The 2018 Masters final leaderboard: Patrick Reed wins first major

Patrick Reed, in what Masters aficionados hoped would be an epic heavyweight bout reminiscent of his 2016 singles match with Rory McIlroy at Hazleton ended with Rory on the canvas and Reed once again out-slugging his Ryder Cup nemesis, finishing with a 1-under 71 and 15-under for the week.

In fact, it wasn’t even McIlroy, who started his day with a way errant drive on the first, who gave Reed game. Jordan Spieth, playing four groups ahead of the final pairing, put on a show almost for the ages, as he nearly overcame a nine-shot deficit to start the day but came up two shots shy of capturing his second green jacket.

McIlroy, who issued an audacious challenge to Reed after Saturday’s third round, failed to back up his tough words, as his playing partner ran away and hid from the four-time major champion who still needs a Masters victory to complete the career grand slam. Indeed, though he still had his chances afterward, McIlroy’s missed eagle putt on the second hole to tie Reed for the lead turned out to be a defining moment in Sunday’s finale, as the 54-hole frontrunner made par on No. 2.

McIlroy followed that up with a bogey on No. 3 as Reed made birdie, and he just could not make up the difference.

Meanwhile, Spieth sent a message early on that Sunday’s final round would not be a two-man race. With McIlroy struggling all day (CBS’ Dottie Pepper called his play “flat”) and Reed hanging on to the lead by a whisker, Spieth went out with two straight birdies to start, added a third on the fifth hole, and made the turn at 3-under 33 after two more consecutive birds.

He went back-to-back two more times, on holes 12 and 13, and 15 and 16 — the huge birdie on the par-3 16th getting him into a share of the 14-under lead with Reed.

By that time, McIlroy had fallen down the leaderboard, behind the two frontrunners, and Rickie Fowler and Jon Rahm made runs. Rahm’s chance for his first major W ended with a water ball on the 15th hole, but Fowler kept on coming, ending with a birdie on No. 18 for a final-round 67 and a 14-under second-place finish.

Spieth certainly had the Augusta patrons’ backing and seemed on his way to an improbable comeback victory. When his birdie putt from eight feet on 17 just burned the edge of the hole, though, he opened the door just slightly for Reed, whose birdie on 14 gave him the lead yet again.

Spieth’s drive on 18 then clipped a tree and dropped down some 315 yards from the green, forcing him to lay up. He closed out his Masters with a two-putt bogey for a 64, missing by one stroke a tie for the lowest final round at Augusta, and falling two back of Reed.

Shortly thereafter, Reed made a a three-foot par putt on the 15th to remain ahead by two. Three pars later and the U.S. Ryder Cup hero was ready for his closeup and a green jacket to go with his pink polo, which just might become his signature Sunday attire.

Among the other notables, 40-something Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson closed with their best rounds of the week, Tiger posting a 3-under 69 and Phil firing a 67.

Woods called his four-birdie, four-bogey, one-eagle performance a “bittersweet ending” to his first Masters start since 2015 after returning to competition in February from his fourth back surgery. He ended at 1-over for the week and appeared as disappointed, in his post-round chat with CBS, as those who had high expectations for the four-time Masters winner.

Woods has committed to play in The National in late June, but it’s unclear if we’ll see him in competition before then.

“I’m going to Take a little break for sure,” said Woods, who broke into the top 100 in the world golf rankings with his 3-under overall finish. “We’re going to go back to the gym, start working on things again, start getting a little more fit.”

As for Phil, his low round of the tournament came a day after he injured his left wrist with that whiff on the first hole on Saturday.

That chunk sound was Mickelson hitting a tree root with his club (reminding some of when Woods did something similar to his right wrist in the final round of the 2015 tournament and then popping the bone back in to finish the day).

Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis reported that Lefty suffered a stinger in the wrist as he attempted to hit his second shot under tree limbs somewhere within the confines of Augusta National after an errant tee shot. That certainly explains why Mickelson played so poorly in the third round, beginning with a triple bogey-7 to start and ending a 2-over 74.

The owie is not expected to cause any chronic problems.