Masters playoff format and rules: What happens if the final round ends tied?

It’s said that the Masters doesn’t truly start until the leader gets to the second nine on Sunday. But what happens if the Masters doesn’t end when the leaders finish that nine? Well, that means it’s time for a playoff and the highest possible drama in the world’s most prestigious golf tournament.

The Masters playoff is unique, as far as major championships go.

First of all, the setup is sudden death. Since 2004, players will have to go back to the 18th tee just after finishing. They then alternate between holes 10 and 18 until a winner is determined. (The playoff used to kick off at No. 10.) The holes run parallel to each other at Augusta National with one tee box essentially being right next to the other green, and vice versa.

The U.S. Open has a Monday playoff in which the tied players go a full 18 holes. It’s the site of Tiger Woods’ last major triumph.

The Open Championship uses a four-hole aggregate scoring format to decide things. And the PGA championship uses a three-hole playoff with aggregate scoring.

There have been 15 Masters playoffs

And the format wasn’t sudden death until 1979. There have been seven sudden death playoffs since the format changed to that. Back in the day, there were 36-hole playoffs, then 18-hole playoffs before the current format was put in place at Augusta National. No sudden death playoff has lasted more than two holes, and the most recent one was Bubba Watson’s 2012 triumph over Louis Oosthuizen.

Perhaps the most famous playoff moment in Masters history is the one that didn’t happen in 1968. That year, Roberto DeVicenzo finished 72 holes tied with Bob Goalby — except his scorecard didn’t say that. In reality, DeVicenzo had signed a scorecard marked incorrectly, one shot higher than the score which would have put him in a playoff with Goalby. DeVicenzo had to settle for second due to the rules of the game.

Since then, scorecards have been signed in private at the end of a golfer’s round.