1986 Masters Tournament

Tournament information
Dates	April 10–13, 1986
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	6,905 yards (6,314 m)[1]
Field	88 players, 48 after cut
Cut	149 (+5)
Prize fund	$785,000
Winner's share	$144,000
Champion
Jack Nicklaus
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
← 1985 1987 →

The 1986 Masters Tournament was the 50th Masters Tournament, held April 10–13 at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

Jack Nicklaus won his record 18th professional major with a historic one-stroke victory. He shot a final round 65 (−7), with a back nine of 30 (−6), for a total score of 279 (−9).^[2][3] At age 46, he became the oldest winner of the Masters and the second-oldest winner of any major championship, behind Julius Boros, who was 48 when he captured the PGA Championship in 1968 (until they were both passed by Phil Mickelson when he won the 2021 PGA Championship aged 50). The win also gave Nicklaus a record six Masters victories, the first in 1963, less than ten months after his first major win at the 1962 U.S. Open. The 23-year span of Masters victories and 24-year span of major victories are also records. The runners-up were Tom Kite and Greg Norman, whose near-misses at the Masters are also noteworthy. The winner's share was $144,000, more than seven times what Nicklaus earned for his first Augusta win.

Course

Field

1. Masters champions

Tommy Aaron, George Archer, Seve Ballesteros (3,8,9), Gay Brewer, Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd (4,8,11,12,13), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Bernhard Langer (8,11,12), Jack Nicklaus (8), Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Craig Stadler (8,12,13), Tom Watson (2,3,8,10,12), Fuzzy Zoeller (2,9,11,12,13)

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

The following categories only apply to Americans

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

Larry Nelson (4)

• Andy North (9,12,13) did not play.

3. The Open champions (last five years)

Bill Rogers

4. PGA champions (last five years)

Hubert Green (10,12,13), Hal Sutton (11,12,13), Lee Trevino (8,10)

5. 1985 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists

Chip Drury (a), Peter Persons (a), Sam Randolph (6,7,8,a)

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

Scott Verplank (7,11,a)

7. Members of the 1985 U.S. Walker Cup team

Bob Lewis (a), Jay Sigel (a), Michael Podolak (a), Randy Sonnier (a)

• Clark Burroughs, Jerry Haas, Davis Love III, and Duffy Waldorf forfeited their exemptions by turning professional.

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1985 Masters Tournament

Fred Couples (10), Jay Haas (9), Gary Hallberg, Billy Kratzert, Gary Koch, Wayne Levi (11,12), Bruce Lietzke, John Mahaffey (11,12), Mark McCumber, Mark O'Meara (9,12,13), Tim Simpson (11), Curtis Strange (11,12,13), Jim Thorpe (11,12), Lanny Wadkins (9,11,12,13)

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1985 U.S. Open

Andy Bean (10,11), Rick Fehr, Hale Irwin (11), Tom Kite (11,12,13), Johnny Miller, Corey Pavin (11,12), Don Pooley, Jack Renner (12), Tony Sills, Scott Simpson, Joey Sindelar (11,12), Payne Stewart (12)

10. Top eight players and ties from 1985 PGA Championship

Buddy Gardner

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Phil Blackmar (12), George Burns (12), Bob Eastwood, Danny Edwards (12), Dan Forsman, Bill Glasson (12), Ken Green, Donnie Hammond, Kenny Knox, Roger Maltbie (12), Calvin Peete (12,13), Doug Tewell, Bob Tway, Mark Wiebe

12. Top 30 players from the 1985 PGA Tour money list

Peter Jacobsen (13), Larry Mize, Mac O'Grady, Dan Pohl, Larry Rinker

13. Members of the U.S. 1985 Ryder Cup team

14. Foreign invitations

Isao Aoki (8), Dave Barr (9), Chen Tze-chung (9), Chen Tze-ming (10), David Graham (2,8), Jack Kay Jr. (5,a), Sandy Lyle (3,11), Garth McGimpsey (6,a), Tsuneyuki Nakajima, Greg Norman (9), Nick Price (10), Denis Watson (9)

