"Jon went to the bathroom 7 times" - Brooks Koepka complains about slow pace of play in Masters final round
Although Brooks Koepka fell short of winning the 2023 Masters in the final round, he had a lot of positives to take from the tournament. After getting back the long-lost form at the LIV Golf Orlando event, he continued his good run at the Augusta National and was leading for the most part.
Koepka's fourth-round 75 resulted in him slipping to joint second place alongside Phil Mickelson. The four-time major champion had a straightforward answer to the fourth-round debacle.
"I led for three rounds, and just didn’t do it on the last day," Koepka was quoted as saying by the New York Times. "That’s it, plain and simple.”
However, there was one issue that Koepka had a problem with and he complained about it in the press conference later. As per him, the group ahead of Koepka and Rahm was painfully slow.
Koepka told Christopher Powers of Golf Digest:
"The group in front of us was brutally slow, Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting."
The likes of Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, and amateur Samuel Bennett were overly slow in their approach, and that took a toll on Koepka (as indirectly suggested by him).
Jon Rahm beats Koepka and Phil Mickelson to win the 2023 Masters
Jon Rahm shared the lead alongside Brooks Koepka and Sam Bennett after the conclusion of the first round but trailed behind Koepka for most of the week from then until Sunday.
Rahm overturned things on the final day to emerge victorious at the 2023 Masters and claim his first green jacket. He beat Koepka and Phil Mickelson by a four-stroke margin at the Augusta National.
It was a long day for the golfers, as Koepka and Rahm had to play over 29 holes on Sunday. Koepka looked set to cruise through the win as he had a two-shot lead after 54 holes, but it wasn't over until it was.
Brooks Koepka kept on making error after error on the final day and went on to lose the lead for the first time since Thursday on the par-3 sixth hole when he made a bogey by chipping the ball a little further from the hole.
For the first time this week, Brooks seemed under pressure as he went 22 holes without a birdie. Rahm holed four birdies in the final round with just one bogey, finishing at 3-under 69. Koepka made just three birdies, but what hurt him was a whopping six bogeys as he finished the fourth round at 3-over 75.
Veteran Phil Mickelson was one of the best performers on Sunday, as he carded a brilliant 7-under 65 to jump 18 spots to finish as the runner-up at the Masters. With this, he became the oldest runner-up in Masters history.
Here's the final leaderboard of the 2023 Masters.
- 1 Jon Rahm: -12
- T2 Brooks Koepka: -8
- T2 Phil Mickelson: -8
- T4 Russell Henley: -7
- T4 Patrick Reed: -7
- T4 Jordan Spieth: -7
- T7 Viktor Hovland: -6
- T7 Cameron Young: -6
- 9 Sahith Theegala: -5
- T10 Matt Fitzpatrick: -4
- T10 Collin Morikawa: -4
- T10 Xander Schauffele: -4
- T10 Scottie Scheffler: -4