1954 Masters Tournament Explained

1954 Masters Tournament
Dates:	April 8–12, 1954
Location:	Augusta, Georgia
Course:	Augusta National Golf Club
Org:	Augusta National Golf Club
Tour:	PGA Tour
Par:	72
Yardage:	6800yd
Field:	78 players
Cut:	None
Purse:	$25,000
Winners Share:	$5,000
Score:	289 (+1), playoff
Previous:	1953
Next:	1955
Map:	USA#USA Georgia
Map Relief:	yes
Map Label:	Augusta National
Coordinates:	33.503°N -82.02°W

The 1954 Masters Tournament was the 18th Masters Tournament, held April 8–12 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Sam Snead defeated defending champion Ben Hogan by one stroke in an 18-hole Monday playoff to win his third Masters tournament. It was Snead's seventh and final major victory.

Both Snead and Hogan were age 41, and they had won the previous three Masters; Snead in 1952 and Hogan in 1951 and 1953. Hogan was also the reigning champion of the U.S. Open and British Open; he did not win another major, but often contended until his final appearances in 1967 at the Masters and U.S. Open.

Snead's 289 (+1), along with Jack Burke Jr. in 1956 and Zach Johnson in 2007, remains the highest winning total in Masters history. Amateur Billy Joe Patton, 31, led after the first and second rounds and during the fourth, but a seven at the 13th hole and a six at the 15th ended his title hopes, and he finished one stroke back.^[1] ^[2]

Snead remained the oldest winner of the Masters for nearly a quarter century, until Gary Player won his third green jacket at age 42 in 1978.

Field

1. Masters championsJimmy Demaret (10), Claude Harmon (12), Ben Hogan (2,4,6,9,10), Byron Nelson (2,6), Gene Sarazen (2,4,6), Horton Smith, Sam Snead (4,6,7,9,10), Craig Wood (2)

Ralph Guldahl (2), Herman Keiser and Henry Picard (6) did not play.

2. U.S. Open championsJulius Boros (9,10), Lawson Little (3,5), Lloyd Mangrum (7,9,10), Fred McLeod, Cary Middlecoff (7), Sam Parks Jr., Lew Worsham

3. U.S. Amateur championsDick Chapman (5,8,a), Charles Coe (8,9,a), Gene Littler (8,11), Billy Maxwell, Skee Riegel, Jess Sweetser (5,a)

4. British Open championsJock Hutchison (6), Denny Shute (6)

5. British Amateur championsFrank Stranahan (9,10,a), Robert Sweeny Jr. (a), Harvie Ward (8,9,a)

6. PGA championsWalter Burkemo (7,12), Jim Ferrier (9), Vic Ghezzi, Chandler Harper (9), Johnny Revolta, Jim Turnesa (7,10)

7. Members of the U.S. 1953 Ryder Cup teamJack Burke Jr. (9,10), Dave Douglas (12), Fred Haas (10), Ted Kroll (9,10), Ed Oliver (9)

8. Members of the U.S. 1953 Walker Cup teamArnold Blum (a), William C. Campbell (a), Don Cherry (a), Jimmy Jackson (a), Jim McHale Jr. (a), Billy Joe Patton (a), Ken Venturi (a)

Sam Urzetta (3,a) and Jack Westland (3,a) did not play. Blum, McHale and Patton were reserves for the team.

9. Top 24 players and ties from the 1953 Masters Tournament Jerry Barber, Al Besselink, Tommy Bolt, Doug Ford (10), Leland Gibson, Chick Harbert, Fred Hawkins, Dick Mayer, Al Mengert (10), Dick Metz (10), Johnny Palmer, Earl Stewart

Bob Hamilton (6) did not play.

10. Top 24 players and ties from the 1953 U.S. Open Pete Cooper, Gardner Dickinson, Clarence Doser, George Fazio, Marty Furgol, Dutch Harrison, Jay Hebert, Bill Nary (12), Bill Ogden, Bob Rosburg, Frank Souchak (a)

11. 1953 U.S. Amateur quarter-finalistsDon Albert (a), Bruce Cudd (a), Bobby Kuntz (a), Dale Morey (a), Ray Palmer (a), Angelo Santilli (a)

Ted Richards Jr. did not play.

12. 1953 PGA Championship quarter-finalistsJimmy Clark, Jack Isaacs, Felice Torza

Henry Ransom did not play.

13. One amateur, not already qualified, selected by a ballot of ex-U.S. Amateur champions

Johnny Dawson (a) was selected but did not play.

14. One professional, not already qualified, selected by a ballot of ex-U.S. Open championsSkip Alexander

15. Two players, not already qualified, with the best scoring average in the winter part of the 1954 PGA TourBud Holscher, Bob Toski

16. Foreign invitationsPeter Thomson

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 8, 1954

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Billy Joe Patton (a)	70	−2
Dutch Harrison
T3		71	−1

T5		align=center rowspan=2	72	E

T7		align=center rowspan=10	73	+1







William C. Campbell (a)
Cary Middlecoff

Second round

Friday, April 9, 1954

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Billy Joe Patton (a)	70-74=144	E
2		72-73=145	+1
T3		73-73=146	+2
T3		71-75=146	+2
T5		73-74=147	+3
T5		74-73=147	+3
T7		74-74=148	+4
	74-74=148
	73-75=148
	72-76=148
	71-77=148
	76-72=148