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

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 10, 1986

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Ken Green	68	−4
	Billy Kratzert
T3	Chen Tze-chung	69	−3
	Gary Koch
T5	Dave Barr	70	−2
	Tsuneyuki Nakajima
	Greg Norman
	Tom Kite
	Bob Tway
	Tom Watson

Second round

Friday, April 11, 1986

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Seve Ballesteros	71-68=139	−5
2	Billy Kratzert	68-72=140	−4
3	Tsuneyuki Nakajima	70-71=141	−3
T4	Chen Tze-chung	69-73=142	−2
	Ben Crenshaw	71-71=142
	Danny Edwards	71-71=142
	Greg Norman	70-72=142
	Bernhard Langer	74-68=142
T9	Gary Koch	69-74=143	−1
	Mark McCumber	76-67=143
	Corey Pavin	71-72=143
	Bob Tway	70-73=143

Third round

Saturday, April 12, 1986

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Greg Norman	70-72-68=210	−6
T2	Seve Ballesteros	71-68-72=211	−5
	Bernhard Langer	74-68-69=211
	Donnie Hammond	73-71-67=211
	Nick Price	79-69-63=211
T6	Tsuneyuki Nakajima	70-71-71=212	−4
	Tom Kite	70-74-68=212
	Tom Watson	70-74-68=212
T9	Danny Edwards	71-71-72=214	−2
	Gary Koch	69-74-71=214
	Sandy Lyle	76-70-68=214
	Mark McCumber	76-67-71=214
	Jack Nicklaus	74-71-69=214
	Corey Pavin	71-72-71=214
	Bob Tway	70-73-71=214

Final round

Sunday, April 13, 1986

Summary

In one of the most memorable and exciting final rounds in Masters history, five different players held at least a share of the lead in the final round. Seve Ballesteros gained a share of the lead on the front 9 helped by a hole-out eagle at 8. Jack Nicklaus played his first eight holes in even par, but stormed into contention with birdies at 9, 10 and 11. However, Nicklaus bogeyed the 12th to fall three behind the leaders. Greg Norman, tied for the lead at −7 as he made the turn, double-bogeyed the 10th hole to give Ballesteros the outright lead by one shot over Tom Kite. Ballesteros hit his second shot at 13 to within six feet. After Kite lagged up his own eagle putt on 13, Ballesteros holed his putt for his second eagle of the day and a three shot lead over Kite. Kite then holed his birdie putt to cut the lead back to two.

After a par at 14, Nicklaus began his legendary charge at 15. After hitting his 204-yard (187 m) approach to 12 feet (3.7 m), he buried the putt for eagle to pull within two shots of Ballesteros. Nicklaus then hit his tee shot on 16 to within 3 feet and after holing his birdie putt he was within one shot of Ballesteros who was playing the 15th hole. Ballesteros, who was in prime position to go for the green in two, pull hooked his approach into the water. After failing to get up and down, Ballesteros bogeyed the hole, giving Nicklaus a share of the lead. Kite made birdie at 15 to enter into a three-way tie with Ballesteros and Nicklaus. After a wayward drive, Nicklaus hit his approach on 17 to 18 feet (5.5 m). After long deliberation, he holed his putt on 17 for sole possession of the lead for the first time in the tournament. He two-putted for par on 18 to post −9 and a one shot lead.^[4]

Ballesteros three-putted the 17th to fall out of contention, but Kite had 12 feet for birdie on 18 to tie Nicklaus. Kite barely missed his putt on the high side to miss a playoff by one shot. Norman, left for dead after his double-bogey on 10, birdied 14, 15 and 16 to pull within one shot of the lead. After hooking his drive way left on 17, Norman made an incredible shot between two pines to within eight feet. Norman buried the birdie putt, his fourth straight, to tie for the lead. Norman then hit a perfect drive on 18, needing birdie for his first major championship. However, Norman pushed his approach shot into the gallery and subsequently missed his 15-foot (4.6 m) par putt to finish one stroke behind. Nicklaus had stormed back, shooting 30 on the back nine, to win his sixth Masters title and became the oldest Masters champion at age 46.^[5][6]

