1972 Masters Tournament

The 1972 Masters Tournament was the 36th Masters Tournament, held April 6–9 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

1972 Masters Tournament

Front cover of the 1972 Masters Guide
Tournament information
Dates	April 6–9, 1972
Location	Augusta, Georgia 33.503°N 82.020°W / 33.503; -82.020
Course(s)	Augusta National Golf Club
Organized by	Augusta National Golf Club
Tour(s)	PGA Tour
Statistics
Par	72
Length	6,980 yards (6,383 m)[1]
Field	84 players, 47 after cut
Cut	151 (+7)
Winner's share	$25,000
Champion
Jack Nicklaus
286 (−2)
Location map
Augusta National Location in the United States Show map of the United States Augusta National Location in Georgia Show map of Georgia
← 1971 1973 →

Jack Nicklaus opened with a 68 and led wire-to-wire to win the fourth^[2] of his six Masters titles, three strokes ahead of three runners-up.^[3] It was the tenth of 18 major titles as a professional for Nicklaus, who also won the U.S. Open in 1972 and was the runner-up at the Open Championship in Scotland, one stroke behind Lee Trevino.

It was the first Masters played without founder Bobby Jones, who died in December 1971 at age 69. This Masters was also the debut of twenty-year-old Ben Crenshaw of the University of Texas, a future two-time champion who was low amateur at 295 (T19).

Banned from the last five Masters, commentator Jack Whitaker returned to the CBS telecast in 1972. At the end of the 18-hole Monday playoff in 1966, he had referred to the portion of the gallery trailing the players as a "mob."^[4][5]

Nicklaus became the third wire-to-wire winner in Masters history, following Craig Wood in 1941 and Arnold Palmer in 1960. Through 2016, there have been five; the next were Raymond Floyd in 1976 and Jordan Spieth in 2015.

Field

1. Masters champions

George Archer (9,11), Billy Casper (8,10,11,12), Charles Coody (8,12), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby (11), Ralph Guldahl, Herman Keiser, Jack Nicklaus (2,3,4,8,9,10,11,12), Arnold Palmer (8,11,12), Gary Player (3,8,10,11), Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Art Wall Jr.

• Gay Brewer (9), Jack Burke Jr., Jimmy Demaret, Claude Harmon, Ben Hogan, Cary Middlecoff, Byron Nelson and Henry Picard did not play. Brewer was hospitalized in Augusta for ulcers on Wednesday night and missed the tournament.^[6][7][8]

The following categories only apply to Americans

2. U.S. Open champions (last five years)

Orville Moody (8), Lee Trevino (3,9,11,12)

3. The Open champions (last five years)

4. PGA champions (last five years)

Julius Boros, Raymond Floyd (8,9), Don January (8), Dave Stockton (8,11,12)

5. The first eight finishers in the 1971 U.S. Amateur

Rick Bendall (a), Ben Crenshaw (a), Tom Culligan (a), Vinny Giles (7,a), Jim McLean (a), Eddie Pearce (a), Marty West (a)

6. Previous two U.S. Amateur and Amateur champions

• Steve Melnyk (7,8) and Lanny Wadkins (7,9) forfeited their exemptions by turning professional but qualified in other categories.

7. Members of the 1971 U.S. Walker Cup team

William C. Campbell (a), John Farquhar (a), Jim Gabrielsen (a), Bill Hyndman (a), Tom Kite (a), Jim Simons (9,a)

• Allen Miller forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1971 Masters Tournament

Tommy Aaron, Frank Beard (11,12), Dave Eichelberger (11), Al Geiberger, Bert Greene, Hale Irwin (11), Dick Lotz, Steve Melnyk, Johnny Miller (9,11), Bobby Mitchell (11), Bob Murphy, Ken Still, Tom Weiskopf (11)

• Gene Littler (11,12) had been diagnosed with cancer and did not play.

