Sometimes a Masters winner comes out of the blue
They're not as a common as the amazing azaleas that grace Augusta National, but every so often the Masters produces a surprise winner that stuns us all. Like lightning strikes out of the Georgia skies, these surprise winners come out of the blue, leave an indelible mark, then disappear into history. Here are five of our most surprising Masters victories.
By John Holmes, PGA.com Interactive Producer
Because the Masters is the only one of golf's four majors to be contested on the same course every year, it has produced fewer surprise winners than any of the other big events. But when an unexpected winner emerges from the azaleas, it's usually a jaw-dropper.
How about Jack Nicklaus' sixth and final victory in 1986, at the age of 46? Nicklaus had built arguably the greatest career in golf and amassed such an amazing record in big events, but almost no one saw the Golden Bear's final rampage to the green jacket coming, especially the way it happened -- with his back-nine 30 on Sunday to become the oldest Masters winner ever and earn the final PGA TOUR victory of his illustrious career.
Or how about Tiger Woods' first Masters victory in 1997? Not only did he win his initial major at the tender age of 21, but he also thumped the field by a whopping 12 shots (and that after posting a 40 on his Thursday front nine), and setting or tying more than two dozen Masters records in the process.
Shockers both, as was Greg Norman's final-round meltdown in 1996, and even the victories by George Archer in 1969 and Charles Coody in 1971 right in the heart of the Nicklaus-Palmer-Player era. But true history-making surprises are a bit like lightning strikes -- they come out of the blue, make their indelible mark and then vanish, never again to be repeated.
Here are, then, the five most surprising winners in Masters history:
5. FUZZY ZOELLER, 1979
Not since Gene Sarazen captured the second Masters in 1935 had a player won at Augusta National in his first appearance -- until Fuzzy Zoeller did so in 1979.
"He was pudgy, had a bad perm, and his name [was] Fuzzy, for God's sake," said golf journalist and author Steve Eubanks, whose books include "Augusta: Home of the Masters Tournament." "(Longtime Masters Tournament Chairman) Cliff Roberts had to be spinning in his grave."
Zoeller had earned his first PGA TOUR victory earlier in 1979, at the Andy Williams San Diego Open, but he wasn't really on the Masters radar screen until the back nine of the last day. Ed Sneed had entered the final round with a five-shot lead and was still ahead of Zoeller by four shots with a mere three holes to play, but three-putted both the 16th and 17th holes and then just missed a 6-footer for par on the 18th that would've won the tournament.
That final bogey dropped Sneed into a playoff with Zoeller and 1977 Masters champion Tom Watson at 8-under 280. The three players all parred the first playoff hole, the 10th, and moved on to the 11th. Sneed found a greenside bunker, while Watson and Zoeller both were safely on the green.
Sneed almost holed his blast out of the sand, then Watson missed his birdie putt. Zoeller holed his -- and won his first and only green jacket, despite never leading until his final putt dropped into the cup. Sneed would never win a major. Watson would go on to win his second Masters in 1981.
4. GAY BREWER, 1967
In the case of Gay Brewer, foreshadowing meant nothing. In 1966, he blew a chance to win by three-putting the 72nd hole to fall into a tie with Jack Nicklaus and Tommy Jacobs. Nicklaus won his third Masters in an 18-hole playoff, in which Brewer ballooned to a 78.
"I would have thought that failure -- three-putting away the title, then playing so poorly in the playoff -- would be more than Brewer could overcome in future Masters," said Ron Green, Sr., the longtime Charlotte-based golf writer, winner of the 2006 PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism and author of "Shouting at Amen Corner," a chronicle of his many years covering the Masters. "A lot I knew."
Hey, who knew? Brewer was a steady but unspectacular performer on the PGA TOUR from the late 1950s to the early 1970s despite a loopy swing developed after he broke his elbow as a child. But he proved his mental toughness in 1967 by playing himself right back into contention, and started the final round two shots behind Bobby Nichols, Julius Boros and Bert Yancey.
Brewer reached the turn in 33, and took the lead on the 13th hole. He charged down the stretch to complete a final-round 67 that was even more impressive beause Augusta National had cut the pins extra-tough that day. No less than Ben Hogan called Brewer's green jacket-clinching round "fantastic."
His one-stroke victory over Nichols was extra-sweet for Brewer, who once caddied for Hogan at an exhibition match in Kentucky and had worked as a car-parker at the Masters one year. The win was his 10th in a six-year stretch on the PGA TOUR, but he didn't win again until the 1972 Canadian Open and didn't return to the top 20 in the Masters again until he tied for 15th in 1981.
3. BOB GOALBY, 1968:
If Gay Brewer's victory in the 1967 Masters was a surprise, then Bob Goalby's triumph the very next year was an absolute jaw-dropper -- not because Goalby wasn't good enough to win but because of the way it transpired.
Goalby had put together a solid career, amassing seven wins in the decade before he arrived at Augusta in 1968, but his best finish in the Masters had been a tie for 25th back in 1962. He fired a final-round 66, though, and thought he was headed to a playoff with reigning British Open champion Roberto de Vicenzo, who had posted a 65, as both had finished at 11-under 277.
Except, of course, for the greatest scorecard incident in the history of professional golf.
