1977 Masters Tournament

The 1977 Masters Tournament was the 41st Masters Tournament, held April 7–10 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

1977 Masters Tournament

Front cover of the 1977 Masters Guide
Tournament information
Dates	April 7–10, 1977
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	7,030 yards (6,428 m)[1]
Field	77 players, 50 after cut[2]
Cut	149 (+5)
Winner's share	$40,000
Champion
Tom Watson
276 (−12)
Location map
Augusta National Location in the United States Show map of the United States Augusta National Location in Georgia Show map of Georgia
← 1976 1978 →

Tom Watson, age 27, won the first of his two green jackets, two strokes ahead of runner-up Jack Nicklaus.^[3][4][5] The two were tied after 68 holes, then Watson birdied the par-4 17th. Needing a birdie to tie, Nicklaus bogeyed the final hole, one of 19 times in his career that he was the runner-up in a major championship.^[6][7] It was the second of Watson's eight major championships, and he won a second Masters in 1981.^[8]

The pair again dueled for a major title in the final round in July in Scotland, at the Open Championship at Turnberry, also won by Watson.

Although he had won a major in 1975 and led the PGA Tour in season earnings entering this Masters,^[9] Watson had been labeled a "choker" early in his pro career, known for relinquishing leads in the final round of majors and regular events.^[3][4][5] Notable among these was the U.S. Open in 1974 at Winged Foot;^[10] his win here and in Scotland put that to rest.

Field

1. Masters champions

Tommy Aaron, George Archer (11), Gay Brewer (8), Billy Casper (8,12), Charles Coody (8,10), Raymond Floyd (8,9,10,12), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus (2,4,8,9,10,11,12), Arnold Palmer, Gary Player (3,4), Sam Snead, Art Wall Jr.

• Jack Burke Jr., Jimmy Demaret, Ralph Guldahl, Claude Harmon, Ben Hogan, Herman Keiser, Cary Middlecoff, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard, and Gene Sarazen did not play.

The following categories only apply to Americans

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

Lou Graham (8,12), Hale Irwin (8,12), Johnny Miller (3,8,9,12), Jerry Pate (9,10,11)

3. The Open champions (last five years)

Tom Watson (9,11), Tom Weiskopf (8,9,10,12)

• Lee Trevino (4,11,12) was recovering from back surgery and did not play

4. PGA champions (last five years)

Dave Stockton (10)

5. 1976 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists

James T. Mason (a), Cary Parker Moore Jr. (a), Bill Sander (6,7,a), Stan Souza (a)

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

Vinny Giles (a), Fred Ridley (7,a), Dick Siderowf (7,a)

7. Members of the 1976 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team

John Fought (a)

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1976 Masters Tournament

Buddy Allin (11), Jim Colbert, Ben Crenshaw (9,10,11), Al Geiberger (9,11,12), Hubert Green (9), Dave Hill (11), Tom Kite (11), Gene Littler (12), Roger Maltbie (11), Rik Massengale (11), Jerry McGee (10), Curtis Strange, Larry Ziegler (11)

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1976 U.S. Open

Butch Baird (11), Rod Funseth, Mark Hayes (11), Don January (10,11), Lyn Lott, Mike Morley, Andy North, J. C. Snead (11,12)

• John Mahaffey was injured and did not play

10. Top eight players and ties from 1976 PGA Championship

Gil Morgan, John Schlee

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Andy Bean, Woody Blackburn, Danny Edwards, Lee Elder, Gibby Gilbert, Joe Inman, Gary Koch, Billy Kratzert, Bruce Lietzke, Mac McLendon, Tom Purtzer, Bob Wynn

• Blackburn and Kratzert were the winners of the Walt Disney World National Team Championship. Subsequent winners of this pairs event did not receive an invitation.

