2018 Masters Tournament

The 2018 Masters Tournament was the 82nd edition of the Masters Tournament and the first of golf's four major championships in 2018. It was held April 5–8 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

Patrick Reed won his first major title with a final round 71 (−1) for 273 (−15), one stroke ahead of runner-up Rickie Fowler.

Media

The 2018 Masters Tournament was the 63rd Masters Tournament to be televised by CBS with early round coverage airing on ESPN using CBS production crews.

Course

Field

The Masters has the smallest field of the four major championships. Officially, the Masters remains an invitation event, but there is a set of qualifying criteria that determines who is included in the field. Each player is classified according to the first category by which he qualified, with other categories in which he qualified shown in parentheses.

Golfers who qualify based solely on their performance in amateur tournaments (categories 6–10) must remain amateurs on the starting day of the tournament to be eligible to play.

;1. Past Masters Champions
Ángel Cabrera, Fred Couples, Sergio García (11,16,17,18), Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson (3,17), Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Phil Mickelson (3,15,17,18), Larry Mize, José María Olazábal, Mark O'Meara, Charl Schwartzel (11,17), Adam Scott (11,17), Vijay Singh, Jordan Spieth (2,3,11,13,15,16,17,18), Bubba Watson (15,18), Mike Weir, Danny Willett, Tiger Woods, Ian Woosnam
*''Past champions who did not play: Tommy Aaron, Jack Burke Jr., Charles Coody, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller.''

;2. Last five U.S. Open Champions
Dustin Johnson (15,16,17,18), Martin Kaymer, Justin Rose (11,15,16,17,18)
*''Brooks Koepka (11,12,15,16,17,18) withdrew due to a wrist injury.''

;3. Last five Open Champions
Rory McIlroy (4,11,13,15,17,18), Henrik Stenson (15,17,18)

;4. Last five PGA Champions
Jason Day (5,15,16,17,18), Jason Dufner (15,16,17,18), Justin Thomas (14,15,16,17,18), Jimmy Walker

;5. Last three winners of The Players Championship
Rickie Fowler (11,16,17,18), Kim Si-woo (17,18)

;6. Top two finishers in the 2017 U.S. Amateur
Doug Ghim (a), Doc Redman (a)

;7. Winner of the 2017 Amateur Championship
Harry Ellis (a)

;8. Winner of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship
Lin Yuxin (a)

;9. Winner of the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur
Matt Parziale (a)

;10. Winner of the 2018 Latin America Amateur Championship
Joaquín Niemann (a)

;11. The top 12 finishers and ties in the 2017 Masters Tournament
Paul Casey (15,16,17,18), Kevin Chappell (15,16,17,18), Russell Henley (16,17), Matt Kuchar (13,16,17,18), Hideki Matsuyama (12,15,16,17,18), Ryan Moore, Thomas Pieters (17,18)

;12. Top 4 finishers and ties in the 2017 U.S. Open
Tommy Fleetwood (17,18), Brian Harman (15,16,17,18)

;13. Top 4 finishers and ties in the 2017 Open Championship
Rafa Cabrera-Bello (17,18), Li Haotong (18)

;14. Top 4 finishers and ties in the 2017 PGA Championship
Francesco Molinari (17,18), Louis Oosthuizen (17,18), Patrick Reed (16,17,18)

;15. Winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the FedEx Cup, between the 2017 Masters Tournament and the 2018 Masters Tournament
Daniel Berger (16,17,18), Wesley Bryan, Patrick Cantlay (16,17,18), Austin Cook, Bryson DeChambeau, Billy Horschel, Kevin Kisner (16,17,18), Patton Kizzire, Marc Leishman (16,17,18), Pat Perez (16,17,18), Ted Potter Jr., Ian Poulter, Jon Rahm (16,17,18), Xander Schauffele (16,17,18), Kyle Stanley (16,17,18), Brendan Steele (17,18), Jhonattan Vegas (16,17), Gary Woodland (16,18)

;16. All players qualifying for the 2017 edition of The Tour Championship
Tony Finau (17,18), Adam Hadwin (18), Charley Hoffman (17,18), Webb Simpson (17,18)

;17. Top 50 on the final 2017 Official World Golf Ranking list
Kiradech Aphibarnrat (18), Ross Fisher (18), Matt Fitzpatrick (18), Branden Grace (18), Tyrrell Hatton (18), Yuta Ikeda, Yūsaku Miyazato, Alex Norén (18), Bernd Wiesberger

;18. Top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking list on March 26, 2018
Dylan Frittelli, Satoshi Kodaira, Chez Reavie, Cameron Smith

;19. International invitees
Shubhankar Sharma

Par 3 Contest

''Wednesday, April 4, 2018''

Tom Watson won the Par 3 Contest with a score of 21 (−6). It was Watson's second win in the contest, having previously won in 1982. Three holes-in-one were recorded, including one by the grandson of Jack Nicklaus.

