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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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1981 Masters Tournament
The 1981 Masters Tournament was the 45th Masters Tournament, held April 9–12 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Tom Watson won his second green jacket and fifth major title by two strokes over Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller.

Five-time champion Nicklaus shot a bogey-free 65 on Friday and led by four strokes after 36 holes, but a 75 on Saturday put him a stroke behind Watson entering the final round. It was the fourth runner-up finish for Nicklaus at the Masters and the third for Miller. Nicklaus won his sixth Masters five years later in 1986 at age 46.

Defending champion Seve Ballesteros shot 154 (+10) and missed the cut by six strokes; he also missed the cut as defending champion in 1984. Lee Trevino, needing a green jacket to complete the career grand slam, also shot 154 with an ailing back. His best finishes at Augusta were tenth place ties in 1975 and 1985.

Greg Norman, age 26, appeared in his first Masters and was fourth, the first of his eight top-five finishes at Augusta. He was runner-up three times, in 1986, 1987, and 1996.

This was the first Masters with bentgrass greens, which were formerly Bermuda and ryegrass.

Field

1. Masters champions

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

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

Hubert Green (8,12), Hale Irwin (9,11,12), Andy North (8,9), Jerry Pate (8)

3. The Open champions (last five years)

Johnny Miller (11)

4. PGA champions (last five years)

John Mahaffey (11,12), Dave Stockton, Lanny Wadkins (12)

5. 1980 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists

Jim Holtgrieve (7,a), Bob Lewis (a), Hal Sutton (6,7,a), Dick von Tacky (a)

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

Jay Sigel (7,a)

  • Mark O'Meara forfeited his exemption by turning professional.
7. Members of the 1980 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team

Bob Tway (a)

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1980 Masters Tournament

Andy Bean (10,11,12), Jim Colbert, Ben Crenshaw (11), Ed Fiori, Gibby Gilbert, Jay Haas, Tom Kite (11,12), Billy Kratzert (11), Gil Morgan (9,10,12), Larry Nelson (11,12), Calvin Peete, Jack Renner, Jim Simons, J. C. Snead

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1980 U.S. Open

Keith Fergus, Joe Hager, Mark Hayes (12), Lon Hinkle (10), Joe Inman, Pat McGowan, Mike Morley, Mike Reid, Bill Rogers (10,11), Ed Sneed, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange (10,11), Lee Trevino (10,11,12), Bobby Wadkins

10. Top eight players and ties from 1980 PGA Championship

Howard Twitty (11), Bobby Walzel

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

John Cook, Bob Gilder, Phil Hancock, Scott Hoch, Peter Jacobsen, Wayne Levi, Bruce Lietzke, Mark Pfeil, Don Pooley, Scott Simpson, Mike Sullivan, Doug Tewell

12. Members of the U.S. 1979 Ryder Cup team

Lee Elder

13. Foreign invitations

Isao Aoki (9), Bruce Devlin (9), Duncan Evans (6,a), David Graham (4,8,11), Dan Halldorson (11), Sandy Lyle, Jack Newton (8), Greg Norman, Norio Suzuki

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

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 9, 1981

Place Player Score To par
T1 United States Lon Hinkle 69 −3
United States Johnny Miller
Australia Greg Norman
United States Curtis Strange
T5 Japan Isao Aoki 70 −2
United States John Cook
Australia David Graham
United States Hubert Green
United States Jim Holtgrieve (a)
United States Jack Nicklaus
United States Jim Simons

Source:

Second round

Friday, April 10, 1981

Place Player Score To par
1 United States Jack Nicklaus 70-65=135 −9
T2 United States Lon Hinkle 69-70=139 −5
United States Bruce Lietzke 72-67=139
Australia Greg Norman 69-70=139
United States Tom Watson 71-68=139
T6 Australia David Graham 70-70=140 −4
United States Hubert Green 70-70=140
T8 United States Jim Colbert 73-68=141 −3
United States John Cook 70-71=141
United States Peter Jacobsen 71-70=141
United States Johnny Miller 69-72=141

Source:

