1979 Masters Tournament

The 1979 Masters Tournament was the 43rd Masters Tournament, held April 12–15 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

1979 Masters Tournament

Tournament information
Dates	April 12–15, 1979
Location	Augusta, Georgia
Course(s)	Augusta National Golf Club
Organized by	Augusta National Golf Club
Tour(s)	PGA Tour
Statistics
Par	72
Length	7,040 yards (6,437 m)[1]
Field	72 players, 45 after cut
Cut	145 (+1)
Winner's share	$50,000
Champion
Fuzzy Zoeller
280 (−8), playoff

Fuzzy Zoeller won his only Masters, the first of his two major titles, with a birdie on the second hole of a playoff with Ed Sneed and Tom Watson.[2] Jack Nicklaus climbed up the leaderboard on Sunday with a 69 (−3), but bogeyed 17 to finish a stroke out of the playoff; Tom Kite had a double bogey at 16 for an even par 72 in the final round to finish fifth, three strokes back.[3]

Second and third round leader Sneed seemed to have a commanding three-shot lead with only three holes to go, but bogeyed the final three holes to card a final round 76 (+4) and fell into the playoff. It was the debut of the sudden-death format at Augusta, adopted by the Masters in 1976.[4] Its last playoff was nine years earlier in 1970, then a full 18-hole round on Monday.

The sudden-death playoff began on the tenth hole, a downhill par-4, where all three players missed birdie putts and parred. On the second hole, the par-4 11th, Sneed failed to hole a bunker shot and Watson a birdie putt, and then Zoeller made his from 6 feet (2 m) to win.[5]

Zoeller, age 27, was the first to win the Masters in his initial attempt since Gene Sarazen in 1935, the second edition of the tournament.[2] In his fifth season on tour, it was Zoeller's second win, the first came less than three months earlier at the Andy Williams-San Diego Open Invitational. He won his other major five years later at the 1984 U.S. Open, also in a playoff.

The second round was suspended for two hours Friday afternoon due to heavy rain and tornado warnings. Due to the delay, not all golfers were able to complete their second rounds on Friday and the cut line was not determined until these rounds were completed on Saturday morning. Normally scheduled to conclude on the second Sunday of April, this Masters was held a week later, as was 1984.

Field

1. Masters champions

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

• George Archer, 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 (12), Hubert Green (8,11,12), Hale Irwin (8,9,12), Andy North (9), Jerry Pate (8,9,10,11)

3. The Open champions (last five years)

Johnny Miller (9)

4. PGA champions (last five years)

Dave Stockton (9,12), Lee Trevino (8,9,10,11), Lanny Wadkins (8,11,12)

• John Mahaffey (10,11) withdrew because of injury.

5. 1978 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists

Bobby Clampett (7,a), John Cook (6,7,a), Scott Hoch (7,a), Mike Peck (a)

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

• John Fought forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

7. Members of the 1978 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team

Jay Sigel (a)

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1978 Masters Tournament

Wally Armstrong, Miller Barber, Andy Bean (9,10,11), Rod Funseth (11), Joe Inman (9), Don January (12), Tom Kite (11), Billy Kratzert (9), Gene Littler, Jerry McGee (12), Lindy Miller, Gil Morgan (10,11), Ed Sneed (12), Leonard Thompson, Tom Weiskopf (9,10)

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1978 U.S. Open

Mike McCullough, Artie McNickle, J. C. Snead

10. Top eight players and ties from 1978 PGA Championship

Craig Stadler

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Bob Byman, Ben Crenshaw, Lee Elder, Jerry Heard, Lon Hinkle, Barry Jaeckel, Bruce Lietzke, Mark McCumber, Mac McLendon, Larry Nelson, Jim Simons, Ron Streck, Fuzzy Zoeller

12. Members of the U.S. 1977 Ryder Cup team

Dave Hill

13. Foreign invitations

Isao Aoki, Seve Ballesteros (8,9), Nick Faldo, David Graham (8), Graham Marsh (10), Peter McEvoy (6,a), Jack Newton (11), Peter Oosterhuis (8), Simon Owen, Masashi Ozaki, Victor Regalado (11), Bob Shearer (9)

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

Nationalities in the field

North America (60)	South America (0)	Europe (4)	Oceania (5)	Asia (2)	Africa (1)
Mexico (1)		England (3)	Australia (4)	Japan (2)	South Africa (1)
United States (59)		Spain (1)	New Zealand (1)

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Player	Country	Year(s) won	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total	To par	Finish
Tom Watson	United States	1977	68	71	70	71	280	−8	T2
Jack Nicklaus	United States	1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975	69	71	72	69	281	−7	4
Raymond Floyd	United States	1976	70	68	73	77	288	E	T17
Gary Player	South Africa	1961, 1974, 1978	71	72	74	71	288	E	T17
Tommy Aaron	United States	1973	72	73	76	70	291	+3	T28
Charles Coody	United States	1971	71	72	74	76	293	+5	T34
Billy Casper	United States	1970	69	75	80	75	299	+11	43

