Sunday marks a first in Masters history—the only time ever at Augusta National that the final round started in threesomes off split tees. As Jim Nantz just eloquently said on the CBS broadcast, this is a final round unlike any other.
What should we expect today at Augusta? Already, Jordan Spieth is 4-under through four holes and now at 7-under, Rory McIlroy is 3-under through his first four holes—so we could have low scoring. We had three players shoot 8-under 64s (Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson and Tony Finau), so is a similar score in the cards on Day 4? Some of the pins are tucked, and the conditions will get more difficult as the thunderstorms get closer.
9:22 a.m.: The final pairing is off the tee—Francesco Molinari’s fairway wood hits the fairway, Tony Finau’s driver goes through the fairway into the left trees and Tiger hits the fairway with his metalwood. We’re off!
9:19 a.m.: The Sunday pin at 16 tends to create opportunities for a hole-in-one. And we have one early today.
Bryson DeChambeau just made his first hole-in-one (he talked about it earlier in the week after nearly making one here) at the 16th hole. And his celebration was exactly what you’d expect from someone who’s never made an ace.
9:14 a.m.: The penultimate group (Brooks Koepka, Webb Simpson and Ian Poulter) is now off the first tee. Brooks Koepka just bombed it 318 yards down the middle at this uphill opener, leaving him just 128 yards in. That’s an amazing drive. Koepka disappointingly hits his approach to 37 feet.
For those keeping track at home, Koepka outdrove Simpson by 47 yards at the first hole. Wow.
9:00 a.m.: With TV coverage starting early on Sunday, there’s already a lot to catch up on. As we mentioned, Jordan Spieth is off to a hot start—birdieing 1, 2 and 4—and he’s now up to 7-under through his first four holes. There are a ton of low scores already
Here’s Rory’s eagle putt at 13 (he started at 10):
MASTERS 2019: Final round tee times and pairings
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