Third round

Saturday, April 11, 1981

Place Player Score To par
1 United States Tom Watson 71-68-70=209 −7
2 United States Jack Nicklaus 70-65-75=210 −6
3 Australia Greg Norman 69-70-72=211 −5
T4 United States Bruce Lietzke 72-67-73=212 −4
United States John Mahaffey 72-71-69=212
T6 United States John Cook 70-71-72=213 −3
United States Ben Crenshaw 71-72-70=213
United States Lon Hinkle 69-70-74=213
United States Peter Jacobsen 71-70-72=213
T10 United States Gay Brewer 75-68-71=214 −2
Australia David Graham 70-70-74=214
United States Hubert Green 70-70-74=214
United States Johnny Miller 69-72-73=214
United States Jerry Pate 71-72-71=214
United States Dave Stockton 72-72-70=214
United States Lanny Wadkins 72-71-71=214

Source:

Final round

Sunday, April 12, 1981

Final leaderboard

Champion
Silver Cup winner (low amateur)
(a) = amateur
(c) = past champion
Top 10
Place Player Score To par Money (US$)
1 United States Tom Watson (c) 71-68-70-71=280 −8 60,000
T2 United States Johnny Miller 69-72-73-68=282 −6 30,500
United States Jack Nicklaus (c) 70-65-75-72=282
4 Australia Greg Norman 69-70-72-72=283 −5 16,000
T5 United States Tom Kite 74-72-70-68=284 −4 12,667
United States Jerry Pate 71-72-71-70=284
7 Australia David Graham 70-70-74-71=285 −3 11,167
T8 United States Ben Crenshaw 71-72-70-73=286 −2 9,667
United States Raymond Floyd (c) 75-71-71-69=286
United States John Mahaffey 72-71-69-74=286

Sources:

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
United States Watson −7 −8 −8 −8 −8 −7 −7 −8 −7 −7 −7 −7 −7 −7 −8 −8 −8 −8
United States Miller −3 −4 −4 −3 −3 −2 −2 −3 −4 −3 −3 −3 −4 −5 −5 −5 −6 −6
United States Nicklaus −6 −6 −6 −6 −6 −6 −5 −5 −4 −4 −4 −4 −5 −4 −5 −6 −6 −6
Australia Norman −5 −5 −4 −4 −4 −4 −5 −5 −5 −3 −3 −3 −4 −4 −5 −5 −5 −5
United States Kite E E −1 −1 E E E E E E E −1 −2 −2 −3 −3 −4 −4
United States Pate −2 −3 −4 −3 −3 −2 −2 −2 −2 −3 −3 −1 −2 −2 −3 −3 −4 −4

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
Source:

References

  1. ^ "Masters Scores". Youngstown Vindicator. (Ohio). Associated Press. April 13, 1981. p. 17.
  2. ^ "Nicklaus has 65, tops Masters". Wilmington Morning Star. (North Carolina). Associated Press. April 11, 1981. p. 1D.
  3. ^ Jenkins, Dan (April 20, 1981). "True Grit at Augusta". Sports Illustrated. p. 34.
  4. ^ "Watson wins second Masters". Toledo Blade. (Ohio). April 13, 1981. p. 17.
  5. ^ Green, Bob (April 13, 1981). "Watson holds on for Masters win". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. p. 13.
  6. ^ "Masters sports bent grass furor". The Dispatch. (Lexington, North Carolina). Associated Press. April 8, 1981. p. 13.
  7. ^ "Nicklaus, Watson remain the ones to watch". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. April 9, 1981. p. 37.
  8. ^ Boswell, Thomas (April 7, 1982). "Everything normal at Augusta National". Tuscaloosa News. (Alabama). p. 21.
  9. ^ "Masters scores". Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). Associated Press. April 10, 1981. p. 26.
  10. ^ "Golf scoreboard: Masters". Pittsburgh Press. April 11, 1981. p. A9.
  11. ^ "Golf: Masters leaders". Wilmington Morning Star. (North Carolina). April 11, 1981. p. 2D.
  12. ^ "Golf: Masters leaders". Sunday Star-News. (Wilmington, North Carolina). April 12, 1981. p. 2D.
  13. ^ "Masters – Past Winners & Results". Augusta National Inc. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  14. ^ "Past results – Masters tournament". PGA Tour. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
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