1976 Masters Tournament

The 1976 Masters Tournament was the 40th Masters Tournament, held April 8–11 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

1976 Masters Tournament

Tournament information
Dates	April 8–11, 1976
Location	Augusta, Georgia
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	72 players, 47 after cut
Cut	150 (+6)
Winner's share	$40,000
Champion
Raymond Floyd
271 (−17)

Augusta 

Location in the United States

Raymond Floyd won his only Masters title, eight strokes ahead of runner-up Ben Crenshaw.[2] He shot a 131 (−13) over the first two rounds,[3] then posted two rounds of 70 on the weekend to tie Jack Nicklaus' record of 271 (−17), set in 1965.[1] In the first three rounds, Floyd was under-par on every par-5, with eleven birdies and an eagle, and his 54-hole total of 201 (−15) was the lowest ever. Defending champion Nicklaus was the nearest pursuer, eight shots back at 209.[4] It was the second of Floyd's four major titles. Tiger Woods broke the 72-hole record by a stroke 21 years later in 1997 with 270 (−18), which was tied by Jordan Spieth in 2015.

Beginning with this Masters, a sudden-death playoff format was introduced, and originally planned to start at the first hole.[5] After three years without use, it was changed to begin on the 10th hole in 1979;[6] used for the first time that year, it ended on the eleventh green. In 2004, the playoff was changed to start on the 18th hole and then alternate with the adjacent 10th hole.[7] Prior to 1976, playoffs were full 18-hole rounds on Monday, and the last was won by Billy Casper in 1970. The first playoff in 1935 was the exception at 36 holes.

Floyd was the fourth wire-to-wire winner in Masters history, following Craig Wood in 1941, Arnold Palmer in 1960, and Nicklaus in 1972. The next was Jordan Spieth, 39 years later, in 2015.

Field

1. Masters champions

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

• 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 (9,12), Hale Irwin (8,9,10,11,12), Johnny Miller (8,11,12), Lee Trevino (3,4,8,12)

3. The Open champions (last five years)

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

4. PGA champions (last five years)

5. 1975 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists

Henri DeLozier (a), Keith Fergus (a), Fred Ridley (6,a)

• Andy Bean forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

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

Vinny Giles (7,a)

• Jerry Pate (7) forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

7. Members of the 1975 U.S. Walker Cup team

William C. Campbell (a), John Grace (a), Jay Haas (a), Dick Siderowf (a), Curtis Strange (a)

• George Burns, Gary Koch, and Craig Stadler forfeited their exemptions by turning professional.

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1975 Masters Tournament

Buddy Allin, Rod Curl, Pat Fitzsimons (9), Hubert Green (11), Dave Hill (10,11), Ralph Johnston, Tom Kite, Gene Littler (10,11,12), Allen Miller, Bobby Nichols, J. C. Snead (11,12), Larry Ziegler

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1975 U.S. Open

Frank Beard, Ben Crenshaw (11), Joe Inman, John Mahaffey, Rik Massengale (11), Bob Murphy (12), Eddie Pearce, Jim Wiechers

10. Top eight players and ties from 1975 PGA Championship

Andy North

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Don Bies, Jim Colbert, Ray Floyd (12), Al Geiberger (12), Bob Gilder, Don Iverson, Don January, Tom Jenkins, Roger Maltbie, Jerry McGee, Dean Refram

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

13. Foreign invitations

Hugh Baiocchi (8), Maurice Bembridge, Bobby Cole (8), Bruce Crampton (10,11), Bruce Devlin (8), Priscillo Diniz (a), Dale Hayes, Graham Marsh (8), Takashi Murakami, Jack Newton, Peter Oosterhuis (9), Masashi Ozaki, Bob Shearer

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

Nationalities in the field

North America (58)	South America (1)	Europe (2)	Oceania (5)	Asia (2)	Africa (4)
United States (58)	Brazil (1)	England (2)	Australia (5)	Japan (2)	South Africa (4)

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Player	Country	Year(s) won	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total	To par	Finish
Jack Nicklaus	United States	1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975	67	69	73	73	282	−6	T3
Charles Coody	United States	1971	72	69	70	74	285	−3	T5
Billy Casper	United States	1970	71	76	71	69	287	−1	8
Gay Brewer	United States	1967	75	74	71	73	293	+5	T23
Gary Player	South Africa	1961, 1974	73	73	70	79	295	+7	T28
Art Wall, Jr.	United States	1959	74	71	75	75	295	+7	T28
Tommy Aaron	United States	1973	73	76	77	74	300	+12	42