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1971 U.S. Open

Jim Colbert, Jerry Heard (11), Larry Hinson, Jerry McGee, Bobby Nichols, Chi-Chi Rodríguez, Bob Rosburg (11), Lanny Wadkins, Bert Yancey

10. Top eight players and ties from 1971 PGA Championship

Miller Barber (11,12), Tommy Bolt, Gibby Gilbert, Dave Hill, Jim Jamieson

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Homero Blancas, Gardner Dickinson (12), Hubert Green, Paul Harney, Labron Harris Jr., Grier Jones, DeWitt Weaver

12. Members of the U.S. 1971 Ryder Cup team

Mason Rudolph, J. C. Snead

13. Foreign invitations

Harry Bannerman, Brian Barnes, Bob Charles (9), Bobby Cole (9), Gary Cowan (5,6,a), Bruce Crampton (8,11), Roberto De Vicenzo (3,8), Bruce Devlin (8), David Graham, Hsieh Yung-yo, Tony Jacklin (2,3,11), Takaaki Kono, Lu Liang-Huan, Peter Oosterhuis, Masashi Ozaki, Ramón Sota

• Numbers in brackets indicate categories that the player would have qualified under had they been American.

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 6, 1972

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Jack Nicklaus	68	−4
2	Sam Snead	69	−3
3	Arnold Palmer	70	−2
T4	Paul Harney	71	−1
	Jim Simons (a)
T6	Frank Beard	72	E
	Bob Charles
	Bruce Crampton
	Gibby Gilbert
	Tony Jacklin
	Jim Jamieson
	Steve Melnyk
	Bobby Nichols
	Lanny Wadkins
	Bert Yancey

Source^[9]

Second round

Friday, April 7, 1972

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Jack Nicklaus	68-71=139	−5
2	Paul Harney	71-69=140	−4
3	Bert Yancey	72-69=141	−3
4	Jim Jamieson	72-70=142	−2
T5	Charles Coody	73-70=143	−1
	Bobby Nichols	72-71=143
T7	Roberto De Vicenzo	75-69=144	E
	Jerry Heard	73-71=144
	Steve Melnyk	72-72=144
	Sam Snead	69-75=144
	Lanny Wadkins	72-72=144

Source^[10]

Third round

Saturday, April 8, 1972

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Jack Nicklaus	68-71-73=212	−4
2	Jim Jamieson	72-70-71=213	−3
T3	Paul Harney	71-69-75=215	−1
	Tom Weiskopf	74-71-70=215
T5	Homero Blancas	76-71-69=216	E
	Bruce Crampton	72-75-69=216
	Jerry Heard	73-71-72=216
	Bobby Mitchell	73-72-71=216
T9	Charles Coody	73-70-74=217	+1
	Bert Yancey	72-69-76=217

Source^[11]

Final round

Sunday, April 9, 1972

Final leaderboard

Champion

Silver Cup winner (low amateur)

(a) = amateur

(c) = past champion

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Jack Nicklaus (c)	68-71-73-74=286	−2	25,000
T2	Bruce Crampton	72-75-69-73=289	+1	15,833
	Bobby Mitchell	73-72-71-73=289
	Tom Weiskopf	74-71-70-74=289
T5	Homero Blancas	76-71-69-74=290	+2	6,200
	Bruce Devlin	74-75-70-71=290
	Jerry Heard	73-71-72-74=290
	Jim Jamieson	72-70-71-77=290
	Jerry McGee	73-74-71-72=290
T10	Gary Player (c)	73-75-72-71=291	+3	3,600
	Dave Stockton	76-70-74-71=291

