Here's How the 2026 Masters Would Be Decided in a Playoff

Should the 90th Masters remain tied after 72 holes, the tension will be ratcheted even higher.

The Masters uses a sudden-death playoff if the competition is tied after 72 holes. | Peter Casey-Imagn Images

AUGUSTA — If more than 72 holes are needed to decide the winner of the 90th Masters, a unique format in major championship golf will be used.

The Masters is the only major to employ a sudden-death playoff, where competitors play one hole at a time until a champion is decided. Rory McIlroy won a playoff last year over Justin Rose to get his long-awaited green jacket and complete the career Grand Slam.

At Augusta National, the first playoff hole is the par-4 18th, and if players remain tied they go to the par-4 10th hole. Those two holes continue until a champion is decided. That's a change from how the playoff used to be run, where players would begin on the 10th hole and continue through the second nine. Larry Mize's famous chip-in to win a playoff at the 1987 Masters came at the 11th hole, down in Amen Corner.

No Masters playoff has gone past two holes since sudden death was adopted.

The British Open uses a four-hole aggregate playoff, last seen in 2015 when Zach Johnson defeated Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen at St. Andrews. 

The PGA Championship last had a playoff in 2022, when Justin Thomas defeated Will Zalatoris in the three-hole aggregate.

The U.S. Open switched to a two-hole playoff years ago but has yet to use it. Its last playoff came in 2008 at Torrey Pines, where Tiger Woods defeated Rocco Mediate after an 18-hole Monday playoff and then one hole of sudden death. Today 18-hole playoffs have been phased out of all major championships.