Both Ballesteros and Norman stated the most regretful shots of their careers were during the final round of the 1986 Masters. For Ballesteros it was his approach shot to the 15th hole and for Norman his approach shot to the 18th.^[7][8]

Final leaderboard

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Jack Nicklaus (c)	74-71-69-65=279	−9	144,000
T2	Tom Kite	70-74-68-68=280	−8	70,400
	Greg Norman	70-72-68-70=280
4	Seve Ballesteros (c)	71-68-72-70=281	−7	38,400
5	Nick Price	79-69-63-71=282	−6	32,000
T6	Jay Haas	76-69-71-67=283	−5	27,800
	Tom Watson (c)	70-74-68-71=283
T8	Tsuneyuki Nakajima	70-71-71-72=284	−4	23,200
	Payne Stewart	75-71-69-69=284
	Bob Tway	70-73-71-70=284

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T11	Donnie Hammond	73-71-67-74=285	−3	16,960
	Sandy Lyle	76-70-68-71=285
	Mark McCumber	76-67-71-71=285
	Corey Pavin	71-72-71-71=285
	Calvin Peete	75-71-69-70=285
T16	Dave Barr	70-77-71-68=286	−2	12,000
	Ben Crenshaw (c)	71-71-74-70=286
	Gary Koch	69-74-71-72=286
	Bernhard Langer (c)	74-68-69-75=286
	Larry Mize	75-74-72-65=286
T21	Curtis Strange	73-74-68-72=287	−1	9,300
	Fuzzy Zoeller (c)	73-73-69-72=287
T23	Chen Tze-chung	69-73-75-71=288	E	8,000
	Roger Maltbie	71-75-69-73=288
T25	Bill Glasson	72-74-72-71=289	+1	6,533
	Peter Jacobsen	75-73-68-73=289
	Scott Simpson	76-72-67-74=289
T28	Danny Edwards	71-71-72-76=290	+2	5,667
	David Graham	76-72-74-68=290
	Johnny Miller	74-70-77-69=290
T31	Fred Couples	72-77-70-72=291	+3	4,875
	Bruce Lietzke	78-70-68-75=291
	Dan Pohl	76-70-72-73=291
	Lanny Wadkins	78-71-73-69=291
35	Wayne Levi	73-76-67-76=292	+4	4,300
T36	Rick Fehr	75-74-69-75=293	+5	3,850
	Hubert Green	71-75-73-74=293
	Larry Nelson	73-73-71-76=293
	Sam Randolph (a)	75-73-72-73=293		0
	Tony Sills	76-73-73-71=293		3,850
41	Don Pooley	77-72-73-72=294	+6	3,400
T42	Billy Kratzert	68-72-76-79=295	+7	3,200
	John Mahaffey	79-69-72-75=295
44	Ken Green	68-78-74-76=296	+8	3,000
T45	Phil Blackmar	76-73-73-76=298	+10	2,700
	Jim Thorpe	74-74-73-77=298
47	Lee Trevino	76-73-73-77=299	+11	2,500
48	Mark O'Meara	74-73-81-73=301	+13	2,300
CUT	Gary Player (c)	77-73=150	+6
	Craig Stadler (c)	74-76=150
	Andy Bean	75-76=151	+7
	Bob Eastwood	79-72=151
	Buddy Gardner	74-77=151
	Gary Hallberg	78-73=151
	Kenny Knox	75-76=151
	George Burns	74-78=152	+8
	Raymond Floyd (c)	74-78=152
	Dan Forsman	78-74=152
	Hale Irwin	76-76=152
	Bob Lewis (a)	74-78=152
	Mac O'Grady	82-70=152
	Jay Sigel (a)	74-78=152
	Joey Sindelar	79-73=152
	Hal Sutton	80-72=152
	Gay Brewer (c)	77-76=153	+9
	Billy Casper (c)	78-75=153
	Charles Coody (c)	76-77=153
	Chip Drury (a)	76-77=153
	Peter Persons (a)	76-77=153
	Jack Renner	76-77=153
	Jack Kay Jr. (a)	80-74=154	+10
	Larry Rinker	73-81=154
	Doug Tewell	74-80=154
	Scott Verplank (a)	77-77=154
	Mark Wiebe	76-78=154
	George Archer (c)	75-80=155	+11
	Tommy Aaron (c)	79-77=156	+12
	Isao Aoki	79-77=156
	Doug Ford (c)	78-78=156
	Garth McGimpsey (a)	78-78=156
	Arnold Palmer (c)	80-76=156
	Michael Podolak (a)	82-74=156
	Bill Rogers	80-76=156
	Denis Watson	80-76=156
	Tim Simpson	78-79=157	+13
	Randy Sonnier (a)	81-77=158	+14
	Chen Tze-ming	79-81=160	+16
	Bob Goalby (c)	79-81=160

