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How does sudden-death playoff work?

Author

William Rodriguez

Published Jan 19, 2026

Sudden death is the most common playoff format in stroke play tournaments and even more so in match play tournaments. The tied participants play one extra hole at a time, with those still tied for the lowest score moving on to the next hole until a winner has been determined.

What is sudden death in golf playoff?

If the tournament ends in a tie today, a sudden-death format will decide the winner. The Masters is the only major that employs sudden death to determine a winner in the event of a tie. Sudden-death playoffs used to begin at No. 10, but now the Masters starts them on No.

How does a playoff work in golf?

All players that are tied atop the leaderboard after the final round will face off the next day in a full 18-hole playoff. If players are still tied after the additional 18-holes, they will then continue to play in a sudden-death format until a winner is announced.

How many holes are in sudden death in golf?

The low score among the players when you add up all three holes is the winner. But what if if there's still a tie after the three holes? Then the PGA of America does switch to hole-by-hole sudden death.

Has a golf tournament ever ended in a tie?

It takes place every other year. The 2021 Ryder Cup was the 43rd time the competition was played. But there have been only two ties in Ryder Cup history: 1969 Ryder Cup: They played 32 matches then, and the score ended at 16-16.

21 related questions found

What was the longest playoff in golf history?

The longest playoff of all time came at the 1931 US Open, when Billy Burke needed 72 holes to defeat George Von Elm. The two were tied on 292 after 72 holes of regulation play.

What is the most playoff holes in PGA history?

Here's a look at the longest playoffs in PGA Tour history.

  • 11 holes. The 1949 Motor City Open: Cary Middlecoff and Lloyd Mangrum -- both major champions and World Golf Hall of Famers -- finished regulation of the 1949 Motor City Open in Detroit knotted at 11-under 273. ...
  • 8 holes.

What happens to prize money when golfers tie?

If golfers are tied, they split the earnings awarded to all finishing positions from their finisihing position plus the number of golfers golfers with whom they are tied. For example, two golfers tie for second, they split the money paid out to 2nd place and 3rd place. Amateurs do not receive earnings.

How do they determine who goes first in a golf playoff?

The playoff is scheduled for three holes, with aggregate score determining the winner after the third extra hole. If two or more golfers remain tied after three holes, those golfers continue playing sudden-death: one hole at a time, until one of them wins a hole outright.

How many holes are played in a PGA tournament?

PGA Tour events are 72-hole tournaments, with 18 holes played per day. So, barring delays due to poor weather, the 36-hole cut takes place following completion of the second round.

Do all golfers that make the cut get paid?

In 2017, every professional who missed the cut was paid $10,000. At the US Open, the players who miss the 36-hole cut each earn $10,000. At the PGA Championship, the players who miss the 36-hole cut are also paid, earning $3,200 each.

Do all golfers get paid in tournaments?

Each PGA Tour event has a purse, which is the total amount of money paid out to the field of players. The tournament then pays each individual player by the order in which they finished.

How are the winnings split at the Masters?

The winner will take home $2.7 million, up from the $2.07 million Hideki Matsuyama earned last year. Second and third place will each earn seven-figure checks, with the runner-up taking home $1.62 million and third $1.02 million. Horton Smith earned $1,500 for his win at the first-ever Masters.

What is the most sudden death rounds in golf?

The tour record for a sudden death playoff is 11 holes in the 1949 Motor City Open, when Lloyd Mangrum and Cary Middlecoff were declared co-winners by mutual agreement due to darkness; four other events have reached an eighth playoff hole.

Who is the longest on the PGA Tour?

However, since we first published this post, the PGA Tour has revised the figures from the 2002 Mercedes, dropping 27 drives from that tournament off the official record. The official longest drive in PGA Tour history belongs to Davis Love III, who hit a 476-yard drive on No.

What is the most golfers in a playoff?

The PGA TOUR record for most players in a sudden-death playoff is six (twice): 2001 The Genesis Invitational 1994 AT&T Byron Nelson There have been 10 playoffs with five players, most recently at The RSM Classic in 2016.

How are playoff holes determined?

The new format for any playoff in a USGA open championship is two-hole aggregate, meaning the low score after two extra holes is the winner. If two or more players are still tied after those two holes, it goes to sudden death.

What is a 2 hole aggregate playoff?

The new US Open playoff format is a two-hole, aggregate-score playoff which begins immediately after the completion of 72-hole stroke play. Whichever players are tied for the lead at the end of regulation will play two holes at the host course, and the total score will determine the winner.

How much does it cost to play in the Masters?

An individual entry fee of $400 is paid by almost all the professional golfers participating in a pre-tournament qualifying event. Nationwide Tour and Champions players pay $100 each, whereas non-exempt PHA Tour members do not pay any entry fee.

How much does the winner get for winning the Masters?

1 golfer, Scottie Scheffler, won the Masters Tournament Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club. For the victory, Scheffler received the iconic green jacket, a replica winner's trophy and coin. He also got a hefty paycheck. The winner's share of this year's tournament was $2.7 million.

How much do caddies make at the Masters?

Most Money Made By a Caddie During the Masters

With this in mind, the winning caddy will receive $207,000 for their efforts in addition to the weekly salary they agreed upon with their golfer. As a result, a caddy can make around $210,000 during the Masters.

Do caddies get paid if player misses cut?

"If the player misses the cut, the caddie still has to get a paycheck because the caddie pays for all of his own expenses — airfare, hotel, car, food, all of it." "If the guy makes the cut, the standard is 10-7-5 — 10% for a win, 7% for a top 10, 5% for everything else," Collins said.

How much does Tiger Woods caddy make?

Just ask Joe LaCava, Woods' caddie. Woods earned $5.4 million on the tour in 2018, so estimating LaCava's take based on the going rate is fairly straightforward. The caddie likely earned somewhere between $272,192 and $544,384 for the year, on top of the money he earned from weekly salaries.

Do caddies pay their own expenses?

How does the business arrangement typically work? Professionals' caddies, just like the golfers for whom they work, are self-employed, independent contractors responsible for paying their own expenses.

Do players that miss the cut at the Masters get paid?

Last year, the lowest-scoring player who made the cut earned $28,980. Even those who miss the cut, excluding amateurs, still get a $10,000 consolation prize. The Masters champion typically gets an 18% cut of the purse money.