Third round

Saturday, April 10, 1954

Place	Player	Score	To par
1		72-73-69=214	−2
2		74-73-70=217	+1
T3		73-76-70=219	+3
	73-74-72=219
Billy Joe Patton (a)	70-74-75=219
T6		74-76-71=221	+5
T6		71-77-73=221	+5
T8		74-74-74=222	+6
		74-74-74=222
		71-75-76=222
		73-73-76=222

Final round

Sunday, April 11, 1954

Final leaderboard

Champion
Silver Cup winner (low amateur)
(a) = amateur
(c) = past champion

*Top 10*!Place!!Player!!Score!!To par!!Money (US$)
T1	Ben Hogan (c)	72-73-69-75=289	+1	Playoff
Sam Snead (c)	74-73-70-72=289
3	Billy Joe Patton (a)	70-74-75-71=290	+2	0
T4		70-79-74-68=291	+3	1,938
	71-75-76-69=291
T6		74-76-71-71=292	+4	1,042
	71-77-73-71=292
	73-73-76-70=292
T9		74-74-74-72=294	+6	781
	73-76-70-75=294

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
11	Dick Chapman (a)	75-75-75-70=295	+7	0
T12		73-74-72-77=296	+8	631
	73-75-75-73=296
Byron Nelson (c)	73-76-74-73=296
	74-74-74-74=296
T16		76-79-68-74=297	+9	563
	79-74-74-70=297
	76-72-76-73=297
Ken Venturi (a)	76-74-73-74=297	0
T20	Charles Coe (a)	76-75-73-74=298	+10
Harvie Ward (a)	78-75-74-71=298
T22		74-77-75-73=299	+11	443
	73-76-75-75=299
	76-79-75-69=299
	79-75-73-72=299
	75-75-75-74=299
	78-75-75-71=299
	80-74-71-74=299
T29	Jimmy Demaret (c)	80-75-72-73=300	+12	333
	73-79-73-75=300
	76-75-72-77=300
32		73-78-76-74=301	+13	250
T33		76-82-72-72=302	+14	250
	78-79-74-71=302
	77-78-74-73=302
	76-78-78-70=302
	75-81-77-69=302
T38		74-78-72-79=303	+15	250
	76-77-74-76=303
	76-79-73-75=303
	75-76-76-76=303
Horton Smith (c)	80-78-71-74=303
T43		75-77-77-75=304	+16	250
Frank Stranahan (a)	79-75-72-78=304	0
	74-78-74-78=304	250
T46		80-77-73-75=305	+17	250
Bruce Cudd (a)	76-78-73-78=305	0
	75-77-78-75=305	250
	78-77-73-77=305
	78-74-78-75=305
T51	William C. Campbell (a)	73-77-75-81=306	+18	0
	78-76-75-77=306	250
T53	Arnold Blum (a)	75-82-75-75=307	+19	0
	72-76-77-82=307	250
Claude Harmon (c)	77-75-77-78=307
	76-79-76-76=307
Gene Sarazen (c)	79-75-78-75=307
T58	Don Cherry (a)	80-79-74-76=309	+21	0
	78-80-76-75=309	250
T60		81-76-77-76=310	+22	250
	81-79-75-75=310
	83-79-75-73=310
63	Robert Sweeny Jr. (a)	81-76-79-76=312	+24	0
T64	Jimmy Jackson (a)	75-82-79-78=314	+26
Bobby Kuntz (a)	80-77-82-75=314
66	Jim McHale Jr. (a)	78-82-79-76=315	+27
67	Don Albert (a)	77-79-83-77=316	+28
T68	Angelo Santilli (a)	79-81-82-75=317	+29
	73-85-82-77=317	250
70	Ray Palmer (a)	84-78-80-77=319	+31	0
71	Craig Wood (c)	87-80-78-75=320	+32	250
72		86-79-79-80=324	+36	250
WD	Dale Morey (a)	83-75-76=234	+18
	78-78=156	+12
Jess Sweetser (a)	79	+7
	83	+11
Frank Souchak (a)	90	+18

Fred McLeod

Sources:^[3] ^[4]

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
Snead	+1	+1	+1	+2	+3	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+3	+2	+2	+1	+1	+1	+1
Hogan	−1	−1	−2	−2	−2	−2	−1	−1	−1	−1	+1	+1	+1	+2	+1	+1	+1	+1
Patton	+4	+3	+3	+3	+3	+1	+1	E	−1	−1	−1	E	+2	+1	+2	+2	+2	+2
Harrison	+7	+6	+6	+6	+6	+5	+5	+5	+5	+5	+5	+5	+4	+5	+4	+4	+3	+3
Mangrum	+6	+5	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+5	+4	+3	+3

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

	Eagle		Birdie		Bogey		Double bogey		Triple bogey+ -->

Playoff

Monday, April 12, 1954

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
1		70	−2	5,000
2		71	−1	3,125

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
Snead	E	−1	−1	E	E	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−2	−1	−2	−2	−3	−3	−3	−2
Hogan	E	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−1	−1	−1

Source:^[5]

External links

Masters.com – past winners and results
GolfCompendium.com: 1954 Masters
Augusta.com – 1954 Masters leaderboard and scorecards

Notes and References

News: Hogan, Snead tie in Masters golf. Eugene Register-Guard . (Oregon). United Press. April 12, 1954. 2B .
News: Snead, Hogan play off in Masters today. Toledo Blade. (Ohio). Associated Press. April 12, 1954. 18.
Web site: Masters – Past Winners & Results . Augusta National Inc. . April 20, 2021.
Web site: Past results – Masters tournament . PGA Tour . April 20, 2021.
News: Snead beats Hogan in Masters playoff. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. April 13, 1954. 16.