Brooks Koepka leads the way heading into final round at the Masters

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The American holds a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm after the third round.
Posted on
April 9, 2023
by
The Editorial Team in ,
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Brooks Koepka remained the man to catch as the 87th Masters got back on schedule without the presence of Tiger Woods at Augusta National.

Koepka completed a third round of 73 to finish 11 under par, two shots clear of playing partner Jon Rahm, who also returned a 73 in testing conditions.

Norway’s Viktor Hovland was three shots off the lead following an eventful 70, with Patrick Cantlay another stroke back.

Woods had withdrawn before play resumed on Sunday morning, the 15-time major winner having slumped to the bottom of the leaderboard after making a record-equalling 23rd consecutive halfway cut.

The 47-year-old wrote on Twitter: “I am disappointed to have to WD this morning due to reaggravating my plantar fasciitis. Thank you to the fans and to @TheMasters who have shown me so much love and support. Good luck to the players today!”

When play got under way at 0830 local time (1330 BST), Rahm immediately halved his four-shot deficit, holing from nine feet for birdie on the seventh after Koepka had missed his longer par attempt.

Both players birdied the par-five eighth and both also missed the green on the par-three 12th as a swirling wind made club selection difficult.

Rahm enjoyed a fortunate bounce back towards the green and two-putted for par despite a sizeable amount of mud on his ball, but Koepka three-putted from long range to see his lead cut to a single shot.

Jon Rahm
Jon Rahm reacts to his putt on the 15th hole during the third round of the Masters (David J. Phillip/AP)

However, it was Rahm’s turn to three putt on the very next hole, the world number three coming up well short with his approach and then charging his lengthy birdie putt six feet past the hole.

Koepka enjoyed a massive stroke of luck when his approach to the 15th looked set to spin back off the green and into the water, but the soft conditions meant his ball stopped on the bank.

Rahm had found the green in two on the par five, but three-putted from almost 100 feet and then bogeyed the 16th to fall three shots behind.

Trouble on the greens was seemingly catching though, Koepka needing three putts from just 24 feet on the 17th to see his lead cut to two shots ahead of the final round.

Hovland had looked completely out of the picture when he bogeyed the 10th to fall back to three under, but responded brilliantly with five straight birdies to move firmly into contention for a first major title.

Pos. Player To Par R1 R2 R3 Total
1 Brooks Koepka -11 65 67 73 205
2 Jon Rahm -9 65 69 73 207
3 Viktor Hovland -8 65 73 70 208
4 Patrick Cantlay -6 71 71 68 210
T5 Hideki Matsuyama -5 71 70 70 211
T5 Russell Henley -5 73 67 71 211
T7 Collin Morikawa -4 69 69 74 212
T7 Sam Bennett(a) -4 68 68 76 212
T9 Xander Schauffele -3 68 74 71 213
T9 Patrick Reed -3 71 70 72 213
T9 Shane Lowry -3 68 72 73 213
T9 Justin Rose -3 69 71 73 213
T9 Gary Woodland -3 68 72 73 213
T9 Jason Day -3 67 72 74 213
T15 Scottie Scheffler -2 68 75 71 214
T15 Matthew Fitzpatrick -2 70 72 72 214
T15 Joaquin Niemann -2 71 69 74 214
T15 Cameron Young -2 67 72 75 214
T15 Sungjae Im -2 71 76 67 214
T20 Ryan Fox -1 70 71 74 215
T20 K.H. Lee -1 74 67 74 215
T20 Taylor Moore -1 73 72 70 215
T20 Phil Mickelson -1 71 69 75 215
T20 Jordan Spieth -1 69 70 76 215
T25 Keegan Bradley Par 70 72 74 216
T25 Tom Kim Par 70 72 74 216
T25 Tony Finau Par 69 74 73 216
T25 Sahith Theegala Par 73 70 73 216
T25 Tyrrell Hatton Par 71 73 72 216
T25 Max Homa Par 71 73 72 216
T25 Chris Kirk Par 70 74 72 216
T25 Scott Stallings Par 70 77 69 216
T33 Cameron Smith 1 70 72 75 217
T33 Sepp Straka 1 70 73 74 217
T33 Tommy Fleetwood 1 72 71 74 217
T33 Abraham Ancer 1 72 71 74 217
T33 Si Woo Kim 1 73 72 72 217
T33 Sam Burns 1 68 71 78 217
39 Seamus Power 2 73 72 73 218
T40 Adam Scott 3 68 74 77 219
T40 Harold Varner III 3 72 71 76 219
T40 Harris English 3 71 71 77 219
T40 Zach Johnson 3 75 70 74 219
T40 Mackenzie Hughes 3 76 69 74 219
T40 Talor Gooch 3 72 74 73 219
T40 Thomas Pieters 3 74 73 72 219
47 Charl Schwartzel 4 74 73 73 220
T48 Dustin Johnson 5 71 72 78 221
T48 Mito Pereira 5 74 70 77 221
T48 Fred Couples 5 71 74 76 221
T48 Billy Horschel 5 73 74 74 221
52 J.T. Poston 6 74 72 76 222
53 Keith Mitchell 7 75 71 77 223
CUT Bryson DeChambeau 4 74 74 - 148
CUT Francesco Molinari 4 72 76 - 148
CUT Tom Hoge 4 74 74 - 148
CUT Mike Weir 4 72 76 - 148
CUT Justin Thomas 4 70 78 - 148
CUT Ben Carr(a) 5 75 74 - 149
CUT Bernhard Langer 5 75 74 - 149
CUT Rory McIlroy 5 72 77 - 149
CUT Kevin Kisner 5 72 77 - 149
CUT Adrian Meronk 5 73 76 - 149
CUT Cameron Champ 6 76 74 - 150
CUT Danny Willett 6 75 75 - 150
CUT Vijay Singh 6 75 75 - 150
CUT Min Woo Lee 6 75 75 - 150
CUT Kazuki Higa 6 76 74 - 150
CUT Aldrich Potgieter(a) 7 77 74 - 151
CUT Brian Harman 7 77 74 - 151
CUT Matthew McClean(a) 7 77 74 - 151
CUT Sergio Garcia 7 74 77 - 151
CUT Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira(a) 7 76 75 - 151
CUT Corey Conners 8 73 79 - 152
CUT Jason Kokrak 8 73 79 - 152
CUT Harrison Crowe(a) 8 75 77 - 152
CUT Kurt Kitayama 8 75 77 - 152
CUT Gordon Sargent(a) 9 77 76 - 153
CUT Alex Noren 9 78 75 - 153
CUT Bubba Watson 9 77 76 - 153
CUT Jose Maria Olazabal 10 77 77 - 154
CUT Adam Svensson 11 75 80 - 155
CUT Larry Mize 15 79 80 - 159
CUT Sandy Lyle 20 81 83 - 164
W/D Tiger Woods - 74 73 - 147
W/D Kevin Na - - - - -
W/D Louis Oosthuizen - 76 - - 76
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