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In this special Master’s edition of Golfweek Rewind, JuliaKate E. Culpepper recaps the 2020 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, where Dustin Johnson won his first green jacket.
In this special Master’s edition of Golfweek Rewind, JuliaKate E. Culpepper recaps the 2020 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, where Dustin Johnson won his first green jacket.
Dustin Johnson wins the 2020 Masters at Augusta National.
Dustin Johnson wins the 2020 Masters at Augusta National.
Cameron Smith is the first golfer in the history of the the Masters to shoot four rounds in the 60s. He still got lapped by Dustin Johnson.
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Cameron Smith became the first golfer in the 84-year history of the Masters to shoot four rounds in the 60s at Augusta National Golf Club, and he still got lapped by five strokes by Dustin Johnson.
That about sums up how Johnson played, but also reflects how the 27-year-old Australian native put up a valiant fight, cutting Johnson’s lead to as little as two strokes before Johnson pulled away to finish at tournament-record 20-under-par 268. Smith closed in 3-under 69 to go along with earlier rounds of 67-68-69 to finish tied for second with South Korea’s Sungjae Im and earn his place in the tournament record books.
“That’s pretty cool. I didn’t realize until you told me,” Smith told CBS’s Amanda Balionis.
Once Smith had a moment to let his scoring achievement sink in, he concluded that it would have been even cooler to do so and win.
“I’d take 15 under around here the rest of my career and I might win a couple,” said Smith, whose 72-hole aggregate score actually would have won all but five of 84 Masters (and forced a playoff with Patrick Reed in 2018).
MASTERS: Leaderboard | Money | Winner’s bag | Photos
On the eve of the final round, Smith, who was attempting to become the second Australian to win the Masters after Adam Scott in 2013, said he was going to come with guns blazing and he did just that, making birdie on two of the first three holes. He gave a stroke back with a bogey at No. 5 before making the first of two remarkable birdies from the Georgia pines.
At No. 7, he pushed his tee shot to the right and considered chipping.
Over the trees and onto the green. Cameron Smith birdies No. 7 to reach 14 under par. #themasters pic.twitter.com/HPUIa48ews
— The Masters (@TheMasters) November 15, 2020
Instead he hoisted a wedge over the trees and it stopped 10 feet from the hole. Afterwards, several of the few, the proud on site took turns admiring his fresh divot the way they marvel at the spot on No. 10 where Bubba Watson hit his gravity-defying wedge from the trees to win a playoff in 2012. Had Smith won, it may have been worthy of a plaque someday.
“I knew I had to keep the pressure on Dustin, and wasn’t here to finish second,” Smith said. “There was a small gap up there. The club was pretty good. Just had to hit it really hard and good, and it turned out well.”
At the ninth, Smith pulled off another Houdini act from the trees with a 9 iron from 155 yards that landed on the left fringe and caught the slope and trickled to within 4 feet of the hole for another birdie.
Smith, who qualified for the Masters by winning the Sony Open in Hawaii, figured that if he could get to 16 under, Johnson’s score at the beginning of the day, he would have a decent chance to win a Green Jacket.
“I knew I had to put the pressure on early,” he said, “DJ was just too good in the end.”
Smith missed the green at the par-4 11th hole and failed to get up and down for par. It was one of the few times he failed to pull a rabbit out of his hat when he misfired.
“My scrambling, my chipping and putting was unreal this week,” he said, “probably the best it’s ever been.”
Smith’s effort to chase down Johnson stalled from there, though he tacked on a final birdie at No. 15 to help his score dip into the 60s for a fourth straight day.
“I felt as though I needed to shoot 3‑ or 4‑under on that back nine with the wind the way it was,” said Smith, who settled for an even-par 36. “It got pretty tricky out there. I would say after 16, after not birdieing 16, I thought if I birdied the last four, I thought I would still have a chance. At least make him think about it. And wasn’t to be.”
