The weather gods produced their box of tricks. Where Saturday’s miserable day of cold rain proved to be a damp squib, the difference 24 hours could make was demonstrated with sunshine clarity for a long final day at the 87th Masters that had the roars of old reverberating from one cathedral pine to another.
And, yet, the real magic was conjured up by Jon Rahm, who brilliantly navigated a route to add a green jacket to his US Open win of 2021.
Rahm had walked to the seventh green of his incomplete third round in the morning playing catch-up on Brooks Koepka, four strokes behind. But walking with intent. By the time, they set out for the final round, Koepka’s lead had been reduced to two.
And by the time they left the sixth green in the sunny afternoon, it was Rahm who had worked his way to the top of the leaderboard – a position he never relinquished, as a wonderfully crafted final round 69 for 12-under-par 276 gave him a four-stroke winning margin over Koepka and Phil Mickelson.
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Rahm was brilliant, while Koepka – who finished with a 75 – was out-of-sorts, a different man to the one who’d seemingly taken control through 36 holes. When it mattered most, it was Rahm who was reminiscent of the great conjuror that was Seve Ballesteros, his wizardry no more evident that the approach shot he produced on the 14th when blocked out by a tree for his approach to the green.
Undeterred, Rahm led with his hands to keep the ball flight low and ran it to the front left of the green and then watched as the ball obeyed his command and ran down to four feet for a birdie, to follow the one on 15, that moved him to 12-under. And his wizardry was again exhibited with a closing par on the 18th after a rare poor pulled drive hit trees and forced him to lay up. He salvaged par, and raised his hands to the heavens on completing his great win.
For the two Irish players who had survived the cut, the final round provided little cheer: Shane Lowry had moved within touching distance of a top-5 only to suffer a tough stretch with a bogey at the 14th followed by a double-bogey seven at the 15th where his approach rolled back down the slope into the water. Lowry signed for a closing 73 for two-under-par 286, in tied-16th.
“It’s obviously a little sore right now. I’m disappointed, obviously. I put a lot into this this week, and when I birdied 11, I thought, ‘you never know here’, but then 14 and 15 just killed me,” said Lowry. He added, of the wider picture, “my putter let me down this week!”
Séamus Power’s turbulent closing round – four birdies, including a hat-trick, along with a double-bogey and seven bogeys – of 77 for seven-over 295 left him in tied-46th. “It was one of those days that you needed to have your best and I didn’t, that’s what happened out there,” said Power of his final round travails.
A winner of the US PGA Championship just two years ago, Mickelson – now 52 – missed last year’s Masters as he took time away from the sport, fired a spectacular closing round of 65 for a total of eight-under-par 280 to set the clubhouse target as his prophecy of “going on a tear” from earlier in the week came to pass.
“Today is hopefully a stepping stone to really kick start the rest of the year and continue some great play because I have a unique opportunity. At 52, no physical injuries, no physical problems, being able to swing a club the way I want to, to do things in the game that not many people have had a chance to do later in life,” said Mickelson.
US Masters: Collated Collated final round scores & totals
(USA unless stated, Par 72), (a) denotes amateurs
276 Jon Rahm (Spa) 65 69 73 69
280 Brooks Koepka 65 67 73 75, Phil Mickelson 71 69 75 65
281 Russell Henley 73 67 71 70, Patrick Reed 71 70 72 68, Jordan Spieth 69 70 76 66
282 Viktor Hovland (Nor) 65 73 70 74, Cameron Young 67 72 75 68
283 Sahith Theegala 73 70 73 67
284 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 70 72 72 70, Collin Morikawa 69 69 74 72, Xander Schauffele 68 74 71 71, Scottie Scheffler 68 75 71 70
285 Patrick Cantlay 71 71 68 75, Gary Woodland 68 72 73 72
286 Sung-Jae Im (Kor) 71 76 67 72, Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor) 70 72 74 70, Shane Lowry (Irl) 68 72 73 73, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 71 70 70 75, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 71 69 74 72, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 71 73 73, (a) Sam Bennett 68 68 76 74
287 Keegan Bradley 70 72 74 71, Chris Kirk 70 74 72 71, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 74 67 74 72
288 Tony Finau 69 74 73 72, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 70 71 74 73, Scott Stallings 70 77 69 72
289 Sam Burns 68 71 78 72, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 76 69 74 70, Si-Woo Kim (Kor) 73 72 72 72, Harold Varner III 72 71 76 70
291 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 72 71 74 74
292 Talor Gooch 72 74 73 73, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 71 73 72 76, Zach Johnson 75 70 74 73, JT Poston 74 72 76 70, Cameron Smith (Aus) 70 72 75 75
293 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 72 71 74 76, Jason Day (Aus) 67 72 74 80, Taylor Moore 73 72 70 78, Adam Scott (Aus) 68 74 77 74
294 Harris English 71 71 77 75, Max Homa 71 73 72 78, Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi) 74 70 77 73
295 Seamus Power (Irl) 73 72 73 77, Sepp Straka (Aut) 70 73 74 78
296 Dustin Johnson 71 72 78 75, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 74 73 72 77297 Fred Couples 71 74 76 76, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 74 73 73 77
300 Billy Horschel 73 74 74 79
302 Keith Mitchell 75 71 77 79
