1969 Masters Tournament

1969 Masters Tournament
Front cover of the 1969 Masters Guide
Tournament information
DatesApril 10–13, 1969
LocationAugusta, Georgia
33°30′11″N 82°01′12″W / 33.503°N 82.020°W / 33.503; -82.020
Course(s)Augusta National Golf Club
Organized byAugusta National Golf Club
Tour(s)PGA Tour
Statistics
Par72
Length6,980 yards (6,383 m)[1]
Field83 players, 48 after cut
Cut148 (+4)
Winner's share$20,000
Champion
United States George Archer
281 (−7)
Location map
Augusta National is located in the United States
Augusta National
Augusta National
Location in the United States
Augusta National is located in Georgia
Augusta National
Augusta National
Location in Georgia
← 1968
1970 →

The 1969 Masters Tournament was the 33rd Masters Tournament, held April 10–13 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

George Archer won his only major championship, one stroke ahead of runners-up Billy Casper, George Knudson, and Tom Weiskopf.[2][3][4][5] Third round leader Casper was five over-par after ten holes in his final round, then regrouped with three birdies but needed another. Weiskopf was tied for the lead until a bogey at 17, and future champion Charles Coody bogeyed the final three holes and finished two strokes back.[6] Casper would win the title in 1970 in a playoff and Coody would win in 1971.

This was the last Masters that Ken Venturi participated in, and he missed the cut by twelve strokes. As an amateur in 1956, Venturi led after 54 holes but finished runner-up to Jack Burke Jr. Burke made the cut at the Masters for the final time in 1969 and finished in 24th place. Past champions were noticeably absent from the leaderboard this year, as Burke tied for the best finish with three-time winner Jack Nicklaus.

It was Archer's third Masters and his only top ten finish at Augusta; his next best result was tied for eleventh in 1981.

Bob Lunn won the tenth Par 3 contest on Wednesday with a score of 23.

Course

[edit]
Main article: Augusta National Golf Club
Hole Name Yards Par Hole Name Yards Par
1 White Pine 400 4 10 Camellia 470 4
2 Woodbine 555 5 11 Dogwood 445 4
3 Flowering Peach 355 4 12 Golden Bell 155 3
4 Palm 220 3 13 Azalea 475 5
5 Magnolia 450 4 14 Chinese Fir 420 4
6 Juniper 190 3 15 Firethorn 520 5
7 Pampas 365 4 16 Redbud 190 3
8 Yellow Jasmine 530 5 17 Nandina 400 4
9 Carolina Cherry 420 4 18 Holly 420 4
Out 3,485 36 In 3,495 36
Source:[1] Total 6,980 72

^ Holes 1, 2, 4, and 11 were later renamed.

Field

[edit]
1. Masters champions

Gay Brewer (9,11), Jack Burke Jr., Doug Ford, Bob Goalby (8,10), Ralph Guldahl, Claude Harmon, Herman Keiser, Cary Middlecoff, Jack Nicklaus (2,3,8,9), Arnold Palmer (10,11), Henry Picard, Gary Player (2,3,8,9), Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead (9), Art Wall Jr. (8)

The following categories only apply to Americans
2. U.S. Open champions (last five years)

Billy Casper (8,9,10,11), Lee Trevino (9), Ken Venturi

3. The Open champions (last five years)
4. PGA champions (last five years)

Julius Boros (8,9,10,11), Al Geiberger (9,10,11), Don January (8), Dave Marr (8), Bobby Nichols (9,11)

5. The first eight finishers in the 1968 U.S. Amateur

Bob Barbarossa (a), John Bohmann (a), Bruce Fleisher (6,7,a), Vinny Giles (7,8,a), Hubert Green (a), Jack Lewis Jr. (7,a), Rik Massengale (a), Allen Miller (a)[7]

  • Miller and Billy Joe Patton tied for 8th place but Miller won the place by the drawing of lots.[8] Canadian Gary Cowan also tied for 8th place but was not eligible.
6. Previous two U.S. Amateur and Amateur champions
  • Bob Dickson forfeited his exemption by turning professional.
7. Members of the 1968 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team

