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The 5 best Masters Sundays from the last 20 years

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We may have to wait a few extra months for the 2020 Masters, but thanks to the Masters YouTube channel, we can still enjoy full broadcasts from the final round of previous years.

With the weekend upon us, here’s my top-5 Masters Sundays from the last 20 years, which are packed full of excitement and primed to be re-visited, with all five featuring late drama.

*2019 not included as it is the last Masters played and therefore extremely fresh in the minds of all golf fans. It makes the 2021 list!*

2004

More than half a dozen players began the day with hopes of donning the green jacket in 2004, but it was two greats of the game that forged clear from the pack with truly sensational play. After rocky starts, Els and Mickelson threw everything at each other in a battle for the ages where both men were truly “in the zone.”

It was also the Sunday where we got one of the most iconic 18th hole celebrations of all time.

2005

Chris DiMarco, remember him? You won’t forget him again if you re-watch the 2005 final round. The fiery DiMarco wen from a three-shot deficit against Woods heading into the back-9, to a chip on 18 that was inches away from perhaps winning him a green jacket.

This was an epic showdown where a prime Tiger was pushed as hard as he had ever been previously at Augusta.

2009

It’s not often you get gifted two tournaments in one on a Sunday at the Masters with both being as gripping as the other. Both seven shots behind starting the final round, Mickelson and Woods put on a show making birdie after birdie to make the impossible look likely.

They ultimately fell short, but the drama didn’t let down with a dramatic finish resulting in a three-man playoff between Angel Cabrera, Kenny Perry, and Chad Campbell.

If you’ve forgotten how the playoff played out, then the respect you’re going to have for Angel Cabrera when you see the position he saved par from during the first playoff hole will be through the roof.

2011

A Rory McIlroy collapse, a scintillating Tiger charge, two Australians landing heavyweight blows, a frequently changing leaderboard, and a South African with the most outrageous start and finish to a final round.

Simply put, one of the most entertaining Sundays ever seen at Augusta National.

2013

No golf course could ever look so good in the rain. 2013’s Sunday was a spectacle which saw a late collapse, a mighty curse broken and what would have been probably the best winner’s celebration ever on 18 if it wasn’t followed by one of the greatest approach shots ever seen at the last.

Yet another brilliant and dramatic playoff closed the book on another Masters, and if you don’t remember all the shots from the two-hole playoff, then it will blow your mind to see just how close Adam Scott came to suffering yet more major heartbreak.

Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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