AUGUSTA - A quick look at Sunday at the Masters.
Shots of the day
*There were still four holes to play, but Jon Rahm all but locked up the Masters title with his approach shot at No. 14. After a hammered drive, Rahm had 133 yards to the green. His approach ended up four feet away. With the made birdie putt, Rahm moved to 12 under to take a four-stroke lead. It was only the fifth birdie at the hole all day.
“If there was a key moment on the day, it was that spot,” Rahm said.
*It wasn’t Tiger-esque ... but it was close. Sahith Theegala hit his tee shot on the par-3 16th long and left. He ended up 24 yards from the hole. Theegala chipped to the green and the ball took the break and rolled into the cup for a birdie. The shot moved Theegala to 6-under par and four shots out of the lead at the time.
“Oh, my God,” Theegala said. “You should have seen how many people said, Do it for Tiger, Tiger chip-in, and all that stuff when I was over there. I just wanted to get it anywhere on the green because I had kind of a muddy lie, and yeah, it was gross over there. But yes, I can’t wait to watch the replay because I don’t know what I did. I don’t even know the angle the ball took. I was just blacked out when I hit the chip because I was just so happy to get it on the green.”
Quotes of the day
“The first two days, I putted just awful. It was one of those weird situations where my good ones weren’t going in and then my bad ones definitely weren’t going in.”
-Defending champion Scottie Scheffler
“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.”
-Phil Mickelson
“I haven’t really looked, but looking at it right now, yeah, I guess they don’t suck. I suck, though. Not today.”
-Harold Varner III when asked if he look at the final leaderboard following his comments that people say LIV golfers suck
*”I’ll be honest, it was brutal. Jon went to the bathroom like seven times and we still had to wait.”
-Brooks Koepka, playing with Jon Rahm, on the pace of play behind Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay
Note
Tiger Woods will never re-create his famous chip shot on No. 16 on the way to winning the 2005 Masters.
Not for sentimental reasons but for practical reasons. The shot can not be re-created due to a redesign of the green, according to Woods.
His tee shot on the par-3 ended up to the left of the green. Woods chipped well to the left of the pin and he and a rapt crowd watched as the ball slowly roll down the slope towards the cup.
It looked like the ball might come up just short before a final half-rotation allowed it to drop into the cup. Perhaps the biggest Tiger Roar echoed through Augusta National.
“The green has changed,” Woods said this week. “There is a new back, deeper hole location there that they tried to fit. But my chip there in 2005 is not the same as -- the green is not the same as it was then.”
Did you know?
This is the 70th anniversary of Ben Hogan’s victory in 1953. Hogan set the Masters scoring record by five strokes with a 14-under par 274. The record stood for 12 years. Ed Oliver was second, five strokes behind Hogan.
Future dates
2024: April 8-14
2025: Aprl 7-13
2026: April 6-12
2027: April 5-11
2028: April 3-9
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