1939 Masters Tournament

Tournament information
Dates	March 31 – April 2, 1939
Location	Augusta, 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 by	Augusta National Golf Club
Tour(s)	PGA Tour
Statistics
Par	72
Field	46 players[1]
Cut	None
Prize fund	$5,000
Winner's share	$1,500
Champion
Ralph Guldahl
279 (−9)
Location map
Augusta National Location in the United States Show map of the United States Augusta National Location in Georgia Show map of Georgia
← 1938 1940 →

The 1939 Masters Tournament was the sixth Masters Tournament, held from March 31 to April 2 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Due to adverse weather conditions, the first round was postponed to Friday and the final two rounds were played on Sunday.^[2]

Ralph Guldahl won his only Masters title with a tournament record 279 (−9), one stroke better than runner-up Sam Snead. He had finished as a runner-up the previous two years, and it was the third of Guldahl's three major titles; he won consecutive U.S. Open titles in 1937 and 1938. The previous Masters record was 282 (−6) in 1935,^[3] and Guldahl's mark stood until 1953, when Ben Hogan shot 274 (−14).

The purse was $5,000 with a winner's share of $1,500. The gallery for Sunday's final two rounds was estimated at 10,000 spectators.^[4] Challenging weather conditions during the second round on Saturday included hail, wind, rain, and some sun breaks.^[5][6]

Field

1. Masters champions

Byron Nelson (7,9,10,12), Henry Picard (7,9,10,12), Gene Sarazen (2,4,6,7,9,10,12), Horton Smith (7,9,10,12)

2. U.S. Open champions

Tommy Armour (4,6,10), Billy Burke (9), Johnny Farrell, Ralph Guldahl (7,9,10), Walter Hagen (4,6), Bobby Jones (3,4,5,9), Tony Manero (7,9)

3. U.S. Amateur champions

Lawson Little (5,9), Jess Sweetser (5,a), Willie Turnesa (11,a)

4. British Open champions

Jock Hutchison (6), Denny Shute (6,7,10)

5. British Amateur champions

Charlie Yates (8,a)

6. PGA champions

Johnny Revolta (7,9,10), Paul Runyan (9,10,12)

7. Members of the U.S. 1937 Ryder Cup team

Ed Dudley (9), Sam Snead (12)

8. Members of the U.S. 1938 Walker Cup team

Ray Billows (a), Tommy Suffern Tailer (9,a)

• Johnny Fischer (3,a), Johnny Goodman (2,3,5,11,a), Fred Haas (a), Chuck Kocsis (9,a), Reynolds Smith (a) and Bud Ward (a) did not play. Tailer was a reserve for the team.

9. Top 30 players and ties from the 1938 Masters Tournament

Harry Cooper (10), Vic Ghezzi (10), Jimmy Hines (10,12), Ben Hogan, Ky Laffoon, Ray Mangrum, Jug McSpaden (10), Dick Metz (10), Felix Serafin, Jimmy Thomson, Frank Walsh, Al Watrous

• Wiffy Cox, Bobby Cruickshank and Sam Parks Jr. (2) did not play.

10. Top 30 players and ties from the 1938 U.S. Open

Joe Belfore, Jim Foulis (12), Frank Moore, Toney Penna

• Olin Dutra (2,6), Willie Hunter (5), Al Huske, Stanley Kertes, Butch Kreuger, Charles Lacey, Ray Mangrum, John Rogers, Charles Sheppard, George Von Elm (3), Al Zimmerman and Emery Zimmerman did not play,

11. 1938 U.S. Amateur quarter-finalists

Dick Chapman (a), Chick Harbert (a), Joe Thompson (a)

• Pat Abbott (a), Chris Brinke (a) and Ed Kingsley (a) did not play.