Not to be this time, but Smith continues to knock on the door at the Masters, where he finished T-5 in 2018 and in majors, where he also recorded a top-5 at the 2015 U.S. Open.
“He’s been a good player for a long time, but I think he’s really comfortable at it now,” fellow Aussie Marc Leishman said. “He’s going to be a great player for a long time. I would expect to see him on leaderboards here for a long time to come.”
Especially if he keeps shooting rounds in the 60s.
“I love the place,” Smith said. “I want to win here really badly, and I feel like it brings the best out of my game.”
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Dustin Johnson wins the 2020 Masters. A look at the top 10 money winners.
Dustin Johnson wins the 2020 Masters. A look at the top 10 money winners.
Another Masters has come and gone and Rory McIlroy’s quest to complete the career Grand Slam lingers on.
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Another Masters has come and gone and Rory McIlroy’s quest to complete the career Grand Slam lingers on.
For a brief moment on the first nine, after he birdied the eighth hole to improve to 11 under and climb within four strokes of Dustin Johnson, McIlroy thought there was a glimmer of hope that he could achieve a comeback for the ages.
“But then the wind sort of got up as we hit the turn, and it just was hard to make birdies,” McIlroy said. “Dustin is just playing such solid golf. It was probably wishful thinking on my part.”
McIlroy, 31, rebounded from a poor first round at Augusta National to shoot 3-under 69 on Sunday and finish with a 72-hole aggregate of 11-under 277. That was good for a share of fifth place with Dylan Frittelli, and McIlroy’s third career top 5 at the Masters.
When McIlroy assesses what went wrong this time in his sixth attempt to complete the career Grand Slam, he’s going to remember the tee shot he snap-hooked into the woods at No. 13 that led to bogey and pulling his tee shot into the water at the par-3 16th on Friday morning. His swing looked out of sorts and it appeared that McIlroy might be headed for a short stay at Augusta.
MASTERS: Leaderboard
“I just got a little careful, a little tentative, a little ‘guidey,’ just didn’t trust my swing, didn’t commit to what I was doing, and again, this course more than any other can make you do that at times,” he said. “That was really what it was.”
McIlroy showed some of the grit he talked about in his pre-tournament interview, shooting a bogey-free 66 in the second round to make the cut and rallied to sniff contention, but ultimately he dug himself to big of a hole to overcome.
“I guess I need to take the positives, and played the last 54 really well and only made two bogeys in that 54-hole stretch, which is probably the best run of golf I’ve played here,” he said.
McIlroy’s winless drought in majors stretches to 22 since winning his fourth at the 2014 PGA Championship. He only has to wait five months for his next shot at Augusta National.
“I hope the course is much different in April than it is now. It’s very soft,” McIlroy said. “I feel like there’s a lot of shots I hit this week where I hit my number and it would spin back off a green or it just wouldn’t do what you expect it to do, so I’d love to get another shot at it in April and have the course play maybe more what we’re accustomed to.”
What does McIlroy think he needs to do in order to slip on the Green Jacket as Masters champions? He said he’s going to need to polish his iron game.
“It goes from wedges all the way through to the long irons,” he said. “I had two 5 irons from the fairway on 10 and 11 today, for example, and just didn’t hit great shots. There’s always stuff to work on, but definitely something to work on going into the off season that we have here, and try to come out a little better in 2021.”
McIlroy previously had said that he planned to take an extended break following the Masters that likely will last until the Genesis Invitational in February.
“I’m just going to be a man of leisure for a couple months,” he said. “It’s going to be nice. Lie by the pool a little bit, get back on the bike, get back on the Peloton. I’ve sort of given that a bit of a miss over the last few months. Yeah, just some stuff. Obviously, watch my daughter grow up a little bit and have fun with that.”
And likely replay his miserable start at the 84th Masters and draft a game plan for success in April.
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Never change, Bryson.
If we’re holding Bryson DeChambeau to his own standards, he finished at 18-over par at the Masters at Augusta National this weekend.
