Golf Coverage: John Rahm Wins the 2023 Masters!

Wow, it’s finally here! The golf world’s greatest spectacle. The first major event of the year. The Masters! Going into this Masters, there have been so many great storylines. Will Tiger Woods come back to his 2019 form? Will the LIV players compete with the PGA superstars? Will Brooks Koepka, who won the most recent LIV event and has been outspoken on hoping to potentially return to the PGA tour win and then return to the PGA? Before we get into all of those, the betting earnings, the winners and losers, and much more we have some housekeeping to get in order. Brooks, and all of the other LIV superstar players, while they may hope to come back at some point, the league is reportedly proposing a fine that will cost players defecting back to the tour 2 and 3 times their contract. So, a guy like Brooks will have to pay about $200 to $300 million in order to escape the league. The weather will be and has been awful this weekend, with temps reaching 40 degrees and pouring rain on Saturday. How will Tiger perform? We know he cannot play with that leg and the back in the cold. What is a win for Tiger? Honestly, if he makes the cut, it's a win in my book for him.

Saturday Post Round 2 and 3:

First, let's start off with Saturday's end of the day scores. The day ended early, as the weather has not been great the past few days in Augusta, Georgia. Saturday saw highs of 45 and rainy on Saturday, with play being suspended both Friday and Saturday. The top ten leaderboard as of Saturday night is as follows:

1. Brooks Koepka (-13)

2. John Rahm (-9)

3. Sam Bennet (-6)

4. Viktor Hovland (-5)

5. Patrick Cantlay (-5)

6. Colin Morikawa (-5)

7. Matthew Fitzpatrick (-4)

8. Russell Hensley (-4)

9. Cam Young (-4)

10. Phil Mickelson (-4)

Some of the notable players I’d like to outline are as follows: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Sam Bennet.

First, let’s start with Tiger Woods. ANY time Tiger tees it up at The Masters, he has a shot to make a big impact on the leaderboard. So far, his putting has left him. Has his drives, irons, and wedges been to his normal form? No, but they have been good enough. His putting is what’s been lacking. He needs to throw some puts down in order to have a shot at contention this week. The leg and back have been bothering him during the rounds, not only because the back has had multiple spinal fusion surgeries and the leg was almost amputated, but also because the weather has been so cold. That is an awful recipe for disaster for him. That being said, he did make the cut for the weekend. Tiger Woods score (As of Saturday night, +9). That means he made the cut, but since play was suspended he will have to fight to continue to be in contention. This may be the only time I will ever say this, but I hate Tiger’s chances. Yet, don’t count the GOAT out of it.

Now onto Phil Mickelson. Phil, the supposed leader of the LIV regime of players, kind of showed up in a big way. Phil, who is known as a guy who has made some crazy saving shots, is also known as one of the greatest golfers ever. One of the only men at Augusta this year who competed against Tiger at his best all of those years. The 3 time Masters champion is playing remarkably well, and will hopefully continue that into Sunday.

Sam Bennet, the young amateur that has a remarkable story regarding his late father, is shocking the world currently. Honestly, there is not much to write about him aside from he is a current student at Texas A&M and will be a prospect to watch for the future once he turns pro.

Sunday Post Round 4:

Sunday has ended and it is official, John Rahm is the 2023 Masters winner! He came into the day in second place, and prevailed to first with some solid golf, while Brooks played exceptionally poorly down the stretch, while finishing tied for second. But, the storylines are just as good. We’ll get into it all, but first lets go through the top 10 leaderboard:

1. John Rahm ($3.24 Million)

2. Brooks Koepka ($1.944 Million)

3. Phil Mickleson ($1.944 Million

4. Jordan Spieth ($744,000)

5. Patrick Reed ($744,000)

6. Russell Hensley ($744,000)

7. Cameron Young ($580,500)

8. Viktor Hovland ($580,500)

9. Sahith Theegala ($522,000)

10. Scottie Scheffler ($486,000)

There are some huge names on the leaderboard here. Let’s start with the LIV guys. Brooks, Patrick, and Phil are three of the biggest names LIV has to offer. All of them are team captains with equity in their teams earnings, and are neck deep into the controversies. Between Patrick suing EVERYONE, Brooks going from one of the greatest golfers of the generation, and Phil starting the league, essentially, these guys are in it. The narrative of the PGA tour golfers has been, “These guys can’t perform after two days of golf” and yet, all three of them out performed most of the current PGA Tour’s best. The big one was Phil Mickelson. He shot the LOWEST round at Augusta in the history of this illustrious course. Phil is back, baby. He is 52 years old.

Rahm has been up and down in the world rankings, but in the best way possible. This past year he’s gone from number 3 to 1 very often, and has been perhaps the best player in the world. Certainly after this win he is, yet Scottie has also played exceptionally well. Congrats to Mr. Rahm, a Masters champion.