12. Members of the U.S. 1975 Ryder Cup team

Bob Murphy

13. Foreign invitations

Isao Aoki, Seve Ballesteros, Bruce Devlin (8), David Graham (10,11), Dale Hayes (8), Tommy Horton, John Lister (11), Graham Marsh (8,11), Takashi Murakami, Jack Newton, Christy O'Connor Jnr, Peter Oosterhuis (8), Bob Shearer

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

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 7, 1977

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Hubert Green	67	−5
T2	Don January	69	−3
	Billy Kratzert
T4	Hale Irwin	70	−2
	Tom Kite
	Rik Massengale
	Jerry Pate
	Tom Watson
T9	Buddy Allin	71	−1
	Ben Crenshaw
	Raymond Floyd
	Mark Hayes
	Dave Hill
	Gene Littler
	Gary Player

Source:^[11]

Second round

Friday, April 8, 1977

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Rod Funseth	72-67=139	−5
	Tom Watson	70-69=139
T3	Ben Crenshaw	71-69=140	−4
	Billy Kratzert	69-71=140
T5	Hubert Green	67-74=141	−3
	Gary Player	71-70=141
	Bob Shearer	74-67=141
T8	David Graham	75-67=142	−2
	Mac McLendon	72-70=142
	Jack Nicklaus	72-70=142
	Jerry Pate	70-72=142

Source:^[1][2][12]

Third round

Saturday, April 9, 1977

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Ben Crenshaw	71-69-69=209	−7
	Tom Watson	70-69-70=209
3	Rik Massengale	70-73-67=210	−6
T4	Jim Colbert	72-71-69=212	−4
	Jack Nicklaus	72-70-70=212
T6	Rod Funseth	72-67-74=213	−3
	Hubert Green	67-74-72=213
	Tom Kite	70-73-70=213
	Gary Player	71-70-72=213
T10	Danny Edwards	72-74-68=214	−2
	Raymond Floyd	71-72-71=214
	Hale Irwin	70-74-70=214
	Don January	69-76-69=214

Source:^[13]

Final round

Sunday, April 10, 1977

Final leaderboard

Champion

Silver Cup winner (low amateur)

(a) = amateur

(c) = past champion

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Tom Watson	70-69-70-67=276	−12	40,000
2	Jack Nicklaus (c)	72-70-70-66=278	−10	30,000
T3	Tom Kite	70-73-70-67=280	−8	17,500
	Rik Massengale	70-73-67-70=280
5	Hale Irwin	70-74-70-68=282	−6	12,500
T6	David Graham	75-67-73-69=284	−4	10,500
	Lou Graham	75-71-69-69=284
T8	Ben Crenshaw	71-69-69-76=285	−3	5,667
	Raymond Floyd (c)	71-72-71-71=285
	Hubert Green	67-74-72-72=285
	Don January	69-76-69-71=285
	Gene Littler	71-72-73-69=285
	John Schlee	75-73-69-68=285

