From legendary wins to heartbreaking losses, our writers and readers share their most memorable moments, all which cement The Masters as one of golf’s most iconic tournaments.
MATT CLEARY
(Golf Australia magazine Senior Writer)
Each year at the Long Reef Members Bar, we gather for “Masters Monday”, which involves breakfast, the Masters on the big screen, followed by a shotgun start in the stableford competition. When Adam Scott holed that winning putt on the second play-off hole, the entire place roared, the President rang a special bell and it was breakfast beer for all. Glorious.
CALLUM HILL
(Golf Australia magazine Digital Editor, Writer)
I have looked forward to the Masters rolling around every April for as long as I can remember. My lasting memory? It was my first flutter with true heartbreak as an impressionable, sport-mad 13-year-old in 2011 when my favourite player at the time, Rory McIlroy, led after three rounds and arrived at the 10th hole and proceeded to smother one massively left off the tee, winding up with a triple-bogey ... The bogey afterwards was just as devastating, and the double-bogey on 12 was when I switched the TV off. True devastation. He shot 80. And as all of you esteemed readers would be well aware of, he still doesn’t have a Green Jacket to show for his battles around Augusta National.
JAMES SMITH
(Golf Australia magazine Editor)
Unfortunately, I will never forget watching Greg Norman’s meltdown at the ’96 Masters on TV. Dad had made sure I’d watched 1986 with him so I could witness Aussie sporting history, so I was slightly cautious this time around, but the way it played out 11 years later was brutal. It felt like this was finally his year. But then, shot by shot, it all fell apart. Missed putts, bad breaks, and Faldo playing near-perfect golf. It was painful to watch. By the time it was over, Norman looked completely shattered. It sucks that, despite all of his amazing wins, that’s the first thing I think of whenever I hear the term “The Shark”. He deserved better, but golf can be cruel, and that day at Augusta, it was downright ruthless.
BRENDAN JAMES
(Course Reviewer; Former Editor, Golf Australia magazine)
For me, like almost every Australian, Adam Scott claiming the Green Jacket in 2013 was, and still is, the greatest ever Masters moment. His historic victory just happened to coincide with my first visit to Augusta National for the year’s first major. It was a week which began with conservative expectations that our small Aussie contingent of players could do well, and ended with Marc Leishman, Jason Day and, of course, Scotty being there at the end.
Today, 12 years on, I can still recall the rumble of the ground as the gallery lost their minds at Scott making his putt on 18, and looking across that final green to see Leishman fist pumping the birdie. That roar was only surpassed later when he claimed the Masters with that breaking putt on 10. What a day then turned into what a night as a few of us in the media joined Adam, his dad, Phil, and caddie, Steve Williams, back at their rented house for a beer. It was a low-key celebration as we stood around in the kitchen hanging off every word from the new Masters Champion, who looked resplendent in the Green Jacket and a pair of board shorts.
MIKE CLAYTON
(Golf Australia magazine course architecture editor)
The mid-1970s was the era of Australian television (Channel 9 and Kerry Packer) finally putting the majors on our screens. The three pros playing the best golf were Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller. Every kid in Australia imagined imitating at least one of them and in 1975 they put on a magical shootout over the final round. Miller, who had played the hottest early season golf, opened with 75, but caught up with 65 on Saturday and 66 on Sunday. Nicklaus hit an incredible one-iron (back when it was properly difficult) to the 15th green and then made an equally outrageous 45-footer up the hill to the back right pin for birdie on 16. Weiskopf, one ahead on the tee, three-putted to go one behind. He bombed an unimaginable drive up the 18th, pitched to 8 feet and agonisingly missed on the high side.
Given their talents, it’s hard to believe neither Miller, Weiskopf (who finished second four times) and Greg Norman never won on Alister MacKenzie’s wonderland. We wonder if the same fate befalls Rory McIlroy.
PAUL PRENDERGAST
(Golf Australia magazine contributing writer)
As an Australian, it’s impossible to go past Adam Scott in 2013. Our first Aussie to win a Green Jacket after the Crampton-Newton-Parry-Norman(s) close calls over the years, but also the Schwartzel birdie tsunami over the closing holes in 2011 which denied Day, Scott and Ogilvy.
We had all been crestfallen for Scottie at the previous year’s Open Championship, when he bogied the last four holes to fall to Els. I was riding the lounge, pacing around over the last few hours, waking the neighbours when the birdie putt fell on the 72nd; was stunned silent with Cabrera’s approach to 18 to force the playoff, then doubled down on the decibel levels again when the playoff putt went in. By this point, my youngest daughter was awake to watch my reaction and I’m happy to admit to being a bit choked up for Scottie at that time. Not simply because he’d won, but for cumulative reasons like overcoming the still-fresh scars of the Lytham collapse nine months earlier, being a good bloke and starting to see his enormous potential being fulfilled.
Honourable mentions go to Nicklaus’ 1986 victory (who can’t recall every shot and putt of the Golden Bear’s final nine?), Tiger in both 1997 and 2019 .... the list could go on.
