Augusta National, Langer noted, had always been welcoming to long hitters like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. (So far this tournament, Woods’s drives are coming in at around 284 yards.)
DeChambeau, of course, set out to overpower Augusta National and came in as the favorite ahead of Thursday’s opening round. It hasn’t quite worked out for him — he was 12 shots off the lead late on Sunday morning — and he may have been partly thwarted by the damp course.
“Wet ground and water has always been my nemesis for some reason, just can’t figure it out, whereas some people have no problem with it,” he said on Saturday. “They’re able to hit it and have no issues.”
But he still leads Langer by three strokes.
Im and Smith cut into Johnson’s lead.
After Dustin Johnson missed a 10-foot par putt on the par-3 fourth, he showed as much emotion as he has all week. He knew how important that par save was to maintain his momentum; it would have been hard for Johnson to avoid seeing the nearby scoreboard showing that two players in the group ahead of him, Sungjae Im, a Masters rookie, and Cameron Smith, are 2-under for their rounds, to draw to within two of his lead.
One thing that hasn’t changed in 2020: the Masters purse.
Augusta National will dole out $11.5 million in prize money to professionals playing the tournament, the same sum as last year. The winner will earn nearly $2.1 million (along with a green jacket, lifetime entry into the tournament and an annual invitation for dinner), while the runner-up will be paid more than $1.2 million. Even the tournament’s 50th place player will receive a handsome payout of $28,980.
The Masters purse is among the largest in golf, though the United States Open awarded $12.5 million in prize money, including $2.25 million to the winner, after the tournament in September.
Cameron Champ starts hot.
Masters rookie Cameron Champ birdied his first three holes to vault onto the first page of the leaderboard, but gave those shots back triple bogeying the fourth. At the BMW Championship in August, Champ, who is biracial, wore one black golf shoe and one white one to protest police brutality against Black people after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The New York Times spoke to him last month about racial injustice and how he views the Masters, with its Old South roots.