12. 1938 PGA Championship quarter-finalists

13. Two players, not already qualified, with the best scoring average in the winter part of the 1939 PGA Tour

Jimmy Demaret, Craig Wood

14 Foreign invitations

Stanley Horne

Additional invitation

Ted Adams (a) winner of 1938 Canadian Amateur Championship

Round summaries

First round

Friday, March 31, 1939

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Billy Burke	69	−3
2	Sam Snead	70	−2
T3	Tommy Armour	71	−1
	Byron Nelson
	Henry Picard
T6	Jimmy Demaret	72	E
	Ralph Guldahl
	Ky Laffoon
	Lawson Little
	Dick Metz
	Toney Penna
	Craig Wood

Source:^[7]

Second round

Saturday, April 1, 1939

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Gene Sarazen	73-66=139	−5
T2	Ralph Guldahl	72-68=140	−4
	Byron Nelson	71-69=140
	Sam Snead	70-70=140
5	Billy Burke	69-72=141	−3
6	Henry Picard	71-71=142	−2
7	Lawson Little	72-72=144	E
T8	Tommy Armour	71-74=145	+1
	Craig Wood	72-73=145
T10	Ben Hogan	75-71=146	+2
	Jimmy Thomson	75-71=146

Source:^[5][6]

Third round

Sunday, April 2, 1939   (morning)

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Ralph Guldahl	72-68-70=210	−6
2	Gene Sarazen	73-66-72=211	−5
T3	Billy Burke	69-72-71=212	−4
	Lawson Little	72-72-68=212
	Byron Nelson	71-69-72=212
	Sam Snead	70-70-72=212
7	Craig Wood	72-73-71=216	E
T8	Ben Hogan	75-71-72=218	+2
	Henry Picard	71-71-76=218
T10	Ed Dudley	75-75-69=219	+3
	Toney Penna	72-75-72=219

Final round

Sunday, April 2, 1939   (afternoon)

Final leaderboard

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Ralph Guldahl	72-68-70-69=279	−9	1,500
2	Sam Snead	70-70-72-68=280	−8	800
T3	Billy Burke	69-72-71-70=282	−6	550
	Lawson Little	72-72-68-70=282
5	Gene Sarazen (c)	73-66-72-72=283	−5	400
6	Craig Wood	72-73-71-68=284	−4	300
7	Byron Nelson (c)	71-69-72-75=287	−1	250
8	Henry Picard (c)	71-71-76-71=289	+1	175
9	Ben Hogan	75-71-72-72=290	+2	175
T10	Ed Dudley	75-75-69-72=291	+3	100
	Toney Penna	72-75-72-72=291

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T12	Tommy Armour	71-74-76-72=293	+5	33
	Vic Ghezzi	73-76-72-72=293
	Jug McSpaden	75-72-74-72=293
15	Denny Shute	78-71-73-72=294	+6
T16	Paul Runyan	73-71-75-76=295	+7
	Felix Serafin	74-76-73-72=295
T18	Chick Harbert (a)	74-73-75-74=296	+8
	Jimmy Thomson	75-71-73-77=296
	Charlie Yates (a)	74-73-74-75=296
21	Tommy Suffern Tailer (a)	78-75-73-71=297	+9
T22	Jimmy Hines	76-73-74-75=298	+10
	Ky Laffoon	72-75-73-78=298
	Frank Moore	75-74-75-74=298
25	Al Watrous	75-75-74-75=299	+11
T26	Tony Manero	76-73-77-74=300	+12
	Horton Smith (c)	75-79-74-72=300
	Willie Turnesa (a)	78-70-79-73=300
T29	Jess Sweetser (a)	75-75-75-77=302	+14
	Frank Walsh	76-76-72-78=302
T31	Dick Metz	72-80-77-74=303	+15
	Johnny Revolta	77-74-76-76=303
T33	Harry Cooper	76-77-73-78=304	+16
	Jimmy Demaret	72-81-77-74=304
	Walter Hagen	76-76-76-76=304
	Bobby Jones	76-77-78-73=304
T37	Dick Chapman (a)	78-77-77-77=309	+21
	Jim Foulis	80-76-77-76=309
39	Johnny Farrell	81-75-79-77=312	+24
40	Ted Adams (a)	78-77-83-76=314	+26
41	Ray Billows (a)	75-84-78-80=317	+29
42	Joe Belfore	83-79-78-78=318	+30
43	Joe Thompson	81-84-79-78=322	+34
WD	Jock Hutchison	79-77=156	+12
	Ray Mangrum	77	+5
	Stanley Horne	82	+10

Sources:^[8][9]