When the Masters is tied after 72 holes, the tournament does not send players back for a full day of golf anymore. It goes to sudden death, starting on the 18th hole at Augusta National, then the 10th if needed, then back to 18 until someone wins.
That setup has defined the modern Masters playoff format since 1979, when Fuzzy Zoeller birdied the second extra hole to beat Ed Sneed and Tom Watson. Since then, there have been 11 more Masters playoffs, and none has gone beyond two extra holes. The most recent came a year ago, when Rory McIlroy outlasted Justin Rose.
The change was not always the rule at Augusta National. The Masters used to settle ties with an 18-hole playoff the next day, and before that the club first used a 36-hole playoff format in 1935. Gene Sarazen beat Craig Wood that year, and the tournament later used 18-hole playoffs on five occasions after the longer format ended: Byron Nelson won in 1942, Sam Snead in 1954, Arnold Palmer in 1962, Jack Nicklaus in 1966 and Billy Casper in 1970.
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Clifford Roberts announced in 1976 that the Masters would switch to sudden death, and the first tournament played under that system arrived in 1979. The format has produced tense endings under dark skies, including Nick Faldo's win over Scott Hoch in 1989, Tiger Woods' victory over Chris DiMarco in 2005 and Adam Scott's defeat of Angel Cabrera in 2013. Sergio Garcia also beat Justin Rose in 2017.
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The Masters is the only men's major to use this playoff setup. The U.S. Open uses a two-hole aggregate system, the PGA Championship goes three holes and the Open Championship uses four. Augusta National also usually schedules Sunday final-round tee times earlier than Saturday's third-round tee times to leave room for a possible playoff, a quiet signal that the club expects the day to run long if the leaderboard stays tight.
