The Masters, regarded by many as golf’s premier tournament, tees off on Thursday 6 April at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The first Major of the year always creates huge excitement and anticipation, and this year will be no different as the top 50 players in the world fight it out to be crowned champion.
The only golf Major that is played at the same course every year, the Masters is seen as the ultimate test. Last year’s victor Scottie Scheffler finished on -10 to win by three strokes from Rory McIlroy, and having recently regained his form, he will be hoping to retain his title. However, since its inception in 1934, only three golfers have won back-to-back titles at Augusta.
Back-to-back Masters Wins:
Jack Nicklaus – 1965, 1966
Nick Faldo – 1989, 1990
Tiger Woods – 2001, 2002
Masters Favourites
According to the very latest Masters odds, favorites for the tournament include Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama, and Collin Morikawa. While many golf fans will also be betting on crowd favourite Tiger Woods, as he tries to tie Jack Nicklaus’ record of six wins.
But if there’s one thing the Masters – and golf – has taught us over the years, it’s that anything can happen. And we mean anything. Meltdowns and disasters have beset some of the best players in the world as they have closed in on a seemingly inevitable victory, but misfortune, nerves, and sheer bad luck, have all intervened to deny them a famous green jacket.
Jordan Spieth, 2016
After winning the tournament in 2015, at just 21 years of age, the golfing prodigy seemed destined to become only the fourth player ever to win back-to-back titles at Augusta. Not only that, his first green jacket was won after leading wire to wire, and he was on course to do the same thing in 2016, and become the first person ever to do so.
With only nine holes left to play, the defending champion had a five-shot lead, but bogeys at 10 and 11 were followed by a disastrous quadruple-bogey on the 12th. Swaying like a punch-drunk boxer on the ropes, Spieth valiantly tried to regain his composure and fight his way back, but it wall in vain.
He finished tied for second and three shots back from the eventual winner, England’s Danny Willet.
Rory McIlroy, 2011
The Northern Irishman started the day with a four-shot lead and led for 63 holes, only to end the day tied 15th and an incredible ten strokes back after a calamitous final round 80.
His round is famously remembered for taking viewers to parts of the Augusta course they have never seen before, most notably a wooded area near a collection of guest cabins after a shocking hook on the 10th.
McIlroy escaped with a triple-bogey and was still in with a chance, but a bogey on 11, a four-putt double on the par-three 12th and a drive into the water on 13, soon put an end to his hopes. If it had been a boxing match they would have stopped the fight there and then.
Charl Schwartzel took the title that year and McIlroy bounced back two months later to win the U.S. Open by eight shots, but still haunted by his Masters meltdown, a green jacket eludes him to this day.
McIlroy said, “I lost confidence in my putting around the turn, second-guessing lines and speed, and you can’t do that here at Augusta.”
Greg Norman, 1996
This slow but inexorable disintegration of Greg Norman’s game was almost unbearable to watch, as he managed to snatch a seemingly impossible defeat from the jaws of victory. He began the final round with a six-shot lead over eventual winner Nick Faldo, but a final round 78 left him in second place, a full five shots behind – an incredible eleven-shot swing. Norman remains the unenviable holder of the record for the largest 54-hole lead to have lost the Masters. The Australian never won the tournament, having finished second on three occasions, including the following year.
Nick Faldo later commented: “I could feel the nervousness emanating from Greg. He gripped and regripped the club, as though he could not steel himself to hit the ball.”
Roberto De Vicenzo, 1968
One of the most memorable Masters hard luck stories remains that of Argentina’s Roberto De Vicenzo. Playing the final round on his 45th birthday, De Vicenzo showed no signs of nerves as he shot a brilliant 65 to book his place in a play-off with Bob Gaolby.
Unfortunately, De Vicenzo’s birdie-3 on the 17th hole had been marked as a 4 by his playing partner, Tommy Aaron. Having bogeyed the final hole and hastily signing the scorecard without checking, De Vicenzo was denied the chance to claim victory, and instead had to make do with second place.
In his incredibly sporting and gracious runner-up speech, De Vicenzo said, “This is my fault – nobody else’s. I have played golf for many, many years. I have signed many cards and none of them wrong. All I can say is what a stupid I am to be wrong in this wonderful tournament.”
Will 2023 see another name added to the list? History tells us that nothing should surprise us when it comes to the Masters.