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T12	George Archer (c)	73-75-72-72=292	+4	3,100
	Charles Coody (c)	73-70-74-75=292
	Al Geiberger	76-70-74-72=292
	Steve Melnyk	72-72-74-74=292
	Bert Yancey	72-69-76-75=292
T17	Billy Casper (c)	75-71-74-74=294	+6	2,750
	Bob Goalby (c)	73-76-72-73=294
T19	Ben Crenshaw (a)	73-74-74-74=295	+7	0
	Takaaki Kono	76-72-73-74=295		2,500
	Lanny Wadkins	72-72-77-74=295
T22	Bob Charles	72-76-74-74=296	+8	2,160
	Roberto De Vicenzo	75-69-76-76=296
	Gardner Dickinson	77-72-73-74=296
	Hubert Green	75-74-74-73=296
	Paul Harney	71-69-75-81=296
T27	Tony Jacklin	72-76-75-74=297	+9	1,750
	Tom Kite (a)	74-74-76-73=297		0
	Sam Snead (c)	69-75-76-77=297		1,750
30	J. C. Snead	74-77-72-75=298	+10	1,750
T31	Bert Greene	75-75-77-72=299	+11	1,750
	Bobby Nichols	72-71-80-76=299
T33	Harry Bannerman	78-72-72-78=300	+12	1,675
	Grier Jones	73-75-76-76=300
	Arnold Palmer (c)	70-75-74-81=300
	Lee Trevino	75-76-77-72=300
37	Lu Liang-Huan	75-72-80-74=301	+13	1,675
T38	Gibby Gilbert	72-76-74-81=303	+15	1,675
	Peter Oosterhuis	74-76-80-73=303
40	Ken Still	74-77-77-76=304	+16	1,675
T41	Frank Beard	72-79-79-76=306	+18	1,600
	Jim Simons (a)	71-79-76-80=306		0
T43	Jim McLean (a)	75-75-78-79=307	+19
	Bob Murphy	75-76-77-79=307		1,600
T45	Larry Hinson	77-74-79-78=308	+20	1,600
	Bob Rosburg	74-73-83-78=308
47	DeWitt Weaver	74-76-81-79=310	+22	1,600
CUT	Rick Bendall (a)	77-75=152	+8
	Julius Boros	77-75=152
	Hale Irwin	81-71=152
	Don January	75-77=152
	Johnny Miller	76-76=152
	Mason Rudolph	74-78=152
	Art Wall Jr. (c)	77-75=152
	Tommy Bolt	76-77=153	+9
	Chi-Chi Rodríguez	74-79=153
	Tommy Aaron	78-76=154	+10
	Doug Ford (c)	76-78=154
	Labron Harris Jr.	79-75=154
	Dave Hill	76-78=154
	Masashi Ozaki	74-80=154
	Eddie Pearce (a)	79-75=154
	Bobby Cole	78-77=155	+11
	Dave Eichelberger	78-77=155
	David Graham	76-79=155
	Hsieh Yung-yo	79-76=155
	Dick Lotz	77-78=155
	Vinny Giles (a)	78-78=156	+12
	Miller Barber	75-82=157	+13
	Jim Colbert	74-83=157
	Ramón Sota	78-79=157
	Marty West (a)	80-77=157
	Gary Cowan (a)	76-82=158	+14
	Raymond Floyd	76-82=158
	Gene Sarazen (c)	79-79=158
	Tom Culligan (a)	78-81=159	+15
	Jim Gabrielsen (a)	81-78=159
	Herman Keiser (c)	80-79=159
	Bill Hyndman (a)	75-85=160	+16
	Orville Moody	80-81=161	+17
	Brian Barnes	85-80=165	+21
	John Farquhar (a)	84-81=165
	Ralph Guldahl (c)	89-80=169	+25
WD	William C. Campbell (a)	75	+3

Sources:^[12][13]

Scorecard

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	5	4	3	4	3	4	5	4	4	4	3	5	4	5	3	4	4
Nicklaus	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−3	−2	−2	−2	−2
Crampton	−1	−1	E	E	E	E	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1
Mitchell	E	E	E	E	+1	+1	+2	+1	+1	+1	E	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1
Weiskopf	E	E	+1	+2	+2	+2	+1	+1	+1	+2	+3	+3	+3	+3	+2	+2	+1	+1
Blancas	E	E	E	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+3	+3	+3	+2	+2	+1	+1	+2	+2
Heard	−1	−1	E	−1	E	+1	+1	+2	+1	+1	+1	E	+1	+1	+1	+2	+2	+2
Jamieson	−2	−3	−2	−2	−1	−1	E	E	E	E	+1	+3	+2	+2	+1	+2	+1	+2
Harney	E	+1	+1	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+1	+1	+1	+3	+4	+5	+7	+7	+8

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey