Masters Results 2015: Most Surprising Scores from Augusta
The writing was on the wall for Jordan Spieth's dominant 2015 Masters run after starting the year off on a tear, but other performances came out of nowhere.
The top of the leaderboard is littered with household names such as Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose and even Rory McIlroy after his weekend surge. Many of golf's top stars stepped up to the task, with Spieth running away with things.
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But as tends to be the case at major tournaments, there were a couple of names knocking on the door that nobody expected to contend. With scores going lower and lower as the weekend progressed, a couple of oft-forgotten golfers put up scores that would have won prior editions of the Masters.
While their performances are to be lauded, there were even more who entered the year's first major with high hopes only to struggle through four forgettable rounds. Let's target a few of each below.
Most Surprising Scores
Hideki Matsuyama (-11)
Hideki Matsuyama saved the best for last.
After failing to card a score below 70 for his first three rounds of play, Matsuyama tore up the course Sunday en route to the low round of the day. His 66 tied Rory McIlroy's similar score, catapulting him from five under par all the way to 11 under after he birdied No. 18.
Matsuyama bogeyed three times in each of his first three rounds, but he played a mistake-free round Sunday with four birdies and an eagle on the 13th. By the end of the tournament, his name stood alongside some of the game's biggest stars on the following list, per Golf Channel's Bailey Mosier:
He's already a winner on the PGA Tour and now has top-20 finishes at every one of the four majors, but Matsuyama still doesn't get the credit he deserves. After all, the 23-year-old has competed at the highest levels and in the most tense of situations without budging.
Matsuyama is one of the great young golfers that few know about. And spectacularly enough, Spieth's dominating weekend may cause Matsuyama to fly even more under the radar in the near future as young names like Spieth's, McIlroy's and others continue to get all of the attention.
Charley Hoffman (-8)
Without some guy named Spieth, Charley Hoffman would have been the storyline for the better part of the Masters.
Like Spieth, Hoffman entered Augusta for his second Masters this week. Also like the winner, he started off absolutely on fire with an opening-round 67 that took an early clubhouse lead before Spieth's 64 came like a freight train.
But the 38-year-old was no one-hit wonder after his stellar opening round. He posted a 68 for Friday to move nine strokes under, and he played Sunday's final round in the second-to-last pairing with Mickelson. While virtually all of those surging on moving day were household names, Hoffman's presence was uncanny, as ESPN's Jason Sobel noted:
Hoffman's performance in the 2015 Masters won't be nearly as highly regarded after he struggled Sunday to a 74 that pushed him back to a tie for ninth, which is a shame considering the performance he brought this weekend at Augusta. But with a PGA Tour win back in November and two top-11 finishes coming into the weekend, perhaps his performance isn't as surprising as one would suspect.
It makes you wonder how this was just the second Masters Hoffman has qualified for in 14 years as a pro.
Jason Day (-1)
Few players have fared better through their first four Masters than Jason Day, who finished in second in 2011 and third in 2013. A blistering opening round of 67 proved he was on track to contend yet again.
But after ripping off five straight birdies late Thursday, he never looked to be the same after that. He carded a 74 Friday to fall off the pace considerably, making him an afterthought in a weekend when many expected him to win his first major.
He entered Sunday far from contention, and it showed. He bogeyed six holes for his final-round 75, and Kyle Porter of CBS Sports perfectly summed up the struggles of two young stars:
Finishing below par at Augusta isn't a bad score in many cases, but the course was there to be had all weekend long—as told by the gaudy scores across the board. Day knows what it's like to be right there after finishes of 12 under and seven under previously at the Masters, but it didn't materialize this weekend.
From a 14-1 favorite according to Odds Shark to a tied-for-28th finish, Day has had better weekends.
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