Missed the cut

Player	Country	Year(s) won	R1	R2	Total	To par
Sam Snead	United States	1949, 1952, 1954	72	79	151	+7
Bob Goalby	United States	1968	76	75	151	+7
George Archer	United States	1969	74	79	153	+9
Doug Ford	United States	1957	74	80	154	+10
Arnold Palmer	United States	1958, 1960, 1962, 1964	74	81	155	+11

Source:[8]

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 8, 1976

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Raymond Floyd	United States	65	−7
2	Andy North	United States	66	−6
T3	Jack Nicklaus	United States	67	−5
	Larry Ziegler	United States
5	Lou Graham	United States	68	−4
T6	Bud Allin	United States	69	−3
	Dave Hill	United States
T8	Ben Crenshaw	United States	70	−2
	Rod Curl	United States
	Rik Massengale	United States

Source:[9]

Second round

Friday, April 9, 1976

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Raymond Floyd	United States	65-66=131	−13
2	Jack Nicklaus	United States	67-69=136	−8
3	Hubert Green	United States	71-66=137	−7
4	Larry Ziegler	United States	67-71=138	−6
T5	Ben Crenshaw	United States	70-70=140	−4
	Tom Kite	United States	73-67=140
T7	Charles Coody	United States	72-69=141	−3
	Lou Graham	United States	68-73=141
	Graham Marsh	Australia	73-68=141
T10	Dave Hill	United States	69-73=142	−2
	Rik Massengale	United States	70-72=142
	Eddie Pearce	United States	71-71=142

Source:[3]

Third round

Saturday, April 10, 1976

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Raymond Floyd	United States	65-66-70=201	−15
2	Jack Nicklaus	United States	67-69-73=209	−7
3	Larry Ziegler	United States	67-71-72=210	−6
4	Charles Coody	United States	72-69-70=211	−5
T5	Ben Crenshaw	United States	70-70-72=212	−4
	Tom Kite	United States	73-67-72=212
7	Lou Graham	United States	68-73-72=213	−3
8	Tom Weiskopf	United States	73-71-70=214	−2
T9	Hubert Green	United States	71-66-78=215	−1
	Hale Irwin	United States	71-77-67=215

Source:[4]

Final round

Sunday, April 11, 1976

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	Raymond Floyd	United States	65-66-70-70=271	−17	40,000
2	Ben Crenshaw	United States	70-70-72-67=279	−9	25,000
T3	Jack Nicklaus	United States	67-69-73-73=282	−6	16,250
	Larry Ziegler	United States	67-71-72-72=282
T5	Charles Coody	United States	72-69-70-74=285	−3	11,167
	Hale Irwin	United States	71-77-67-70=285
	Tom Kite	United States	73-67-72-73=285
8	Billy Casper	United States	71-76-71-69=287	-1	8,000
T9	Roger Maltbie	United States	72-75-70-71=288	E	6,000
	Graham Marsh	Australia	73-68-75-72=288
	Tom Weiskopf	United States	73-71-70-74=288

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
Floyd	−15	−15	−15	−14	−15	−15	−15	−15	−15	−15	−15	−16	−16	−16	−17	−17	−17	−17
Crenshaw	−3	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−8	−9	−9	−9	−9	−9
Nicklaus	−7	−7	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−6	−6	−6
Ziegler	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6	−6

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

References

1. Parascenzo, Marino (April 12, 1976). "Floyd enjoys a Sunday stroll". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 16.
2. Jenkins, Dan (April 16, 1977). "It was Ray all the way". Sports Illustrated. p. 18.
3. "Ray Floyd's 5-wood strangling Masters". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. April 10, 1976. p. 1B.
4. "Eight ahead, Floyd looks like a safe bet". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. UPI. April 11, 1976. p. 1C.
5. "Masters goes to sudden death". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Florida. Associated Press. February 6, 1976. p. 2E.
6. "In sudden death, Masters playoff shifts to no. 10". Observer-Reporter. Washington, Pennsylvania. Associated Press. April 11, 1979. p. D2.
7. "Masters playoff format is changed". CNN.com. April 7, 2004. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
8. "Golf: Masters, at Augusta". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 10, 1976. p. 10.
9. "Floyd a new man with Masters lead". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. April 9, 1976. p. 1, part 2.

External links

• Masters.com – past winners and results
• About.com: 1976 Masters
• Augusta.com – 1976 Masters leaderboard and scorecards