Dick Siderowf (a)

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1968 Masters Tournament

Tommy Aaron, George Archer (9,10), Miller Barber (10), Frank Beard (10), Gardner Dickinson (11), Raymond Floyd, Lionel Hebert, Jerry Pittman (9), Mason Rudolph, Doug Sanders (10,11), Tom Weiskopf, Bert Yancey (9), Kermit Zarley (10)

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1968 U.S. Open

Don Bies, Rod Funseth, Dave Hill, Steve Spray, Dave Stockton

10. Top eight players and ties from 1968 PGA Championship

Frank Boynton, Charles Coody, Marty Fleckman, Lou Graham, Dan Sikes

11. Members of the U.S. 1967 Ryder Cup team

Gene Littler, Johnny Pott

12. One player, either amateur or professional, not already qualified, selected by a ballot of ex-Masters champions.

Bob Murphy

13. Leading six players, not already qualified, from a points list based on finishes in PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Deane Beman, Dale Douglass, Bob Lunn, Mac McLendon, R. H. Sikes, Ken Still

14. Foreign invitations

Roberto Bernardini, Michael Bonallack (6,a), Peter Butler, Joe Carr (a), Bob Charles (8,9,10), Bruce Crampton, Roberto De Vicenzo (3,8), Bruce Devlin (8,9), Harold Henning (8), Tommy Horton, Brian Huggett, Tony Jacklin (8), George Knudson, Takaaki Kono, Lu Liang-Huan, Ramón Sota, Peter Thomson (3), Peter Townsend, Raul Travieso

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

Round summaries

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First round

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Thursday, April 10, 1969

Place Player Score To par
1 United States Billy Casper 66 −6
T2 United States George Archer 67 −5
Australia Bruce Devlin
4 United States Jack Nicklaus 68 −4
T5 Australia Bruce Crampton 69 −3
United States Bruce Fleisher (a)
United States Lionel Hebert
United States Gene Littler
United States Mason Rudolph
United States Dan Sikes
United States Bert Yancey

Source:[9]

Second round

[edit]

Friday, April 11, 1969

Place Player Score To par
T1 United States Billy Casper 66-71=137 −7
Australia Bruce Devlin 67-70=137
T3 United States George Archer 67-73=140 −4
United States Dan Sikes 69-71=140
T5 United States Tommy Aaron 71-71=142 −2
United States Miller Barber 71-71=142
United States Charles Coody 74-68=142
Australia Bruce Crampton 69-73=142
United States Al Geiberger 71-71=142
United States Lionel Hebert 69-73=142
United States Mason Rudolph 69-73=142
United States Dave Stockton 71-71=142
United States Tom Weiskopf 71-71=142

Source:[10][11][12]

Third round

[edit]

Saturday, April 12, 1969

Despite being 2-over-par for his round Bruce Devlin was still in the thick of the chase at 5-under on Saturday until the Par-3 16th Hole where he rinsed his tee shot leading to a double-bogey 5 and leaving him five strokes behind starting the Final Round (where he further faded with a front nine of 6-over par 42 leading to a tie for 19th). Earlier in the round Devlin had made a great scrambling bogey at the difficult Par-4 11th after finding the water on his second shot, but could not repeat the magic when he found the water at 16.

Place Player Score To par
1 United States Billy Casper 66-71-71=208 −8
2 United States George Archer 67-73-69=209 −7
3 United States Miller Barber 71-71-68=210 −6
T4 United States Charles Coody 74-68-69=211 −5
United States Tom Weiskopf 71-71-69=211
T6 Canada George Knudson 70-73-69=212 −4
United States Lionel Hebert 69-73-70=212
T8 Australia Bruce Devlin 67-70-76=213 −3
United States Dan Sikes 69-71-73=213
T10 United States Don Bies 74-70-70=214 −2
Japan Takaaki Kono 71-75-68=214
United States Gene Littler 69-75-70=214

Source:[13]

Final round

[edit]

Sunday, April 13, 1969

Summary

[edit]

