2023 Masters Tournament


The 2023 Masters Tournament was the 87th edition of the Masters Tournament and the first of the men's four major golf championships held in 2023. The tournament was played from April 6–9 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, United States.
Jon Rahm became the fourth Spaniard to win the Masters, shooting a three-under-par 69 in the final round for 276, four strokes ahead of runners-up Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson. Seeking his fifth major championship, Koepka led by two shots after the third round, but shot 75 to drop to second. Ten shots back, 52-year-old Mickelson recorded a 65 to jump into a tie for second, becoming the oldest player in Masters history to finish inside the top five.

Course

The most notable change for 2023 came at the par-5 13th hole, where Augusta National purchased land from the adjacent Augusta Country Club that allowed it to push the tee boxes further back. The dogleg hole's length was extended to, an increase of.

Field

Participation in the Masters Tournament is by invitation only, and the tournament has the smallest field of the major championships. There are a number of criteria by which invitations are awarded, including all past winners, recent major champions, leading finishers in the previous year's majors, leading players on the PGA Tour in the previous season, winners of full-point tournaments on the PGA Tour during the previous 12 months, leading players in the Official World Golf Ranking, and some leading amateurs.

Criteria

Throughout much of 2022, there had been discussion in the media about whether there would be changes to any of the major championship's exemption and qualification criteria following the launch of LIV Golf, and the subsequent response of the PGA Tour to suspend participants in the new series. On December 20, 2022, Augusta National announced that existing criteria for the Masters Tournament would remain unaltered and qualifying LIV players would be invited. This list details the qualification criteria for the 2023 Masters Tournament and the players who have qualified under them; any additional criteria under which players qualified are indicated in parentheses.
1. All past winners of the Masters Tournament
2. Recent winners of the U.S. Open
  • Bryson DeChambeau
  • Matt Fitzpatrick
  • Brooks Koepka
  • Jon Rahm
  • Gary Woodland
3. Recent winners of The Open Championship
  • Shane Lowry
  • Francesco Molinari
  • Collin Morikawa
  • Cameron Smith
4. Recent winners of the PGA Championship
  • Justin Thomas
5. Recent winners of The Players Championship
6. The winner of the gold medal at the Olympic Games
7. The winner and runner-up in the 2022 U.S. Amateur
  • Sam Bennett
  • Ben Carr
8. The winner of the 2022 Amateur Championship
  • Aldrich Potgieter
9. The winner of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship
  • Harrison Crowe
10. The winner of the 2023 Latin America Amateur Championship
  • Mateo Fernández de Oliveira
11. The winner of the 2022 U.S. Mid-Amateur Golf Championship
  • Matthew McClean
12. The leading 12 players, and those tying for 12th place, from the 2022 Masters Tournament
  • Cameron Champ
  • Corey Conners
  • Im Sung-jae
  • Rory McIlroy
  • Will Zalatoris did not play.
13. The leading four players, and those tying for fourth place, in the 2022 U.S. Open
14. The leading four players, and those tying for fourth place, in the 2022 Open Championship
  • Tommy Fleetwood
  • Viktor Hovland
  • Cameron Young
15. The leading four players, and those tying for fourth place, in the 2022 PGA Championship
  • Mito Pereira
16. Winners of tournaments on the PGA Tour between the 2022 Masters Tournament and the 2023 Masters Tournament
  • Keegan Bradley
  • Sam Burns
  • Patrick Cantlay
  • Tony Finau
  • Russell Henley
  • Max Homa
  • Mackenzie Hughes
  • Billy Horschel
  • Kim Si-woo
  • Tom Kim
  • Chris Kirk
  • Kurt Kitayama
  • Lee Kyoung-hoon
  • Taylor Moore
  • J. T. Poston
  • Séamus Power
  • Justin Rose
  • Xander Schauffele
  • Adam Svensson
17. All players who qualified for the 2022 Tour Championship
  • Brian Harman
  • Tom Hoge
  • Joaquín Niemann
  • Scott Stallings
  • Sepp Straka
  • Sahith Theegala
  • Aaron Wise did not play.
18. The leading 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking as of December 31, 2022
  • Abraham Ancer
  • Ryan Fox
  • Talor Gooch
  • Tyrrell Hatton
  • Kevin Kisner
  • Jason Kokrak
  • Adrian Meronk
  • Kevin Na
  • Alex Norén
  • Louis Oosthuizen
  • Thomas Pieters
  • Harold Varner III
19. The leading 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking as of March 27, 2023
  • Jason Day
  • Harris English
  • Min Woo Lee
  • Keith Mitchell
20. Special invitations
  • Kazuki Higa
  • Gordon Sargent

