The Masters 2026: final round – live | The Masters

The final group takes to the tee … and both Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy take 3-woods for safety. The way Rory has been driving all week, this could be a tactic we’ll see more than once. Time will tell. It’s not as though he’s giving up too much distance, and he’s just wedging in from 155 yards. He very nearly slam-dunks it, too, a couple of feet to the left. He’ll have a good look at birdie from 11 feet. That’ll hopefully put him on an even keel: remember he bogeyed Tea Olive yesterday, and infamously doubled it on Sunday last year. That, it is fair to say, is a marked improvement. Young, having found the fairway bunker on the right, finds the heart of the green and will have a putt from 20 feet or so.

An opening birdie for Sam Burns in the penultimate group. A lovely downhill putt from 30 feet, and he joins the leaders at -11. His playing partner Shane Lowry however takes a heavy-handed chip from the front of 1, and bogey takes him the other way. No birdie for Scheffler on 2, meanwhile, but Tyrrell Hatton follows up his spectacular eagle on 7 with birdie at 8.

-11: Burns (1), Young, McIlroy
-9: Rose (1)
-8: Scheffler (2), Day (1), Lowry (1)
-7: Hatton (8), Cantlay (3), Henley (3), Li (2)

Scottie takes putter from the back of 2. He only just gets his putt through the fringe, though the margins are small, and it still dribbles down to six feet. But he’s not 100 percent happy with that. A thin-lipped smile as he considers his birdie putt. Meanwhile a bogey for Viktor Hovland on 18, and he ends the week with a 67 at -4. That round promised more. He’s the new clubhouse leader, though.

Justin Rose isn’t wasting time either! He chips in from the swale to the right of Tea Olive, and the three-time runner-up moves to within a couple of the lead at -9. The gallery, who wouldn’t say no to the genial Rose getting his flowers at last, erupt in delight. Meanwhile over on 2, Scottie Scheffler fires his second into the green, but over the back. Still a decent opportunity to get up and down from close-ish range, though. A sense that this Masters is about to catch fire, and the leaders aren’t even out yet. Fingers crossed for an all-time classic. Another all-time classic. Two in two years too much to ask?

You’ll have noticed Tyrrell Hatton popping up at the bottom of that updated Leader Board at -6. That’s because he’s just holed out for eagle on 7 from 131 yards, landing his ball 15 feet over the flag and spinning it back into the cup! Earlier on today, Aaron Rai did the exact same thing, from 137 yards, so it’s been a good day on Pampas for the English. Rai ended his week at +5 after a round of 70.

Scottie Scheffler isn’t wasting time. A high cut around the branches from the pine straw down the left of 1 into the heart of the green. A mirror-image version of the wedge Bubba Watson played from the trees at 10 to win the play-off in 2012. He’s seven feet away. In goes the birdie putt, and if the leaders weren’t already worried^†, they are now^††. Bogey for his playing-partner Haotong Li, though, the cost of leaving his approach short.

-11: Young, McIlroy
-10: Burns
-9: Lowry
-8: Scheffler (1), Day, Rose
-7: Knapp (4), Henley (1)
-6: Åberg (7), Hatton (7), Schauffele (5), Reed (2), Cantlay (1), Li (1)

^{†: They were
††: They already were}

Jake Knapp doesn’t have much of a record in the majors. A tie for 55th at the 2024 Masters, a couple of missed cuts at the PGA, another missed cut at the US Open. But the 31-year-old Californian did tie for 12th at the Players last year, and is poised to build on that here. An opening round of 73 followed by a pair of 69s, and with birdies at 1 and 3 he’s moved up the standings to -7.

Viktor Hovland responds magnificently to that double-bogey blow on 15. The pin on the famous par-three 16th is in its traditional Sunday position, front left, very accessible thanks to the downward camber of the green. Hovland finds the sweet spot that gathers his ball to six feet, then tidies up for birdie. He’s back to -5, and that’s the eighth birdie at 16 this afternoon already, with only 14 players having gone through so far.