Missed the cut

Player	Country	Year(s) won	R1	R2	Total	To par
Arnold Palmer	United States	1958, 1960, 1962, 1964	74	72	146	+2
Sam Snead	United States	1949, 1952, 1954	74	74	148	+4
Art Wall, Jr.	United States	1959	74	75	149	+5
Gay Brewer	United States	1967	75	75	150	+6
Bob Goalby	United States	1968	79	81	160	+16
Doug Ford	United States	1957	77		WD

Source:[6]

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 12, 1979

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Bruce Lietzke	United States	67	−5
T2	Tom Watson	United States	68	−4
	Joe Inman	United States
	Leonard Thompson	United States
	Ed Sneed	United States
T6	Craig Stadler	United States	69	−3
	Jack Nicklaus	United States
	Lou Graham	United States
	Billy Casper	United States
	Andy Bean	United States

Second round

Friday, April 13, 1979
Saturday, April 14, 1979

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
T1	Ed Sneed	United States	68-67=135	−9
	Craig Stadler	United States	69-66=135
T3	Raymond Floyd	United States	70-68=138	−6
	Leonard Thompson	United States	68-70=138
T5	Miller Barber	United States	75-64=139	−5
	Tom Watson	United States	68-71=139
	Joe Inman	United States	68-71=139
T8	Seve Ballesteros	Spain	72-68=140	−4
	Jack Nicklaus	United States	69-71=140
	Lou Graham	United States	69-71=140
	Lindy Miller	United States	73-67=140

Third round

Saturday, April 14, 1979

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Ed Sneed	United States	68-67-69=204	−12
T2	Tom Watson	United States	68-71-70=209	−7
	Craig Stadler	United States	69-66-74=209
T4	Bruce Lietzke	United States	67-75-68=210	−6
	Fuzzy Zoeller	United States	70-71-69=210
T6	Tom Kite	United States	71-72-68=211	−5
	Jack Newton	Australia	70-72-69=211
	Miller Barber	United States	75-64-72=211
	Raymond Floyd	United States	70-68-73=211
	Leonard Thompson	United States	68-70-73=211

Final round

Sunday, April 15, 1979

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par	Money ($)
T1	Fuzzy Zoeller	United States	70-71-69-70=280	−8	Playoff
	Tom Watson	United States	68-71-70-71=280
	Ed Sneed	United States	68-67-69-76=280
4	Jack Nicklaus	United States	69-71-72-69=281	−7	15,000
5	Tom Kite	United States	71-72-68-72=283	−5	13,000
6	Bruce Lietzke	United States	67-75-68-74=284	−4	11,500
T7	Craig Stadler	United States	69-66-74-76=285	−3	9,000
	Leonard Thompson	United States	68-70-73-74=285
	Lanny Wadkins	United States	73-69-70-73=285
T10	Hubert Green	United States	74-69-72-71=286	−2	6,500
	Gene Littler	United States	74-71-69-72=286

Source:[1][6]

Scorecard

Final round

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
Zoeller	−6	−6	−6	−5	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−5	−6	−6	−7	−7	−8	−8
Sneed	−12	−12	−12	−11	−11	−10	−10	−10	−10	−9	−9	−9	−10	−10	−11	−10	−9	−8
Watson	−7	−8	−9	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−7	−8	−8	−8	−8
Nicklaus	−4	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−8	−7	−7
Kite	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−5	−5	−5
Lietzke	−6	−6	−6	−6	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4	−4
Stadler	−6	−7	−8	−8	−8	−8	−7	−7	−6	−4	−3	−2	−4	−2	−2	−2	−3	−3
Thompson	−4	−4	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4	−3	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3
Wadkins	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−1	−2	−2	−1	E	−1	−2	−3	−3	−3

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
Source:[2]

Playoff

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	Fuzzy Zoeller	United States	4-3	−1	50,000
T2	Ed Sneed	United States	4-x		30,000
	Tom Watson	United States	4-4

• Sudden-death playoff began on hole #10 and ended at hole #11, when Zoeller birdied.[2]

References

1. "Masters scores (final)". Youngstown Vindicator. Associated Press. April 16, 1979. p. 16.
2. "Sneed's collapse gives Zoeller win". Eugene Register-Guard. wire services. April 16, 1979. p. 1B.
3. "Zoeller is surprise winner following Masters playoff". Youngstown Vindicator. Associated Press. April 16, 1979. p. 16.
4. "Masters playoff format is changed". CNN.com. April 7, 2004. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
5. Jenkins, Dan (April 23, 1979). "Fuzzy came in loud and clear". Sports Illustrated: 30. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
6. "1979 Masters". databasegolf.com. Retrieved June 25, 2012.

External links

• Masters.com – Past winners and results
• About.com - 1979 Masters
• Augusta.com – 1979 Masters leaderboard and scorecards