Yes, I know he was 2-under par on the scorecard. But DeChambeau doesn’t play on the normal scorecard — or on the same plane of reality. He was playing Augusta as a par-67, not the standard 72. That’s what he said at least.
But that comment and result sums up DeChambeau’s weekend, doesn’t it? He ultimately failed to meet the high expectations set by his U.S. Open win. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he wilted under the pressure: after all he had, in classic DeChambeau fashion, opted to raise expectations with his par-67 comment.
And that’s sort of where we are with DeChambeau now. He put on a great show, which is 90% of DeChambeau’s charm. His bravado is always fun, even when he’s hulking his way through a round so awful that it gives viewers (at least this viewer) heartburn. It’s pure entertainment to see a Pro Golfer, the archetype for a composed athlete, look completely out of control.
By now you probably know that DeChambeau is Professor Hulk meets Hulk Hogan. He’s a lovable weirdo with a flare for theatrics, and he bulked up during quarantine with endless protein shakes and staged scientific experiments to tinker with every element of his game. He flaunts so many of the conventions of golf. He oozes machismo and, often, hubris.
His look-at-me!!!!! approach seems to rub some of the gentlemanly old guard of golf in the wrong way. His bold strategy also probably bothers his group-mates, like Jon Rahm, when they have to wait impatiently for him to look for his second lost ball of the round.
Bryson DeChambeau's 2020 Masters, summed up by Jon Rahm.
Q: Were you involved in the search for Bryson's ball at all?
RAHM: Which one?
— Joel Beall (@JoelMBeall) November 13, 2020
So, yeah, DeChambeau’s weekend was ugly. He lost two balls in one day. He took provisional shots on two of his first three holes in his first round (and he put one of his provisionals in a creek). The internet mercilessly memed him for his off-kilter drive. There were truly awful moments from start to finish.
With every backswing, you held your breath. Any given shot could be the most brilliant shot you’ve ever seen, like when he blasted a 380-yard drive over three different patches of trees to a spot near where most players lay up with their second shot.
380 over the trees for Bryson.#TheMasters pic.twitter.com/vLA8xpPVHx
— Flight Golf Co. (@flightgolfco) November 13, 2020
Any given shot could be exponentially worse than anything you could do, if only because DeChambeau can hit the ball so far the wrong direction.
Bryson showing what happens if you try and show off to your mates off the tee. pic.twitter.com/olirYXPX0V
— Bet Angel – Betfair trading (@betangel) November 12, 2020
Even with dreadful play reminiscent of what I look like on a weekend outing, DeChambeau didn’t change his strategy. He continued to boom his drive. He began complaining of dizziness. “I’ve got to fix whatever is going on up here,” he told reporters, via ESPN. “I have no idea. Just dizziness. It’s only when I go from down to up, so I can’t even like think and talk right now.” It’s probably a copout, which is exactly what you should expect out of any good reality TV show star like DeChambeau. Drama. The Masters is, in fact, a dizzying course — that’s why no one plays the course like DeChambeau wanted to play it.
But the weekend was more interesting because he tried to be different. Even when DeChambeau’s errors were hard to watch, he was interesting. Even when he wasn’t swinging the club (and was searching for a ball), he was fascinating. Even when he was complaining of dizziness, he was compelling. And especially when the ball went exactly where he wanted it to go, he was the most watchable player in golf.
Here’s hoping he never changes, because — let’s be real — no one can wait to see what happens next.
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Golfweek’s Adam Woodard recaps Tiger Woods’ final round at Augusta National Golf Club for the 2020 Masters.
Golfweek’s Adam Woodard recaps Tiger Woods’ final round at Augusta National Golf Club for the 2020 Masters.
Dustin Johnson shot a second 65 this week to claim a four-stroke lead heading into the final round of the 84th Masters.
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Dustin Johnson made an early statement in the third round of the Masters, drilling a 5-iron from 222 yards that stopped inside 2 feet from the hole for eagle.