Round summaries

First round

''Thursday, April 5, 2018''

Jordan Spieth, the 2015 champion, birdied five consecutive holes on the back-nine to post a round of 66 (−6) and take the first round lead for the third time in four years. Playing a day after dislocating an ankle during the Par 3 Contest, Tony Finau finished two shots back, along with Matt Kuchar. Four-time champion Tiger Woods, playing the Masters for the first time in three years, was three-over after a bogey on the 12th but rebounded with two birdies to finish with 73 (+1). Defending champion Sergio García hit five consecutive balls onto the green which rolled back into the water on the par-5 15th and carded a one-putt 13, the highest score on that hole in Masters history, and tied for the worst in history on any hole. He birdied the next hole; his 81 (+9) put him in a tie for 85th place.

Second round

''Friday, April 6, 2018''

Playing in the afternoon, Patrick Reed made nine birdies to go along with three bogies on his way to a 66 (−6). He had three separate streaks of three birdies to take a two shot lead over Marc Leishman. Leishman, playing with Tiger Woods, eagled the par-5 15th to shoot a 67 (−5). Henrik Stenson was four back of Reed after a solid 70 (−2). First-round leader Jordan Spieth fell back with a 74 (+2) to end the day at −4 overall along with Rory McIlroy. Woods, looking for his first win since 2013, made the cut with a 75 (+3). Doug Ghim was the only amateur that made the cut.

Amateurs: '' Ghim'' (+4), Niemann (+9), Redman (+9), Lin (+15), Parziale (+16), Ellis (+22)

Third round

''Saturday, April 7, 2018''

Patrick Reed recorded four birdies and two eagles on his way to a round of 67 and a three-shot lead heading to the final round. Reed was even on his round before three straight birdies on holes 8–10. At the par-5 13th, he hit his approach to 14 feet and made the putt for an eagle. Then on the 15th he chipped in from just off the green for another eagle. Rory McIlroy began the round five shots out of the lead but erased the deficit with a score of 31 on the first nine. He made three birdies in a four-hole stretch then chipped in for eagle at the par-5 8th to get into a share of the lead. Falling as much as five shots behind Reed on the second nine, McIlroy rebounded with birdies on the 15th and 18th to post a bogey-free round of 65 and cut Reed's advantage down to three. Rickie Fowler and Jon Rahm both shot bogey-free rounds of 65 (−7) and were five and six shots behind, respectively. It was the first time in Masters history three players shot as low as 65 in the same round. The scoring average was 71.26, the lowest third round average since 1986. Marc Leishman began the day in the final pairing and two shots out of the lead but failed to make a birdie in a one-over round of 73.

Final round

''Sunday, April 8, 2018''

Summary

Patrick Reed's one-under round of 71 was enough to hold off charges from Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth for his first major championship. Reed began the day three shots ahead of Rory McIlroy but bogeyed the 1st and failed to make birdie on the par-5 2nd. McIlroy had a eagle putt on the same hole that would have tied Reed but missed, settling for birdie to cut the deficit to one. Reed regained his advantage with a birdie on the 3rd hole while McIlroy made bogey. McIlroy made two more bogeys on the first nine, while Reed recovered from a bogey at 7 with a birdie on the 8th to take a four-shot lead to the second nine.

Jordan Spieth began the round nine shots behind Reed but mounted a charge to get back into contention. He birdied his first two holes and added three more birdies on the first nine. At the par-3 12th, where in 2016 he made a quadruple-bogey that cost him the title, he made a putt for birdie from just off the green. He made another birdie on the 13th after narrowly missing an eagle putt, two-putted for birdie on the par-5 15th, then made a 33-footer for birdie on the 16th to get to nine-under for the round and tie Reed. On the 18th, however, Spieth's drive hit a tree and he was unable to save par, settling for a round of 64 (−8).

At the same time, Rickie Fowler was making a challenge to Reed's lead. He began five shots behind and was one-over on his round thru seven, but made six birdies on his last 11 holes. At the 18th, he holed a 7-footer for birdie to post a round of 67 (−5) and get within one.

Reed, meanwhile, made bogey on the 11th but made a putt for birdie at the 12th. On the 13th, his approach to the par-5 came up short but hung up in the rough instead of falling into the water, but he was unable to get up-and-down for birdie. At the 14th, he hit his approach to eight feet and made the birdie putt, and was able to save par from over the green on 15. Reed faced an putt on the 17th which hit the cup and rolled five feet away, then saved par. With a one-shot lead heading to the last, Reed faced a downhill putt which he hit to four feet. Reed converted to win by one shot over Fowler and two over Spieth. Jon Rahm got to within two of the lead before hitting his approach at 15 into the water and making bogey, finishing alone in fourth place. McIlroy settled for a two-over round of 74 and tied for fifth, six shots behind Reed. Final round scoring average was 70.49, believed to be the lowest single round scoring average in the history of the Masters.

Final leaderboard

Sources:

Scorecard

''Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par''

:

References

External links

*
Coverage on the PGA Tour's official siteCoverage from the PGA of America

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2018
2018 in golf
2018 in American sports
2018 in sports in Georgia (U.S. state)
April 2018 sports events in the United States