1975 Masters Tournament

Tournament information
Dates	April 10–13, 1975
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
Length	7,020 yards (6,419 m)[1][2]
Field	76 players, 46 after cut
Cut	148 (+4)
Winner's share	$40,000
Champion
Jack Nicklaus
276 (−12)
Location Map
Augusta National Location in the United States Show map of the United States Augusta National Location in Georgia Show map of Georgia
← 1974 1976 →

The 1975 Masters Tournament was the 39th Masters Tournament, held April 10–13 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

Jack Nicklaus won his fifth Masters and thirteenth major title, one stroke ahead of runners-up Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} At age 40, Lee Elder became the first African-American to compete at the tournament,^[8][9] but missed the cut by four strokes.^[10][11]

The 1975 Masters is widely considered to be one of the greatest majors ever, with three great players at the peak of their games dueling in a thrilling Sunday finish.^[5][12]

Had a playoff been required, it would have been a full 18-hole round on Monday. Prior to the next Masters in 1976, a sudden-death format was introduced and was first used in 1979.^[13]

Nicklaus won his sixth green jacket eleven years later in 1986 at age 46.

Course

Field

1. Masters champions

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

• Jack Burke Jr., Jimmy Demaret, Ralph Guldahl, Claude Harmon, Ben Hogan, Herman Keiser, Cary Middlecoff, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard, and Gene Sarazen did not play.

The following categories only apply to Americans

2. U.S. Open champions (last five years)

Hale Irwin (8,9), Johnny Miller (8,11), Lee Trevino (3,4,10,11,12)

3. The Open champions (last five years)

Tom Weiskopf (8,9,11,12)

4. PGA champions (last five years)

Dave Stockton (8,11)

5. 1974 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists

John Grace (a), Gary Koch (7,a), Jerry Pate (6,7,a), Curtis Strange (7,a)

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

Dick Siderowf (a), Craig Stadler (a)

7. Members of the 1974 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team

George Burns (a)

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1974 Masters Tournament

Buddy Allin (9,11), Miller Barber (11), Frank Beard (9), Jim Colbert (9,11), Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd (9), Hubert Green (10,11), Jerry Heard, Dave Hill (10,11,12), Ralph Johnston, Bobby Nichols (11), Phil Rodgers, Chi-Chi Rodríguez (12), Dan Sikes

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1974 U.S. Open

Forrest Fezler (11), Lou Graham (12), Tom Kite, John Mahaffey, Mike Reasor, Tom Watson (11), Bert Yancey, Larry Ziegler (11)

10. Top eight players and ties from 1974 PGA Championship

Al Geiberger (11)

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Rod Curl, Terry Diehl, Lee Elder, Pat Fitzsimons, Gary Groh, Richie Karl, Gene Littler, Mac McLendon, Bob Menne, Allen Miller, Bob Murphy, J. C. Snead (12), Ed Sneed

12. Members of the U.S. 1973 Ryder Cup team

Homero Blancas

13. Foreign invitations

Isao Aoki, Hugh Baiocchi, Maurice Bembridge (8), Bob Charles, Bobby Cole (10), Bruce Crampton (8), Roberto De Vicenzo, Bruce Devlin, Dale Hayes, Tony Jacklin (2), Lu Liang-Huan, Graham Marsh, Peter Oosterhuis, Masashi Ozaki, Victor Regalado (11)

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

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 10, 1975

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Bobby Nichols	67	−5
T2	Allen Miller	68	−4
	Jack Nicklaus
T4	Arnold Palmer	69	−3
	J. C. Snead
	Tom Weiskopf
T7	Billy Casper	70	−2
	Bob Murphy
	Tom Watson
T10	Tommy Aaron	71	−1
	Jerry Heard
	Mac McLendon
	Jerry Pate (a)
	Sam Snead
	Lee Trevino
	Larry Ziegler

• (a) = amateur

Source:^[14]

Second round

Friday, April 11, 1975

Snead, age 62, was one-over-par after 27 holes when he withdrew due to a back injury.^[10]

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Jack Nicklaus	68-67=135	−9
T2	Billy Casper	70-70=140	−4
	Arnold Palmer	69-71=140
	Tom Watson	70-70=140
T5	Homero Blancas	72-69=141	−3
	Pat Fitzsimons	73-68=141
	Bobby Nichols	67-74=141
	J. C. Snead	69-72=141
	Lee Trevino	71-70=141
	Tom Weiskopf	69-72=141

Source:^[11]

Third round

Saturday, April 12, 1975

Nicklaus entered the weekend with a five-shot lead but struggled with a one-over 73 in the final pairing with Arnold Palmer. Weiskopf carded a 66 (−6) to take a one-stroke lead and Miller a 65 to climb into solo third.^[15] Nicklaus three-putted four times on Saturday and was three-over-par on the last four holes to lose the lead.^[15]

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Tom Weiskopf	69-72-66=207	−9
2	Jack Nicklaus	68-67-73=208	−8
3	Johnny Miller	75-71-65=211	−5
4	Tom Watson	70-70-72=212	−4
T5	Billy Casper	70-70-73=213	−3
	Bobby Nichols	67-74-72=213
T7	Buddy Allin	73-69-73=215	−1
	Hubert Green	74-71-70=215
	Allen Miller	68-75-72=215
	Arnold Palmer	69-71-75=215
	Lee Trevino	71-70-74=215

Source:^[2][15]