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T14	Billy Casper (c)	72-72-73-69=286	−2	3,000
	Jim Colbert	72-71-69-74=286
	Rod Funseth	72-67-74-73=286
	Jerry Pate	70-72-74-70=286
	Tom Weiskopf	73-71-71-71=286
T19	George Archer (c)	74-74-69-70=287	−1	2,500
	Andy Bean	74-70-71-72=287
	Danny Edwards	72-74-68-73=287
	Lee Elder	76-68-72-71=287
	Gary Player (c)	71-70-72-74=287
T24	Billy Kratzert	69-71-78-70=288	E	2,200
	Andy North	74-74-71-69=288
	Arnold Palmer (c)	76-71-71-70=288
	Bob Wynn	75-73-70-70=288
T28	Isao Aoki	73-76-70-70=289	+1	2,000
	Bruce Lietzke	73-71-72-73=289
	Jerry McGee	73-73-72-71=289
T31	Graham Marsh	77-72-72-69=290	+2	1,975
	Bob Murphy	74-72-71-73=290
T33	Seve Ballesteros	74-75-70-72=291	+3	1,950
	Mark Hayes	71-72-72-76=291
T35	Tommy Aaron (c)	73-72-73-74=292	+4	1,925
	Johnny Miller	78-71-69-74=292
	Bob Shearer	74-67-75-76=292
	Art Wall Jr. (c)	75-74-71-72=292
T39	Dave Hill	71-72-76-74=293	+5	1,900
	J. C. Snead	72-76-73-72=293
	Dave Stockton	73-72-75-73=293
T42	Buddy Allin	71-74-75-74=294	+6	1,875
	Bruce Devlin	75-69-77-73=294
	Gary Koch	78-71-72-73=294
45	Mac McLendon	72-70-78-75=295	+7	1,850
T46	Lyn Lott	76-72-77-71=296	+8	1,825
	Peter Oosterhuis	73-75-76-72=296
48	Mike Morley	75-73-73-76=297	+9	1,800
49	Bill Sander (a)	80-69-78-72=299	+11	0
50	John Fought (a)	73-74-78-78=303	+15
CUT	Charles Coody (c)	72-78=150	+6
	Al Geiberger	76-74=150
	Bob Goalby (c)	76-74=150
	Dale Hayes	75-75=150
	Joe Inman	75-75=150
	Tom Purtzer	75-75=150
	Butch Baird	76-75=151	+7
	John Lister	80-71=151
	James T. Mason (a)	76-75=151
	Takashi Murakami	78-73=151
	Dick Siderowf (a)	76-75=151
	Gay Brewer (c)	78-74=152	+8
	Gibby Gilbert	76-76=152
	Tommy Horton	77-75=152
	Cary Parker Moore Jr. (a)	76-76=152
	Gil Morgan	73-79=152
	Woody Blackburn	74-79=153	+9
	Roger Maltbie	77-76=153
	Jack Newton	76-77=153
	Curtis Strange	79-74=153
	Doug Ford (c)	77-77=154	+10
	Fred Ridley (a)	76-78=154
	Larry Ziegler	83-71=154
	Christy O'Connor Jnr	78-79=157	+13
	Stan Souza (a)	75-83=158	+14
	Vinny Giles (a)	82-79=161	+17
WD	Sam Snead (c)	83	+11

Sources:^[14][15]

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
Watson	−7	−7	−7	−7	−8	−9	−10	−11	−11	−10	−10	−10	−11	−10	−11	−11	−12	−12
Nicklaus	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−8	−8	−9	−10	−10	−11	−11	−11	−10
Massengale	−6	−7	−7	−7	−8	−8	−9	−10	−10	−9	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8
Crenshaw	−7	−6	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−2	−2	−2	−3	−3	−3	−3

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey

Triple bogey+

Source:^[4][7]

References

1. "Funseth fires 67 for lead". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. April 9, 1977. p. 17.
2. "Will Watson choke on the Masters?". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). wire reports. April 9, 1977. p. 1C.
3. Condon, David (April 11, 1977). "Watson doesn't wilt this time". Chicago Tribune. p. 1, sec. 6.
4. Parascenzo, Mario (April 11, 1977). "Watson Masters Augusta - self". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 14.
5. "No choking for Watson". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. April 11, 1977. p. 19.
6. Jenkins, Dan (April 18, 1977). "What a beauty of a Masters". Sports Illustrated. p. 24.
7. "Watson Masters Nicklaus by 2". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. April 11, 1977. p. 1-part 2.
8. Jenkins, Dan (April 20, 1981). "True Grit at Augusta". Sports Illustrated. p. 34.
9. "PGA Top money winners". Chicago Tribune. April 5, 1977. p. 6, sec. 4.
10. Jenkins, Dan (June 24, 1974). "Hale Irwin, sole survivor". Sports Illustrated. p. 18.
11. "Youth can't overcome Green at Masters". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. April 8, 1977. p. 1B.
12. "Golf: Masters, second round". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 9, 1977. p. 8.
13. "Crenshaw, Watson tied in scramble at Masters". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). wire reports. April 10, 1977. p. 3B.
14. "Masters – Past Winners & Results". Augusta National Inc. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
15. "Past results – Masters tournament". PGA Tour. Retrieved April 20, 2021.

External links

• Masters.com – past winners
• Augusta.com – 1977 Masters leaderboard and scorecards