Brooks Koepka extends Masters lead as third round is suspended by weather
LIV Golf's Brooks Koepka extended his lead less than halfway into Saturday's third round of The Masters before play was suspended for the day.
Brooks Koepka, LIV Golf's first and only two-time winner, doubled his Masters lead through just six holes of the third round Saturday before play was suspended due to weather.
Koepka, a four-time major winner, continued to dominate Augusta National on Saturday and was 1-under on his round before the rainy conditions in Georgia halted play for the remainder of the day.
Koepka entered the third round of the 87th Masters with a two-stroke lead over Jon Rahm.
He very quickly built upon that lead with some help from Rahm, extending it to four before the horn sounded. Koepka had one of the lowest rounds going at 1-under par.
Koepka has missed the cut in his past two Masters appearances, but the 32-year-old has seemingly rediscovered his ability to dominate golf's major season.
In addition to winning both the U.S. Open and PGA Championship's twice, Koepka's notched a runner-up finish at The Masters back in 2019. Until missing it in 2021, he'd made five consecutive cuts at Augusta National.
He'll have an 11-foot putt for par at the 7th when play resumes on Sunday.
Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im, and Matt Fitzpatrick were the players out on course making best use of the rainy conditions, all three at 3-under par on their round.
World No. 1 and defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was next best with a 2-under round going, moving him to 3-under par for the tournament.
World No. 3 Rahm has the best chance to take the lead from Koepka in what could turn into a two-horse, LIV Golf vs PGA Tour race on Sunday. Rahm was 9-under when play was suspended.
Amateur Sam Bennett was the third member of that group and had fallen back to 6-under after going 2-over par in the third round.
After having the second-lowest 36-hole score by an amateur in Masters history following Saturday's completion of the second round, the Texas A&M senior will look to become the first amateur in the history of the tournament to win the green jacket.
At the other end of the leaderboard was Tiger Woods, who, after narrowly making the cut on the number, was 6-over through seven holes and at the bottom of the leaderboard at 9-over par.
Woods was seen hobbling badly for much of the seven holes he played as the rain chucked it down.
It now remains to be seen whether or not Woods can return to complete the tournament on Sunday.
However, Woods did join history on Saturday as he matched Gary Player and Fred Couples' record of most consecutive Masters cut made with 23.
Masters R3 Leaderboard:
B Koepka -13 (6)
J Rahm -9 (6)
S Bennett -6 (6)
P Cantlay -5 (13)
M Fitzpatrick -5 (11)
C Morikawa -5 (7)
V Hovland -5 (7)
J Rose -4 (9)
R Henley -4 (9)
P Mickelson -4 (9)
J Niemann -4 (9)
C Young -4 (8)
J Day -4 (7)
Selected others:
S Scheffler -3 (12*)
T Woods +9 (7*)
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