Final round

Sunday, April 13, 1975

Summary

Although Nicklaus was in solo second after 54 holes, he played with Tom Watson in the penultimate pairing, followed by Miller and leader Weiskopf.^[9] Nicklaus was three-under for the round and led Weiskopf by a stroke at the 14th tee, but he bogeyed while Weiskopf birdied for a two-shot swing and a lead change. On the par-3 16th hole, Nicklaus listened on the green as both Weiskopf and Miller birdied on the 15th green, as he had done. Nicklaus then sank a 40-foot (12 m) birdie putt, while Weiskopf and Miller watched from the 16th tee. Weiskopf left his tee shot 80 feet (24 m) short and bogeyed, while Miller made par and birdied 17.^[3]

Both were a stroke behind with makeable birdie putts on the 72nd green to tie Nicklaus, who had just missed his 12-foot (3.7 m) birdie attempt. Miller missed left and low from 18 feet (5.5 m) while Weiskopf's eight-footer (2.4 m) missed right.^[3][9]

Final leaderboard

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Jack Nicklaus (c)	68-67-73-68=276	−12	40,000
T2	Johnny Miller	75-71-65-66=277	−11	21,250
	Tom Weiskopf	69-72-66-70=277
T4	Hale Irwin	73-74-71-64=282	−6	12,500
	Bobby Nichols	67-74-72-69=282
6	Billy Casper (c)	70-70-73-70=283	−5	7,500
7	Dave Hill	75-71-70-68=284	−4	6,000
T8	Hubert Green	74-71-70-70=285	−3	4,500
	Tom Watson	70-70-72-73=285
T10	Tom Kite	72-74-71-69=286	−2	3,600
	J. C. Snead	69-72-75-70=286
	Lee Trevino	71-70-74-71=286

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T13	Arnold Palmer (c)	69-71-75-72=287	−1	3,250
	Larry Ziegler	71-73-74-69=287
T15	Bobby Cole	73-71-73-71=288	E	2,900
	Rod Curl	72-70-76-70=288
	Bruce Devlin	72-70-76-70=288
	Allen Miller	68-75-72-73=288
	Art Wall Jr. (c)	72-74-72-70=288
T20	Buddy Allin	73-69-73-74=289	+1	2,550
	Ralph Johnston	74-73-69-73=289
T22	Hugh Baiocchi	76-72-72-70=290	+2	2,275
	Pat Fitzsimons	73-68-79-70=290
	Gene Littler	72-72-72-74=290
	Graham Marsh	75-70-74-71=290
T26	Miller Barber	74-72-72-73=291	+3	2,000
	Maurice Bembridge	75-72-75-69=291
	Jerry Heard	71-75-72-73=291
	Dave Stockton	72-72-73-74=291
T30	George Burns (a)	72-72-76-72=292	+4	0
	Ben Crenshaw	72-71-75-74=292		1,950
	Forrest Fezler	76-71-71-74=292
	Raymond Floyd	72-73-79-68=292
	Gary Player (c)	72-74-73-73=292
	Victor Regalado	76-72-72-72=292
	Bert Yancey	74-71-74-73=292
37	Jerry Pate (a)	71-75-78-69=293	+5	0
T38	Tommy Aaron (c)	71-75-76-72=294	+6	1,850
	Gary Groh	72-76-71-75=294
T40	Charles Coody (c)	72-75-75-73=295	+7	1,850
	Lou Graham	72-72-77-74=295
42	Bob Murphy	70-72-80-74=296	+8	1,750
T43	Homero Blancas	72-69-79-77=297	+9	1,700
	Lu Liang-Huan	73-74-78-72=297
	Masashi Ozaki	73-73-83-68=297
46	Richie Karl	72-75-79-76=302	+14	1,650
CUT	Gay Brewer (c)	77-72=149	+5
	Roberto De Vicenzo	74-75=149
	Mac McLendon	71-78=149
	Mike Reasor	74-75=149
	Phil Rodgers	77-72=149
	Chi-Chi Rodríguez	74-75=149
	Frank Beard	76-74=150	+6
	Bob Charles	76-74=150
	Jim Colbert	75-75=150
	Terry Diehl	72-78=150
	Al Geiberger	79-71=150
	Ed Sneed	74-76=150
	Isao Aoki	75-76=151	+7
	Dale Hayes	77-74=151
	Tony Jacklin	77-74=151
	Gary Koch (a)	77-74=151
	Peter Oosterhuis	79-72=151
	George Archer (c)	80-72=152	+8
	Lee Elder	74-78=152
	Doug Ford (c)	78-74=152
	John Mahaffey	77-75=152
	Curtis Strange (a)	75-77=152
	Bob Goalby (c)	81-72=153	+9
	Dick Siderowf (a)	75-78=153
	John Grace (a)	79-75=154	+10
	Bruce Crampton	76-79=155	+11
	Craig Stadler (a)	80-76=156	+12
	Bob Menne	76-82=158	+14
	Dan Sikes	76-82=158
WD	Sam Snead (c)	71	−1

Sources:^[16][17]

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	−7	−8	−9	−9	−10	−10	−10	−10	−11	−11	−11	−11	−11	−10	−11	−12	−12	−12
Miller	−5	−6	−5	−6	−6	−7	−7	−8	−9	−9	−8	−8	−9	−9	−10	−10	−11	−11
Weiskopf	−9	−9	−10	−10	−10	−11	−11	−11	−11	−11	−10	−10	−10	−11	−12	−11	−11	−11
Irwin	+2	+1	E	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−2	−3	−3	−3	−4	−4	−5	−5	−6	−6
Nichols	−3	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6
Watson	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−5	−6	−6	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−2	−2	−3

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey

Triple bogey+

Source:^[8][18]