AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - The Latest on Sunday’s final round of the Masters (all times local):
8:45 p.m.
Patrick Reed says it became clear he wasn’t going a crowd favorite at the first hole in the final round of the Masters.
And he believes it helped him win his first green jacket.
Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy got a noticeably louder ovation than Reed when they were announced on the tee box.
Reed says “that’s another thing that just kind of played into my hand. Not only did it fuel my fire a little bit, but also it just takes the pressure off of me and adds it back to him.”
Reed closed with a 1-under 71, doing just enough to hold off challengers Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth down the stretch.
McIlroy shot 2 over and finished six shots back. McIlroy said after the third round that Reed had all the pressure on him.
Reed says he “felt like a lot of that pressure was kind of lifted and kind of taken off of me. … It’s just kind of one of those things that the more kind of chatter you have in your ear and about expectations and everything, the harder it is to play golf.”
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6:40 p.m.
Patrick Reed has won his first major championship with a thrilling one-shot victory over Rickie Fowler at the Masters.
Reed pulled ahead of Jordan Spieth with an 8-foot birdie putt at the 14th hole Sunday, saved par with a 6-foot putt at No. 17 and pulled off a testy two-putt at the final hole to win with a 1-under 71. His total was a 15-under 273.
Fowler made quite a run at his first major title, making six birdies over the final 11 holes for a closing 67.
Fowler says “glad I at least made the last one to make him earn it.”
It wasn’t quite enough.
Spieth began the day nine shots behind and turned in one of the greatest final rounds in Masters history with an 8-over 64. But a disappointing bogey at the last hole, when his tee shot struck a limb, ended his hopes of improbably catching Reed.
Rory McIlroy went into the round three shots off the lead, in good position to make a run at the career Grand Slam. But he stumbled to a 74 and finished six shots behind Reed.
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6:05 p.m.
Jordan Spieth’s first bogey of the day left him one stroke shy of tying the course record shared by Nick Price and Greg Norman.
Spieth shot an 8-under 64 in the final round and finished at 13 under, two shots behind leader Patrick Reed. Spieth made a bogey on the par-4 18th after hitting a tree branch off the tee and then missing a 10-foot par putt.
Price shot a 9-under 63 in 1986, a mark matched 10 years later by Norman.
Spieth looked like he would join them until his tee shot caught a branch and dropped well short of the fairway.
Still, Spieth became the seventh player in Masters history to shoot a 64 in the final round.
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5:45 p.m.
Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth are now tied at the Masters, setting up a scintillating finish in the final round.
Reed missed a 10-foot birdie putt at the par-5 13th just minutes after Spieth drained a 35-footer for birdie at the par-3 16th. Spieth turned to his caddy and seemed to say, ’You’ve got to be kidding me” after the putt dropped.
They are at 14 under, two shots ahead of Jon Rahm and Rickie Fowler.
The change atop the leaderboard drew a huge roar from fans surrounding the 18th green.
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5:30 p.m.
Patrick Reed is clinging to a one-stroke lead over Jordan Spieth in a thrilling final round at the Masters.
Reed rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt at the 12th hole, pushing his score to 14 under for the tournament.
Spieth answered with a birdie of his own at the par-5 15th, rolling in a testy, 6-foot putt that made him 8 under for the day and 13 under overall.
Rickie Fowler is also in the mix, just two shots back. Jon Rahm is four behind, while Rory McIlroy has faded to five shots off the lead playing in the final group with Reed.
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4:45 p.m.
Charley Hoffman has made a hole-in-one at the Masters.
Hoffman flirted with the bunker left of the 16th green, only to catch a fortuitous kick that sent the ball right into the hole.
It was the third straight year that there’s been at least one ace at the 170-yard hole known as Redbud.
Matt Kuchar had a hole-in-one in 2017, while three players did it in 2016.
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4:30 p.m.
Paul Casey has bogeyed the last two holes at the Masters to miss out on the course record.
Casey still managed to shoot a 7-under 65, which is the lowest round of the day so far and his best score ever in a major championship.
Beginning at No. 11, Casey ripped off a streak of four birdies and an eagle over five holes, pushing his score for the day to 9 under. That gave him at a shot at the Augusta National record.
He came up short of the 63 shared by Nick Price and Greg Norman.
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4:10 p.m.