De Vicenzo had birdied the par-4 17th hole, but his playing partner, Tommy Aaron, mistakenly put down a 4 on de Vicenzo's card instead of his rightful 3. After the round, De Vicenzo signed the scorecard that incorrectly put him at 10-under 278 -- a shot behind Goalby. And suddenly, Goalby, as shocked as everyone else at Augusta that afternoon, was donning the green jacket.
And while De Vicenzo was most certainly the big loser in the deal, Goalby -- through no fault of his own -- hardly made out like a winner. The golfing public never accepted him as a Masters winner, and he certainly didn't enjoy any kind of financial windfall in the wake of his victory.
"Of course, Goalby might have won anyway as there would have been a playoff the next day," said Eubanks. "He was the most reviled winner, and certainly the most forgotten."
DeVicenzo, who was in his mid-40s at the time of his debacle, never seriously challenged at Augusta National again. Goalby never won another major. But Aaron won a green jacket of his own five years later, in 1973.
2. HERMAN KEISER, 1946
Professional golf, like all the big pro sports, was in a state of flux during the World War II era, and Herman Keiser's eyebrow-raising victory over the great Ben Hogan in the first post-war Masters provided ample proof of that.
"Herman Keiser beating Ben Hogan in 1946, when Hogan was generally considered the best in the world and Keiser was (like many other players on the PGA TOUR) just returning from the war, might top them all," said Jim Huber, TNT Sports' golf commentator and essayist extraordinaire. "Hopefully, it was a memory that lingered strong; he died of Alzheimer's."
Keiser had turned professional in 1935, but only became a PGA TOUR regular in 1945 after serving in the Navy. Keiser and Hogan had separated themselves from the pack on the final day of the 1946 Masters, but Hogan was clearly outclassing Keiser and stood on the 18th green with a 12-foot birdie putt for a 68 and the win.
Shockingly, Hogan missed, then somehow missed again. And his uncharacteristic three-putt left Keiser as the champion despite a closing-round 74 that included his own three-putt on that final green.
"Herman Keiser was probably the least likely" winner in Masters history, said golf historian and author Al Barkow, the 2005 winner of the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism. "He had been a pretty ordinary TOUR player, but he caught (Ben) Hogan on an off moment."
Of the five wins in Keiser's career, three of them -- including the Masters -- came in 1946. He made the 1947 Ryder Cup team, but was the only American to lose at Portland, Ore. It was a big one, too -- the United States was ahead 11-0, and Keiser's loss to Sam King in the final singles match of the event prevented the USA from completing what would have been the only shutout in Ryder Cup history. Hogan, by the way, was the American Ryder Cup captain.
1. LARRY MIZE, 1987
If true surprises are like lightning strikes, then nobody got struck down more dramatically than Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros in 1987, when Larry Mize (whose name, coincidentally enough, rhymes with surprise) capped the greatest week of his life with the greatest shot of his lifetime.
"For my money, it's Larry Mize, who beat two undisputed giants of his era in (Greg) Norman and (Seve) Ballesteros -- in a playoff, no less," said PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent Dave Shedloski. "And he needed a miraculous, one-in-a-billion chip-in to do it, too."
Norman and Ballesteros had tied for second with Tom Kite in 1986, one shot behind the age-defying Nicklaus, and battled each other for the lead down the stretch again in 1987. They finished tied at 3-under 285 and appeared headed for a playoff battle of the titans -- until journeyman Mize, an Augusta boy who as a child had peered over the fence just to get a glimpse of the hallowed grounds, set the stage for the shot of a lifetime.
Mize had actually owned the lead earlier on the back nine, but fumbled away shots at the 14th and 15 holes, leaving many in the gallery to believe this would be just another opportunity on which he couldn't capitalize. He arrived at the 18th tee needing a birdie to join the playoff, and he did just that, hitting a fine tee shot and then an approach to 6 feet.
Norman and Mize parred the first playoff hole, the 10th, while Ballesteros three-putted to fall out. He trudged alone back to the clubhouse, weeping inconsolably. He had won the 1980 and 1983 Masters among five major championships in his stellar career, but would never win another major.
At the 11th, Norman hit a big drive and a stellar iron to 20 feet. Mize, apparently trying to stay away from the water left of the green, pushed his approach shot way right, about 140 feet from the flagstick, and surely every observer agreed he would be lucky to get up and down from there. Hit too softly, the ball would stop well above the pin, leaving a lightning-quick downhill putt for par; too firmly, and it could skid all the way down the green and into the drink.
With a sand wedge, Mize gently lofted it over the worst of the trouble, and it bounced, curved and rolled, and rolled and rolled, miraculously, right into the cup. It remains arguably the most surprising shot in all of tournament golf.
Mize leaped into the air; Norman was floored -- remember, just nine months earlier, he had lost the 1986 PGA Championship when Bob Tway holed a bunker shot on the 72nd hole at Inverness to KO him. After the crowd settled, Norman had a chance to keep the playoff going, but he missed his putt and Mize was the Masters champion.
The Masters was Mize's only major victory, and the second of four wins in his career. It also was his only playoff victory; he lost three others.
Norman won the 1986 and 1993 British Opens among almost 100 worldwide victories, and has built his Great White Shark Enterprises into one of the most diversified and successful businesses in golf. But his heartbreaking playoff loss was as close as he would ever get to a green jacket.