    Par 3 contest

Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Tom Hoge won the Par 3 Contest with a score of 21. Five holes-in-one were recorded, including one by Hoge on the eighth hole. Séamus Power recorded an ace on consecutive holes to finish his round, becoming the fourth player in the event's history with two holes-in-one in the same year. Bubba Watson and defending champion Scottie Scheffler also made holes-in-one.

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 6, 2023
At the conclusion to the first round, the lead was shared by three players, Viktor Hovland, Brooks Koepka, and Jon Rahm, who returned scores of 65. Rahm began his round with a double-bogey on the first hole after taking four putts; he was nine under par for the remainder of his round, including an eagle on the eighth hole. Hovland had no bogeys in his round; he made five birdies, and an eagle on the second hole. Koepka was five under par through 12 holes and, following a bogey on the thirteenth hole, birdied three of the last four holes to tie for the lead.
Cameron Young made a birdie on each of the first three holes and finished on 67, alongside Jason Day in a tie for fourth place. Reigning U.S. Amateur champion Sam Bennett started his round with a birdie on the first hole and an eagle on the second; he made another birdie on the sixth hole followed by twelve straight pars for a four under par round of 68. He was the first amateur to be placed in the top 10 after the first round since Ryan Moore in 2005. He was part of a seven-way tie for sixth place along with defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott and Gary Woodland.
63-year-old Fred Couples, the 1992 champion, scored 71, as did 2020 champion Dustin Johnson and three-time champion Phil Mickelson. Rory McIlroy made five birdies, three bogeys and a double-bogey to finish on 72. Tiger Woods bogeyed three of the first seven holes and was three over par before making birdies on the 15th and 16th holes; he made another bogey on the 18th to finish on 74, in a tie for 54th place.
Two players withdrew from the tournament. Kevin Na was unwell and stopped playing after nine holes, and Will Zalatoris withdrew prior to the start of his round with an injury.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par
T1

Second round

Friday, April 7, 2023
Saturday, April 8, 2023
On Friday, tee times were moved forward 30 minutes to accommodate possible inclement weather. The second round of the tournament was suspended twice on Friday due to the threat of approaching thunderstorms; with play being suspended for the day following the second stoppage and resuming on Saturday. A few moments before the second suspension, three trees fell near the 17th tee.
Brooks Koepka made three birdies and an eagle in a round of 67 to take a two-shot lead after 36 holes. Koepka's total of 132 was the third-best 36-hole score in Masters history, behind Jordan Spieth in 2015 and Raymond Floyd in 1976. Jon Rahm was two under par for his round, three behind Koepka, when play was suspended for the day on Friday; having resumed his round on Saturday morning, he made three birdies and two bogeys on the back nine to finish at 134, two off the lead and in second place. It was the first time in Masters history that two players finished the second round double-digits under par.
Sam Bennett had a second round of 68 to lie in third place, four behind Koepka. His two-round total of 136 was the best by an amateur through 36 holes since Ken Venturi in 1956, and he was the first amateur to finish the second round inside the top three on the leaderboard since Ricky Barnes in 2003. Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa were tied for fourth place on 138, with Sam Burns, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Cameron Young a further stroke behind in a tie for sixth place.
The cut came at 147, with 54 players making it to the weekend. Tiger Woods finished at three over par after bogeys on his final two holes but made the cut for the record-tying 23rd consecutive Masters. Fred Couples, the 1992 champion, made the cut at +1, becoming the oldest player to make the cut at the Masters at the age of 63 years, six months. He surpassed Bernhard Langer, who had set the record in 2020 at 63 years, two months. Notable players to miss the cut included reigning PGA Champion Justin Thomas, 2020 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, and four-time major champion and world number two Rory McIlroy. Larry Mize and Sandy Lyle, champions in 1987 and 1988, both missed the cut in their final Masters appearances.
There was one withdrawal during the second round: Louis Oosthuizen, who withdrew prior to the resumption of play on Saturday, having completed 17 holes on Friday before play was suspended.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par
1