Masters 2026: It started as a firm and fast Masters, then Augusta National turned on the faucet

AUGUSTA, Ga. — We were told all week that, because of the weather forecast, this would be one of the toughest Masters tournaments in years. That was very much the case … for one round.

Then, the powers that be at Augusta National turned the faucet on. For what reason, we do not know. Best guesses from the terminally online include that the green jackets, specifically Geoff Yang, who is in his first year as the Chairman of Rules and Competitions Committee, got spooked. In fairness, the 15th green was so firm on Thursday it was sending balls to the edge of or into the pond on 16 regularly. There were 10 rounds of 80 or worse. If it was already out of hand on Thursday, there was risk of losing the golf course entirely by Saturday.

So what? Is it so wrong for a major championship to be hard? We see golf balls pitch and suck back to five feet for birdie after birdie every week on the PGA Tour. Can we get four days of bounce? Can we watch these guys have to live on the edge? The folks at Augusta National would never “lose” the golf course. They have everything at their disposal to have just slightly dialed it down on Friday and then dial it back up for the weekend. Instead, they flicked on the “easy mode” switch.

Here are two images of the watering on the 12th green that took place Friday morning:

And if you think that was just business as usual, listen to what PGA Tour winner Andrew Novak had to say following his second round when he was asked if they watered the greens.

“I three-putted four times early today because I was not prepared at all the for how slow the greens were,” Novak said. “Just on the putting green and stuff they were still rolling fast. I didn't realize how much slower they were going to be this morning, and, yeah, it took me a little too long to adjust to that.”

Novak, of course, got the worst of it on Thursday, as he played in the afternoon wave. Then he and the rest of that wave went out Friday morning on what had to feel like a completely different golf course. Meanwhile, the early/late crew got the best of both worlds—a softish Thursday morning and a far softer Friday afternoon than Thursday’s. It’s no coincidence that the first five names on the leaderboard after 54 holes all teed off before 10:45 a.m. in the opening round.

Saturday played the easiest of all. There were two 65s (Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young), two 66s (Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley) and 35 total rounds under par. Of the first 10 names on the leaderboard, only one player—McIlroy—was over par in the third round. The field scoring average for Saturday was 70.6, marking just the third time in the last 10 years that a round average was lower than 71. That 70.6 mark is also the lowest third-round scoring average in the history of this storied tournament (not a typo). The course played a full two strokes easier than Friday and four strokes easier than Thursday.

Some might argue that’s a great Moving Day at the Masters, a perfectly fine opinion to have. The roars were deafening, the excitement infectious. But there’s also an argument to be made that a 66 on Saturday at the Masters should be rare, thus making it mean much more than it did this Saturday. Henley and Cantlay made a nice move up the board, but so did everyone. Oversaturating the course leads to an oversaturation of red figures.

Former Masters winner Adam Scott shot a two-under 70 on Saturday morning. As someone who is playing in his 25th consecutive Masters this week, he knows the course as well as anybody in the field not named Couples or Singh. He detected a noticeable difference in the putting surfaces.

“I did play early, so this may be irrelevant when guys come in later in the day, but the greens are still very, very friendly,” Scott said.

Masters 2026

Adam Glanzman

Scheffler, a two-time champ, called the greens on Friday “soft” in his spicy post-round presser. That was still the case on his first nine Saturday, when he went out in 31.

“Today there was a little bit of opportunity early. You saw my front nine,” said Scheffler. “There was definitely some opportunity going out. Not much wind. Softer greens, but they firmed up a little quicker.”

As the sun beat down in the afternoon, the greens did get a touch browner, but the damage had long been done. Max Homa, who is playing in his seventh straight Masters, was frustrated with his third-round one-under 71. Why? Because of how gettable the golf course was.

“Pretty easy,” Homa said when asked how Augusta played Saturday. “There's random greens that are really firm. 17 is significantly firmer than any other green. 18 is starting to get baked out too. The front nine is pretty—I mean, very gettable. I didn't feel like it was too fast, too firm.

“The back you just have certain holes play tricky, but I think it's very gettable.”

Jason Day, who teed off at 1:55 p.m. alongside 54-hole co-leader Young, was asked if the greens had an Australia Sand Belt quality to them in the third round. Quite the opposite, actually.

“I think if they were a little bit firmer and faster, yes,” Day said. “But these greens, they were very receptive today. Yeah, they were very receptive today.

“They could have—it could have been a lot different. I expected to see it a little bit different than what I saw today. I mean, you were hitting shots in there that were spinning. Typically, sometimes you get to, you know, Saturday at Augusta and they're bouncing. It's really difficult to hold some shots. So I thought the green speeds were lovely. I thought the green firmness was great. It was very fair, and I think that's why you're seeing a lot of, like, decent scores out there, which brings in a lot of the crowd, which is great.”

To Day’s point, it is great for the patrons on the grounds and casual fans at home who tune into golf once a year—this week. Less so for the hardcore golf watcher who was told in the leadup to Thursday that an old school U.S. Open was about to break out at Augusta National. That’s the part that hurts—being promised one thing and getting delivered something entirely different. Like when a restaurant dish looks five-star in the picture on the menu and comes out looking like dog food. Only in this case, there is no sending the meal back.

To be clear, this will likely wind up being a phenomenal finish on Sunday. It almost always is. What was supposed to be a Rory runaway has now turned into a title fight between him and Young. It will be cinema. And, as Scheffler pointed out in his post-round presser, Augusta National will figure it out. On Friday and Saturday, however, they seemed to have lost the plot.

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