four-putt in the 1986 Masters, Ballesteros responded, “I miss, I miss, I miss, I make.”)

Koepka, meanwhile, fresh off becoming LIV’s all-time winningest player — he’s won two tournaments — entered the Masters on fire. The chief question about LIV players was whether they’re prepared for the rigors of a 72-hole tournament with a cut. The chief question about Koepka was whether he had anything left of the form that won him four majors from 2017 to 2019.

The answer to both: an emphatic yes.

Friday: A tree falls in the forest

The first hint that weather would play a dramatic role in this year’s Masters came early Friday morning, when the tournament committee moved up tee times a half-hour to get ahead of looming rains. Koepka, part of the afternoon wave of tee times Thursday, enjoyed gorgeous early morning Friday weather, riding the vibes to a second-round 67 and a two-stroke lead.

Meanwhile, McIlroy, who had come into this year’s Masters feeling and looking as strong as he ever has, flopped to a 5-over round that left him two shots off the cut line. McIlroy’s pursuit of the final leg of the career Grand Slam is now approaching driving age.

The only collapse worse than McIlroy’s came later in the afternoon, when three pines came crashing down near the 17th tee. Thankfully, no patrons were injured, even though the trees stood in a heavily trafficked area. Augusta National closed the course soon afterward for the day.

Saturday: The rains roll in, Koepka rolls on

The second round resumed Saturday morning with temperatures in the low 40s and the skies spitting rain. The delay to the end of the second round meant that two Masters champions, Sandy Lyle and Larry Mize, played their final holes at Augusta in front of sparse morning crowds, which was a shame.

The cut came in at 3-over, and Fred Couples, at age 63, became the oldest player ever to make the cut at the Masters. Tiger Woods finished bogey-bogey and was in danger of missing the cut, but the rest of the field faltered and let him back in. He played a few holes in sideways rain, then withdrew from the tournament. His record-tying streak of made cuts at Augusta National remains alive at 23, but his streak of 72-hole finishes is over.

Augusta National grouped players in trios and sent them off on the first and 10th tees, a timesaving move to get in as many holes as possible before the weather became unbearable. That meant Rahm and Koepka were grouped with Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett, the U.S. Amateur winner who did not lack for confidence. He would falter on the weekend, but it’s clear he has the game to return to the Masters again one day.

By 3:15 p.m. Saturday, the rains became intolerable and the greens became small lakes. Augusta National again suspended play for the day, and Koepka left the grounds with a four-shot lead.

Sunday: Leaderboard chaos

Koepka’s lead took a big hit after one hole Sunday morning. A bogey-birdie result from him and Rahm cut the lead in half. Koepka birdied the eighth … and then turned colder than a Masters plastic cup of domestic beer. He went the equivalent of more than a full round without a birdie.

Rahm wasn’t any better through the end of the third round. The leaders wrapped up at about 11:30 a.m., and an hour later, the final round began. Koepka bogeyed 4, 6 and 9 to open the door, and Rahm kicked it open with birdies on 3 and 8 to match the lead, then claim it. Rahm walked from the ninth green to the 10th tee with a two-stroke lead.

Meanwhile, behind them, an impressive field found its feet and charged. Jordan Spieth, the 2015 champion, carded nine birdies to reach as high as 8-under, briefly tying Koepka in second place. Russell Henley, a University of Georgia product, enjoyed the home-state cooking enough to reach 7-under. And Sahith Theegala, playing in his first Masters, validated his next-man-up Netflix status by bringing home a 5-under tournament that included a legendary chip on the 16th hole.

The ninth-place finish ensures Theegala a spot in next year's Masters.

Two other LIV alumni showed out on Masters Sunday. Patrick Reed, the 2018 champion, fought through a second-hole double-bogey to finish at 7-under. And Mickelson, the three-time champion and persona non grata on the PGA Tour, turned back the clock by dropping eight birdies to finish at 8-under and claim the early clubhouse lead. He ended up tied with Koepka for second place.

Rahm and Koepka had just made the turn when Mickelson finished. Nine holes remained to settle the Masters between them … or hand the green jacket to someone else.

Nine holes later, Jon Rahm was the 2023 Masters champion.