Golf's four major men's championships -- the Masters, US Open, British Open Championship and PGA Championship -- all now have modern playoff formats designed to make sure a champion is crowned on Sunday (or whenever the final round is played and completed).
However, each major championship has a slightly different format, which means that ties for the lead in each of the major championships are settled in slightly different ways.
The USGA, which runs the US Open, in 2018 changed the US Open playoff format to a two-hole, aggregate-score playoff, ending the practice of 18- or 36-hole playoffs for the prior 33 playoffs in the 123-year history of the national championship. In the event of a tie after two holes, then the playoff becomes a sudden-death playoff for each subsequent hole played until a winner is determined by the score on a single hole. This is also the playoff format for the US Women's Open and US Senior Open.
With that change, the US Open joined the British Open Championship and PGA Championship in going to multi-hole, aggregate-score playoff formats.
The R&A, which runs The Open (also known colloquially as the British Open) went to a four-hole, aggregate-score playoff which was first used in 1989 when Mark Calcavecchia won the claret jug. However, in 2019, the British Open playoff format changed to a three-hole, aggregate-score playoff.
The PGA Championship playoff format is a three-hole, aggregate-score playoff, which it first employed in 2000, when Tiger Woods beat Bob May by a shot at Valhalla in Kentucky.
The Masters playoff format remains sudden death, typically beginning on the 18th hole before eventually going to the 10th hole in a mini-loop. The Masters is the only men's major championship to start under sudden-death rules.