Scottie Scheffler isn’t the only player looming large in the leaders’ rear-view mirrors. But you can bet your last shiny cent that Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy will consider him the most dangerous one. A world number-one ranking and two Green Jackets kind of add to the aura. Starting the day four behind at -7, it’ll take some effort from Scheffler, but if anyone can, Scottie’s the man. So having teed him up thus, he sends his opening drive wide of the bunker on the right-hand side of the fairway. He might have to punch under some branches from there. We’ll see. He’s going around today with Haotong Li, who he played with on the final day of last year’s Open at Portrush. A good omen for the big man? We’ll see about that as well. Li launches long down the left-hand side of the track.

Turns out Viktor Hovland’s momentum-saving efforts on 14 were all for nought. Hitting his second into 15, he air-mails the green, sending an absurdly overhit iron onto the bank behind and into the pond near the 16th. He can’t find the green with his chip back up, and that’s a double-bogey seven. Again, he isn’t the first, he won’t be the last, and it’s a reminder that the carpet can be whipped from underneath your feet at Augusta National in an instant. He’s -4.

Marco Penge was making a good fist of his Masters debut. Especially as the 27-year-old from Crawley, the reigning Spanish Open champion, took a triple-bogey eight at the 2nd on Thursday. Not the most auspicious start to his Augusta National career, but he limited the first-round damage to 76, then shot 69 and 71. Sadly his final round isn’t going so well, and he’s just dumped two balls in the water at the iconic par-three 12th, the first spinning back off the bank, the second from the dropzone not even getting over to dry land before dunking into the drink. A quadruple-bogey seven. He isn’t the first, he won’t be the last, and things could have gotten a whole lot worse, just ask the Towering Inferno …

Bogey at the last for Jon Rahm. A diminuendo end to a fine round of 68. You have to wonder how much buyer’s remorse Rahmbo has for joining the LIV tour: the 2021 US Open champion and 2023 Masters winner has never been the same player since. Still, his recovery this week from an opening round of 78 will give him a little succour. He ends his week at +1, one shy of the current clubhouse leader Gary Woodland.

We’re in that little major-championship sweet spot, the brief period of calm before the whipping up of a Sunday storm. So while we’re waiting for the leading players to take to the course, there’s time to indulge in a wee spot of Masters nostalgia. This episode of This Golfing Life, a wonderful new golf podcast hosted by the award-winning journalist and author Dan Davies, dives deep into the career of the 1980 and 1983 champion, the legendary Seve Ballesteros, and comes much recommended. (Fans of Paddington and Maurice Flitcroft may enjoy this episode too.) Get on it!

… so it’s probably time to update the Leader Board for the first time today. This is where we’re at for the moment. Meanwhile Viktor Hovland whips his second at 14 over the trees and into the heart of the green, and despite knocking his 25-foot birdie putt six past, tidies up to maintain his upward momentum. Quite a few of these lads, The Hov included, will be rueing their slow starts this week.

-11: Young, McIlroy
-10: Burns
-9: Lowry
-8: Day, Rose
-7: Scheffler, Li
-6: Hovland (14), Åberg (4), Knapp (1), Cantlay, Henley, Reed

The chasing pack will be very much buoyed by the work of the early starters. Because is there a score out there? Oh yes, there’s a score out there. With the huge caveat that the fairways and greens will dry out and harden up as the afternoon sun beats down – Augusta National getting fast, fast, fast – the signs are very promising. Consider:

• Ludvig Åberg has started out with three straight birdies; he’s -6 overall

• Jon Rahm, who started the week with a LIV-shaming 78, is five under for his round today through 17; he’s level par

• Gary Woodland has just got back to the clubhouse with a 66; he’s the early clubhouse leader at level par

• Viktor Hovland is seven under through 13, though he’s just Roryed his drive into the trees at 14; he’s -6 for the Tournament

Is a low score on? Oh, it’s on. It’s already been on.