Jordan Spieth is making a huge move in the final round of the Masters.
The 24-year-old Texan made five birdies on the front nine at Augusta National to push his score to 10 under overall.
Spain’s Jon Rahm is also at 10 under, joining Spieth just one shot behind Rory McIlroy and four in back of leader Patrick Reed.
Spieth faced a nine-shot deficit coming into the day and talked about having a rare, pressure-free round at the Masters.
Not anymore.
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3:45 p.m.
Paul Casey is having quite a round at Augusta National.
The 40-year-old Englishman has ripped off four birdies and an eagle over five holes on the back side, pushing his score to 9 under for the final day. He has a shot at the course record shared by Nick Price and Greg Norman.
Price shot a 9-under 63 in 1986, a mark matched 10 years later by Norman.
If Casey can play the final three holes at even par, he’ll finish with a 63.
Unfortunately for Casey, he came into the round too far back to make a run at the green jacket. He started Sunday 16 shots behind leader Patrick Reed.
Reed remains three shots ahead of Rory McIlroy.
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3:20 p.m.
Tiger Woods finally found his form at the Masters. It came a few days too late.
Woods closed with a flurry, shooting a 3-under 69 in the final round and finishing at 1-over 289 for the tournament.
Woods had two birdies, an eagle and a bogey on the back nine. The eagle was his first at the week. His only late blemish was missing a 9-foot par putt at No. 18. Still, he played much more like the four-time Masters champion everyone remembers for the first time all week.
The former world No. 1 is returning to competitive golf after a fourth back surgery. He played the Masters for the first time since 2015.
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2:45 p.m.
Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy have teed off in the final round at the Masters, and it sure looks like they’re feeling the pressure.
Reed yanked his tee shot at the par-4 first left and into pine straw. McIlroy pushed his way, way right but still in bounds.
Reed and McIlroy are in the final pairing at Augusta National. Reed is 14 under, three strokes ahead of McIlroy.
Reed is seeking his first major championship. McIlroy is trying to complete the career Grand Slam.
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2:15 p.m.
Tiger Woods has his most birdies of any round at the Masters this week.
Woods made his fourth of the day when he sank a 4-foot putt at the par-5 13th. He had a decent look at eagle, but missed a downhill, 17-footer and settled for a 4.
Woods is 1 under in the final round and 3 over for the tournament. He has four birdies and three bogeys. The four-time Masters champion had three birdies in the opening round, two in the second and three in the third.
He’s trying to finish a round under par for the first time this week.
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12:20 p.m.
Tiger Woods’s final round at this Masters may have included his best iron shot of the week.
Woods nearly aced the 240-yard, par-3 fourth. His tee shot landed a few feet short of the flag, bounced a few times and then skirted by the left edge of the hole. He was left with a left-to-right-breaking 10-footer that he dropped in the left side of the cup.
It provided a brief glimpse of what might have been at Augusta National had Woods had better distance control with his irons.
Woods missed greens right and left, never really getting approach shots in the perfect spots on treacherous greens.
His errant ways left him starting a lot sooner than expected and will have him finishing shortly after the leaders tee off Sunday afternoon.
Woods also made a birdie on par-5 second, but followed that with bogey on the par-4 third. He is 3-over for the tournament.
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2:20 a.m.
It’s essentially a Ryder Cup rematch at Augusta National.
Patrick Reed and his par-5 prowess versus Rory McIlroy and his penchant for clutch shots.
A 27-year-old American seeking his first major championship versus a 28-year-old Irishman chasing golf history.
Reed and McIlroy are forever linked to that singles match two years ago, which Reed won on the 18th hole. The personalities are unchanged. The events, and the stakes, are entirely different.
The crowd figures to be equally loud, just not as obnoxious.
“There’s a lot of stuff that you can do at a Ryder Cup that you can’t do at Augusta National,” Reed said with a smile.
Don’t look for McIlroy to cup his hand over his ear to encourage the gallery to scream even louder. Or for Reed to point at McIlroy if he pulls off a clutch moment.
Besides, it’s stroke play. Reed had a three-shot lead. And it wasn’t just about them.
Keeping the lead won’t be easy for Reed, not on this stage. But he doesn’t buy into the idea that the pressure is all on him, a notion McIlroy quickly suggested.
“I am leading,” he said. “At the same time, he’s going for the career Grand Slam.”
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