Billy Casper started the final round at 8-under par with a one-stroke lead over George Archer, but Casper bogeyed five of the first 10 holes. Meanwhile, Archer gained a three-stroke lead at 8-under after 9 holes over George Knudson, Charles Coody and Tom Weiskopf (who was playing with Archer). As the back nine unfolded there was a lot of movement on the leaderboard and standing on the 18th tee, five of the last 6 players on the course had a chance to win the tournament outright or force a Monday playoff. Only Miller Barber, playing with Casper in the final group, was out of contention for the title. The final three groups ended up on the 18th hole at the same time: Casper (−6) and Barber (-3) waiting on the tee with Archer (−7) and Weiskopf (−6) looking on from the fairway while Coody (−6) was left of the green needing to chip in for a birdie to tie and Knudson (−6) on the green some 26 feet away also needing a tying birdie.[6]

Final leaderboard

[edit]
Champion
Silver Cup winner (low amateur)
(a) = amateur
(c) = past champion
Top 10
Place Player Score To par Money (US$)
1 United States George Archer 67-73-69-72=281 −7 20,000
T2 United States Billy Casper 66-71-71-74=282 −6 12,333
Canada George Knudson 70-73-69-70=282
United States Tom Weiskopf 71-71-69-71=282
T5 United States Charles Coody 74-68-69-72=283 −5 6,750
United States Don January 74-73-70-66=283
7 United States Miller Barber 71-71-68-74=284 −4 5,000
T8 United States Tommy Aaron 71-71-73-70=285 −3 3,600
United States Lionel Hebert 69-73-70-73=285
United States Gene Littler 69-75-70-71=285

Sources:[14][15]

Scorecard

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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
United States Archer −7 −8 −8 −7 −7 −7 −8 −8 −8 −7 −7 −7 −8 −7 −7 −7 −7 −7
United States Casper −8 −8 −8 −7 −7 −6 −5 −5 −4 −3 −4 −4 −5 −5 −6 −6 −6 −6
Canada Knudson −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 −5 −6 −6 −6
United States Weiskopf −5 −6 −5 −5 −4 −4 −4 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −6 −6 −7 −7 −6 −6
United States Coody −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −6 −6 −8 −7 −8 −7 −6 −5
United States January +2 +1 +1 E E E −1 −2 −2 −2 −2 −2 −3 −3 −4 −4 −4 −5
United States Barber −5 −5 −4 −4 −4 −4 −2 −3 −3 −4 −4 −4 −3 −4 −3 −3 −3 −4

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Augusta National Golf club: map". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. April 10, 1969. p. 27.
  2. ^ Jenkins, Dan (April 21, 1969). "Sorry, Billy". Sports Illustrated. p. 26.
  3. ^ "Archer wins Masters by 1; trio shares 2nd". Milwaukee Sentinel. UPI. April 14, 1969. p. 1, part 2.
  4. ^ Green, Bob (April 14, 1969). "Masters success won't spoil George Archer". Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). Associated Press. p. 20.
  5. ^ "Stretch drive wins Masters for Archer". Milwaukee Journal. April 14, 1969. p. 12-part 2.
  6. ^ a b Gundelfinger, Phil (April 14, 1969). "San Franciscan Shoots Par for 281 Victory". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 28.
  7. ^ Paris, Hal (September 1, 1968). "Giles Posts Record 65 For Second". Youngstown Vindicator. p. D1.
  8. ^ "Masters Invitation for Steve Spray". The Des Moines Register. February 23, 1969. p. 17.
  9. ^ "Casper's 66 leads Masters by 1". Milwaukee Sentinel. UPI. April 11, 1969. p. 1, part 2.
  10. ^ "Masters golf scorecard: second round". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 12, 1969. p. 8.
  11. ^ "DeVincenzo misses cut". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. April 12, 1969. p. 3, part 2.
  12. ^ "Devlin catches up on 18th-hole birdie". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. April 12, 1969. p. 12.
  13. ^ "Master list". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). April 13, 1969. p. 3, sports.
  14. ^ "Masters – Past Winners & Results". Augusta National Inc. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  15. ^ "Past results – Masters tournament". PGA Tour. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
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