Today’s weather bulletin: clear, dry and the hottest it’s been all week, with temperatures climbing into the mid-80s. Wind picking up a little during the day, but not in any intrusive manner. Meanwhile in other temperature-related news, the 2017 champion Sergio Garcia has been getting very hot under the collar, reacting to an errant drive on 2 by battering his driver into the ground a couple of times, before whacking it across a nearby cooler, snapping it in two. He’s been given an official code of conduct warning by Augusta National officials, while the tanty registers C++ on the Guardian’s Official Masters Meltdown-o-Meter, which older and more jaded readers may remember from hole-by-hole reports passim.

Welcome, patrons, it’s time to clamber aboard the rollercoaster. Now then, if the wild and wonderful scenes of Moving Day are anything to go by, many things are possible today. The most likely is that either Rory McIlroy or Cameron Young will win: that’s because the last nine winners have come from the final pairing on Sunday. But there is precedent of a win from as far as eight shots back after 54 holes: Jack Burke Jr. pulled off that particular trick in 1956. Admittedly he only had three players ahead of him on the Leader Board, and it was blowing a field-scattering hoolie, but an eight-stroke comeback is an eight-stroke comeback, whichever way you spin it. Therefore anyone starting the day as low as -3 is technically in with a chance. At least according to the historical data. Even if they have 17 more players ahead of them than Burke did. And today’s conditions are benign. So let’s be realistic. But those are the facts, flat on the page.

Exactly 30 years ago, give or take two days, this happened …

… so the loss of a six-shot lead at the Masters isn’t exactly a new thing. And hey, unlike the poor old Great White Shark, at least Rory has 18 more holes still to play, and with them an opportunity to do something about it.

Here’s how the top of the Leader Board looked when dawn broke in Georgia …

-11: Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy
-10: Sam Burns
-9: Shane Lowry
-8: Jason Day, Justin Rose
-7: Scottie Scheffler, Haotong Li
-6: Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, Patrick Reed
-5: Collin Morikawa, Jake Knapp, Ben Griffin
-4: Ryan Gerard, Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Wyndham Clark, Tyrrell Hatton, Tonny Fleetwood
-3: Ludvig Åberg, Brian Campbell, Nick Taylor, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Michael Brennan, Max Homa, Chris Gotterup, Kristoffer Reitan

… and here are today’s tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST).

1406 Aaron Rai (Eng), Charl Schwartzel (SA)
1417 Gary Woodland, Kurt Kitayama
1428 Jon Rahm (Spa), Sergio Garcia (Spa)
1439 Si Woo Kim (Kor), Rasmus Hojgaard (Den)
1450 Keegan Bradley, Dustin Johnson
1501 Matt McCarty, Corey Connors (Can)
1512 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Justin Thomas
1523 Alex Noren (Swe), Maverick McNealy
1545 Adam Scott (Aus), Marco Penge (Eng)
1556 Harris English, Samuel Stevens
1607 Brian Harman, Jordan Spieth
1618 Im Sung-jae (Kor), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
1629 Sepp Straka (Aut), Jacob Bridgeman
1640 Chris Gotterup, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor)
1651 Michael Brennan, Max Homa
1713 Nick Taylor (Can), Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng)
1724 Ludvig Aberg (Swe), Brian Campbell
1735 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng)
1746 Brooks Koepka, Wyndham Clark
1757 Ryan Gerard, Xander Schauffele
1808 Jake Knapp, Ben Griffin
1830 Patrick Reed, Collin Morikawa
1841 Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley
1852 Scottie Scheffler, Li Haotong (Chn)
1903 Jason Day (Aus), Justin Rose (Eng)
1914 Sam Burns, Shane Lowry (Ire)
1925 Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy (NI)

This report will get going at 6pm BST. In the meantime, catch up with the dramatic action from round three by reading Ewan Murray’s report …

… here’s how Rory McIlroy felt after letting his six-shot lead slip …

… and here’s Andy Bull on how sensational Scottie Scheffler put himself in the mix for the Green Jacket.

It’s on!