Sources:^[9][10]

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	−2	−3	−3	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−3	−4	−5	−4	−5	−5	−7	−8	−9	−9
Kite	−3	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6	−7	−7	−8	−8	−8	−8
Norman	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−7	−5	−5	−5	−5	−6	−7	−8	−9	−8
Ballesteros	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−6	−8	−7	−7	−7	−7	−9	−9	−8	−8	−7	−7
Price	−5	−5	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−5	−4	−4	−4	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6
Watson	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4	−5	−6	−6	−6	−5
Nakajima	−4	−5	−5	−4	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4
Hammond	−4	−5	−4	−4	−3	−3	−2	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−2	−3	−3	−3	−3
Langer	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−2

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey

Source:^[3][11]

Tournament notes

• Jack Nicklaus increased his record for most Masters wins to six, and most major championship wins to 18.
• Nicklaus became (and remains) the oldest winner of a Masters at 46 years, 82 days; the previous oldest was Gary Player at 42 in 1978.
• Nicklaus tied the course record with a 30 on the second nine in the final round, while Nick Price shot a 30 on the second nine a day earlier (tied with four others). Nicklaus' 30 included a bogey, at the par-3 12th. The record for the back nine is now 29, set in the fourth round in 1992 by Mark Calcavecchia, and tied by David Toms in the fourth round in 1998.
• Gary Koch won the Par 3 contest with a score of 23 (−4); he tied for 16th at 286 (−2)
• Nick Price set a course record with his third-round 63 (−9), later tied by Greg Norman in the first round in 1996.
  • The previous course record of 64 was set by Lloyd Mangrum in 1940.
• Price set a single-round record at Augusta with ten birdies in round 3; the record is now eleven birdies (Anthony Kim, second round, 2009).
• Sam Randolph was low amateur for the second consecutive year.

Quotes

• "Yes sir! The battle is joined. My goodness. There is life in the old Bear yet." – Ben Wright's (CBS Sports) call as Nicklaus sank his eagle putt on the 15th hole to pull within two shots of the lead.
• "And there's no doubt about it, the Bear has come out of hibernation." – Jim Nantz's (CBS Sports) call as Nicklaus sank his 3-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole to pull within one shot of the lead.
• "Oh he's pulled it! Oh he has pull hooked that! That's destined for the water! And the foreign invasion is reeling under the Bear's attack!" – Ben Wright's call as Ballesteros pulled his second shot into the water at 15.
• "Maybe... Yes sir!" – Verne Lundquist's (CBS Sports) call as Nicklaus made his 18-foot (5 m) birdie putt on the 17th hole to take sole possession of the lead for the first time in the tournament.