The weather is finally set to clear at Augusta National on Sunday where a massive final day of the US Masters will decide who wears the green jacket. Live from 10:30pm AEDT!
And the race looks set to boil down to two big stars of the game — one who is a leading player for LIV Golf, and the other the world’s No.3 golfer.
Brooks Koepka, the four-time major winner who is back from injury and finally in some form, leads the Masters by four shots over 2021 US Open champion Jon Rahm going into Sunday, in which the leaders are scheduled to complete 30 holes.
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A win for Koepka would be a doomsday scenario of sorts for the PGA Tour, which initially tried to brush aside LIV Golf as irrelevant as it emerged last year.
As such, organisers will be quietly hoping star player Rahm can keep the pace with Koepka with daylight to the third-placed Sam Bennett at six-under.
Bennett is an amateur — and no amateur has ever won the Masters (more on this below).
Should Koepka triumph it will be his first major since the PGA Championship at Bethpage in 2019 and since he left the PGA Tour for the breakaway, Saudi-backed, LIV Golf series.
Jason Day is the leading Australian but, at four-under, will need a minor miracle to seriously contend in the final round.
Elsewhere for Australia, Cameron Smith resumed his third round at one-under, and Adam Scott at even par.
The winner of this year’s event will take home $3.24 million (A$4.86) in a record Masters purse of $18 million (A$26.98m).
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The third round will resume Sunday at 10.30pm (AEST) with the final 18 holes expected to begin four hours later off the first and 10th tees in pairings. Providing the weather is good enough, organisers expect to the tournament to finish on one marathon day.
With puddles forming on the greens and players battling hard against weather more akin to a British Open, organizers had little choice but to end Saturday’s action early.
In wet, cold and windy conditions, players huddled under umbrellas in between shots and Tiger Woods wore a woollen hat over the top of his baseball cap.
The weather forecast for Sunday is positive, however, with temperatures expected to rise to above 60 degrees F (15.5 C) and much less chance of rain.
Bennett tries to make Masters history as first amateur winner
Sam Bennett, trying to become the first amateur golfer to win the Masters, thinks of his late father every time he grips a club.
That’s because the advice stressed by Bennett’s father Mark, who died in June 2021 due to Alzheimer’s disease, is summed up by the tattoo on his left arm.
“I see it every time I’m gripping the club, it’s right there: ‘Don’t wait to do something,’” Bennett said.
“I thrive on it. I use it for some motivation. I know how happy he would be seeing me out here at Augusta National doing what I’m doing. This week, I’ve used it to just stay focused and really be locked in to that one shot.”
Bennett, the reigning US Amateur champion, opened with back-to-back rounds of four-under 68 to stand third on 136 to join leader Koepka and Rahm in the third round’s final trio.
“I got off to a dream start and then was able to keep going and gain some ground,” Bennett said. “I knew my golf was good enough to compete out here.” Now Bennett knows something else.
“I found myself in a situation that now I’ve got a golf tournament I can go out and win,” Bennett said.
After 36 holes, Bennett was one off the Masters midway amateur record set in 1956 by Ken Venturi, who led the first three rounds before settling for second place.
It has been 90 years since an amateur player won any major title. That was Johnny Goodman at the 1933 US Open, a year before the first playing of the Masters.
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MASTERS LEADERBOARD — ROUND 3 (SUSPENDED)
1. Brooks Koepka: -13
2. Jon Rahm: -9
3. Sam Bennett: -6
T4. Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick -5
T8: Cameron Young, Russell Henley, Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, Joaquin Niemann, Justin Rose -4
T14: Garu Woodland, Scottie Scheffler, Ryan Fox -3
T17: Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Shane Lowry, Hideki Matusyama -2
T23: Tyrrell Hatton, Max Homa, Chris Kirk, Keegan Bradley, Cameron Smith -1
T28: Tony Finau, Sungjae Im, KH Lee, Adam Scott, Si Woo Kim, Harris English, Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Tom Kim E
T37: Sahith Theegala, Talor Gooch, Taylor Moore +1
T40: Mito Pereira, Abraham Ancer, Seamus Power, Scott Stallings, +2
T44: Zach Johnson, Billy Horschel, Harold Varner III, Keith Mitchell, Thomas Pieters, +3
T49: Mackenzie Hughes, Fred Couples +4
T51: Dustin Johnson, JT Poston +5
53: Charl Schwartzel +6
54: Tiger Woods +9
TEE TIMES (all times AEST)
Round three to resume at 10.30pm Sunday
Round four to begin at 2.30am Monday
PRIZE MONEY (all prices in USD — $1.50 AUD)
1st $3,240,000
2nd $1,944,000
3rd $1,224,000
4th $864,000
5th $720,000
6th $648,000
7th $603,000
8th $558,000
9th $522,000
10th $486,000
11th $450,000
12th $414,000
13th $378,000
14th $342,000
15th $324,000
16th $306,000
17th $288,000
18th $270,000
19th $252,000
20th $234,000
21st $216,000
22nd $201,600
23rd $187,200
24th $172,800
25th $158,400
26th $144,000
27th $138,600
28th $133,200
29th $127,800
30th $122,400
31st $117,000
32nd $111,600
33rd $111,600
34th $101,700
35th $97,200
36th- $92,700
37th $88,200
38th $84,600
39th $81,000
40th $77,400
41st $73,800
42nd $70,200
43rd $66,600
44th $63,000
45th $59,400
46th $55,800
47th $52,200
48th $49,320
49th $46,800
50th $45,360