“He nearly holed it for a two,” said Johnson’s caddie and brother, A.J. “I’ve been on the bag for a lot of great rounds but that was the most in-control round at a major championship I can remember. It felt like we were trying to make birdie all day, and there’s no better feeling.”
Johnson grabbed the lead with that eagle and extended it to four strokes after shooting his second 7-under 65 at Augusta National Golf Club this week, becoming the first player to shoot multiple rounds of 65 or better at the Masters.
It was a ballstriking clinic by Johnson, who hit all 14 fairways at Augusta National for the first time in his career and just the second time that he’s hit every fairway in a round on Tour (2015 U.S. Open, 3rd round). Johnson also has hit 47 greens in regulation through three rounds, the most for any player through three rounds at the Masters since Tiger Woods in 2001 (48), the week he finished off The Tiger Slam.
Johnson was four under for his first four holes and then nearly holed a wedge at No. 7 for another tap-in birdie. Out in 31, Johnson was picking apart Augusta National like it was TPC Boston during the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Jamie Mulligan, instructor for Patrick Cantlay, witnessed Johnson’s brilliance and cracked, “It may be time to throw the kitchen sink. DJ’s a pretty big boy, so, we may need two kitchen sinks.”
On the second nine, Johnson made a pair of 2-putt birdies at the par 5s, Nos. 13 and 15, and never threatened to make bogey until he missed the 18th green to the right. He made a nifty up-and-down to finish at 16-under 200, tying the 54-hole tournament scoring record, and four strokes ahead of Abraham Ancer, Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im.
But they don’t hand out green jackets on Saturday and Johnson has failed to close 54 holes leads at majors on four previous occasions. He’s been the modern-day Greg Norman, always a threat to win but somehow finding a way not to. Johnson doesn’t need to be reminded that of his 23 victories only one is a major, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont.
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“Because he looks like nothing bothers him people forget how much he wants to win,” said Johnson’s swing instructor, Claude Harmon III. “He’s obviously aware of the fact that he’s only won one major and probably should’ve won more, but his philosophy has always been that all he can do is keep giving himself more opportunities.”
There may never be a better chance for Johnson, who grew up an hour away from Augusta National in Columbia, South Carolina, digging up the sod at Weed Hill Driving Range and pretending that every putt was to win the Masters.
“They had lights on the range, and most nights I would shut the lights off when I was leaving,” Johnson said.
With 18 holes to go, Johnson is poised to win the tournament he’s always dreamed of winning, but to do so he’ll have to close the deal, something that’s been his person kryptonite as recently as the PGA Championship in August. But Johnson prefers to look forward and doesn’t seem too concerned about the past.
“If I can play like I did today, I think it will break that streak,” he said.
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Matsuyama is now T-10 after carding a 72 on Saturday: his highest score of the tournament by 4 strokes.
Going into Saturday’s action, Hideki Matsuyama had been cruising along with back-to-back 4-under 68s at Augusta National. His second-round effort on Friday was bogey-free. The same cannot be said of his third round.
Matsuyama committed four bogeys, all of them on par-4 holes (Nos. 5, 9, 10 and 17). These errors nullified his four birdies, leaving him T-10 with an even-par 72.
“Yeah, today I really didn’t play my best golf,” Matsuyama said. “I wasn’t in control of my game. But hopefully that’ll turn around tomorrow and I’ll do my best.”
The 28-year old finds himself in big-name company on the leaderboard, as he is tied with Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Tommy Fleetwood. McIlroy in particular has been clawing up the rankings, scoring 66 and 67 after a disastrous opening-round 75. Time will tell if Matsuyama can return to form and make some kind of Sunday charge.
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Golfweek’s Adam Woodard recaps Tiger’s third round at Augusts National Golf Club for the 2020 Masters.
Golfweek’s Adam Woodard recaps Tiger’s third round at Augusts National Golf Club for the 2020 Masters.
