AUGUSTA - The inability of Brooks Koepka to hold the lead in final round of the Masters didn’t come close to matching the meltdown of Greg Norman in 1996 or the more-recent collapse of Rory McIlroy in 2011, but the failure of the four-time major champion to finish the job was unexpected.
Koepka started Sunday morning under chilly conditions, when play resumed to complete the third round, with a four-shot lead over Jon Rahm. After signing for a 73, he began the final round with a two-shot advantage.
But the lead diminished in a hurry and was gone by the sixth hole. He trailed by five strokes through the 14th and wound up with a final-round 75 to finish 8-under 280 and tie Phil Mickelson for second place.
“It’s super disappointing,” Koepka said. “Didn’t play good enough to win. Hit some shots where I feel like I didn’t get some good breaks. Didn’t feel like I did too much wrong, but that’s how golf goes sometimes.”
It was Koepka’s third top-five finish at the Masters and matched his runner-up performance in 2019 when Tiger Woods won his fifth green jacket. Koepka had missed the cut the previous two previous years when he was dealing with a knee injury.
But it was a surprising end of the week for Koepka. He came into the Masters with momentum from winning the LIV Golf Orlando event the previous week and built on it by shooting 65-67 in ideal conditions to open the tournament. His momentum stopped on Saturday when the rain and cold settled on the course.
“It is what it is. I tried,” he said. “Gave it my all, so I can go to sleep at night.”
The final round went off the rails in a hurry. Koepka toed his opening tee shot into the adjacent ninth fairway, but somehow managed to make par. He lipped out a putt for birdie at No. 2 to settle for par, then failed to save par from the front bunker at No. 4 and fell into a tie with Rahm.
Koepka gave up the lead at the sixth hole after launching his tee shot over then green and then scooting his second shot 22 feet past the hole location to make bogey. He fell two shots behind after sending his drive on No. 8 into the left pine straw, where he was forced to punch out and settle for par.
“Poor tee shot on No. 8, which is a big birdie hole and I felt like that’s kind of where the momentum shifted, right there on No. 8 and 9, is what I felt like,” he said.
The biggest momentum shift may have come at No. 9, where his approach stayed in the fringe and his lag putt rolled eight feet past the hole and led to a bogey.
“I probably let No. 9 stick on me for a little longer than it should have because if the ball just dribbles on the green, it’s tight,” he said.
By the time Koepka had his first birdie of the round at No. 14 – ending a 23-hole birdie-free streak – the lead was up to three shots. He made a nice birdie at No. 16, but gave it back at 17 by driving into the woods and was unable to save par.
Koepka did complain about the slow pace of play. Both he and Rahm are speedy players, but were held back all day by the group in front of them, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay. It took 40 minutes to play the first two holes and the pace never really improved. Koepka and Rahm grew restless as the time passed.
“The group in front of us was brutally slow,” Koepka said. “Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round and we were still waiting.”
