1972 Masters Tournament Explained

1972 Masters Tournament
Dates:	April 6–9, 1972
Location:	Augusta, Georgia
Course:	Augusta National Golf Club
Org:	Augusta National Golf Club
Tour:	PGA Tour
Par:	72
Yardage:	6980yd^[1]
Field:	84 players, 47 after cut
Cut:	151 (+7)
Winners Share:	$25,000
Champion:	Jack Nicklaus
Score:	286 (−2)
Previous:	1971
Next:	1973
Map:	USA#USA Georgia
Map Relief:	yes
Map Label:	Augusta National
Coordinates:	33.503°N -82.02°W

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

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 championsGeorge 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. AmateurRick 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 teamWilliam 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 MastersHomero Blancas, Gardner Dickinson (12), Hubert Green, Paul Harney, Labron Harris Jr., Grier Jones, DeWitt Weaver

12. Members of the U.S. 1971 Ryder Cup teamMason Rudolph, J. C. Snead

13. Foreign invitationsHarry 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	Score	To par
1	68	−4
2	69	−3
3	70	−2
T4	71	−1
Jim Simons (a)
T6	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		68-71=139	−5
2		71-69=140	−4
3		72-69=141	−3
4		72-70=142	−2
T5		73-70=143	−1
	72-71=143
T7		75-69=144	E
	73-71=144
	72-72=144
	69-75=144
	72-72=144

Source^[10]

Third round

Saturday, April 8, 1972

Place	Player	Score	To par
1		68-71-73=212	−4
2			72-70-71=213	−3
T3		71-69-75=215	−1
	74-71-70=215
T5		76-71-69=216	E
	72-75-69=216
	73-71-72=216
	73-72-71=216
T9		73-70-74=217	+1
	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		72-75-69-73=289	+1	15,833
	73-72-71-73=289
	74-71-70-74=289
T5		76-71-69-74=290	+2	6,200
	74-75-70-71=290
	73-71-72-74=290
	72-70-71-77=290
	73-74-71-72=290
T10	Gary Player (c)	73-75-72-71=291	+3	3,600
	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
	76-70-74-72=292
	72-72-74-74=292
	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
	76-72-73-74=295	2,500
	72-72-77-74=295
T22		72-76-74-74=296	+8	2,160
	75-69-76-76=296
	77-72-73-74=296
	75-74-74-73=296
	71-69-75-81=296
T27		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		74-77-72-75=298	+10	1,750
T31		75-75-77-72=299	+11	1,750
	72-71-80-76=299
T33		78-72-72-78=300	+12	1,675
	73-75-76-76=300
Arnold Palmer (c)	70-75-74-81=300
	75-76-77-72=300
37		75-72-80-74=301	+13	1,675
T38		72-76-74-81=303	+15	1,675
	74-76-80-73=303
40		74-77-77-76=304	+16	1,675
T41		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
	75-76-77-79=307	1,600
T45		77-74-79-78=308	+20	1,600
	74-73-83-78=308
47		74-76-81-79=310	+22	1,600
CUT	Rick Bendall (a)	77-75=152	+8
	77-75=152
	81-71=152
	75-77=152
	76-76=152
	74-78=152
Art Wall Jr. (c)	77-75=152
	76-77=153	+9
	74-79=153
	78-76=154	+10
Doug Ford (c)	76-78=154
	79-75=154
	76-78=154
	74-80=154
Eddie Pearce (a)	79-75=154
	78-77=155	+11
	78-77=155
	76-79=155
	79-76=155
	77-78=155
Vinny Giles (a)	78-78=156	+12
	75-82=157	+13
	74-83=157
	78-79=157
Marty West (a)	80-77=157
Gary Cowan (a)	76-82=158	+14
	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
	80-81=161	+17
	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

External links

Masters.com – past winners and results
Augusta.com – 1972 Masters leaderboard and scorecards

Notes and References

News: Nicklaus leading Masters with 68. Pittsburgh-Post Gazette. Gundelfinger. Phil. April 7, 1972. 12.
News: Nicklaus coasts to Masters. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gundelfinger. Phil. April 10, 1972. 25.
Poa Jack beats himself . Sports Illustrated . Jenkins . Dan . Dan Jenkins . April 17, 1972 . 22.
News: Jack Whitaker's welcome now . Boca Raton News . Florida . Associated Press . Rothenberg . Fred . April 12, 1979 . 2B.
News: Jack Whitaker was always camera ready . New York Times . Sandomir . Richard . May 5, 2012 . April 8, 2016.
News: Golfer Brewer: ulcers, hernia . Montreal Gazette . UPI . April 11, 1972 . 16.
News: Gay Brewer in hospital . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Associated Press . April 7, 1972 . 12 .
News: Brewer takes Par Three test . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . April 5, 1973 . 19.
News: Nicklaus leads by 1 . Milwaukee Sentinel . Associated Press . April 7, 1972 . 1, part 2 .
News: Nicklaus' 71 keeps lead . Milwaukee Sentinel . Associated Press . April 8, 1972 . 1, part 2 .
News: Golf: Masters . Eugene Register-Guard . Oregon . April 9, 1972 . 6B.
Web site: Masters – Past Winners & Results . Augusta National Inc. . April 20, 2021.
Web site: Past results – Masters tournament . PGA Tour . April 20, 2021.