MARK HAYES
(Golf Australia magazine contributing writer)
It’s nigh on impossible to narrow a lifetime of Masters magic into a few short sentences, but it’s going to be very hard to go past being there for Adam Scott’s mega breakthrough in 2013.
I’d also been there in 2011 when Ogilvy, Scott and Day all had a share of the back 9 lead on Sunday, only to watch in disbelief as Charl Schwartzel played his record-breaking closing four holes to break a nation’s heart.
And when genuinely poor weather and Angel Cabrera threatened Scotty in 2013, it was obvious for all with a green and gold bent to fear the worst.
Trust me, the TV cameras don’t do justice to how dark and tough the playoff conditions were that year, so for a birdie on – of all holes – the brutal 10th to seal Scott’s Green Jacket was next level. I had the great fortune to try (and fail miserably) to recreate that putt in calm, no-pressure conditions a year later and again, you’ll have to trust me, it’s right up there with the greatest strokes in Aussie golf history.
ROD MORRI
(Playing From The Tips and The Thing About Golf podcast host)
If you’re a long-time Australian golf fan, it’s hard to imagine any moment better than Adam Scott’s win in 2013. His curling downhiller in the fading light at Augusta’s 10th green to beat Angel Cabrera in a playoff felt like payback for decades of torture for Australian players – and fans – in Georgia.
It was also Australia’s last great sporting mountain to climb after Cadel Evans knocked off the Tour de France a couple of years earlier.
The iconic photo of the winning moment speaks for a nation. There stands Scott, arms outstretched to the heavens, back arched and screaming at the sky after the putt fell in.
There have been lots of great moments at the Masters, but I suspect, for most Australians, this is the one which stands out.
PETER RUNDLE
(Golf Australia magazine reader)
Adam Scott’s putt to win was incredible. A great day to be an Aussie. I was in Hua Hin with 10 mates in a bar watching the coverage. We left after the win with smiles like
Cheshire cats, but with sore heads. We had to be at the course for an 11.30am game. Understandably my golf game wasn’t wonderful, but I was a proud Aussie, thanks to our first Green Jacket after Greg Norman’s unfortunate events over the years.
STUART LIVERSAGE
(Golf Australia magazine sales manager, Australia and New Zealand)
My favourite memories of the Masters are connected to not just the players, but the commentators and their one-liners when something spectacular has happened. As a junior golfer, it would almost be like a competition that afternoon at the course to see who could come up with the best one-liner from that morning’s play, but generally, like the golf, “it all starts on the back 9 on Sunday”…. And 1986 certainly had a back 9 of one-liners.
“The Bear, the bear is stalking … come on Jack, smile … that’s it.”
“Jack Nicklaus has 200 yards and he never needed an Eagle more … and he has a chance, he has a very, very good chance.”
“Greg Norman, second shot into 13. As the ball slides down the bank, I think he can feel the green coat sliding away.”
“There is no doubt about it; the Bear has come out of hibernation.”
Seve Ballesteros … “that will be a 4-iron … Oh he’s pulled it, he’s pulled-hooked that … it’s destined for the water … and the foreign invasion is reeling under the Bear’s attack”
“Maybe … Yes Sir.”
“Get up … Get up … that was right in the middle, Pat.”
And the one which every Aussie didn’t want to hear: “Greg Norman, he is close to 200 yards to the hole, he has a 4-iron. “Look out right side, look out right gallery.”
KAREN HARDING
(Golf Australia magazine contributing writer)
The Masters has a history of poignant moments – including Australians in near-misses and our lone victory – but it was the tears from Ben Crenshaw in 1995 which had me, and I suspect millions of other viewers, blubbering along with him. The day before the first round of the Masters, Crenshaw had been a pallbearer at the funeral of his coach and life mentor, Harvey Penick.
Penick was a respected and much-loved figure in golf, the author of several books with simple philosophies of the game which appealed to both Hall of Famers and beginners. His Little Red Book is an enduring classic.
Crenshaw had won the Masters 11 years earlier but, at 43, having missed three of his last four cuts, hadn’t broken 70 for two months. Unashamedly grief-stricken, nobody expected him to figure. He had some lucky breaks – a drive hit a tree and bounced back onto the fairway, an approach landed in a bunker and bounced out …
As his ball fell in the 72nd hole for a one-shot win over Davis Love III, Crenshaw bent over, head in hands, before sobbing on the shoulder of his caddy Carl Jackson. Penick, he would say later, was the 15th club in his bag that day 30 years ago.
GARRETT JOHNSTON
(Golf Australia magazine contributing writer)
Two things stand out from being there in 2014. Jordan Spieth’s first-ever Masters. He was must-watch material that week and throughout the year. At his presser that week, Jason Day said, “It’s funny; everyone calls him ‘20-year-old Jordan Spieth’ as if his age is part of his name.” Later on that Masters Sunday, I will never forget the energy and excitement walking with that final group. The big moment came on the fourth hole when Jordan holed out of the bunker. The electric shockwave sent into the gallery was hard to forget. It really felt then and there that no matter what trouble this kid finds, he’s going to get out of it today and win. Though he didn’t win, it was remarkable to watch a young artist perfect his brush stroke in that final group on Sunday.
JOHN HUGGAN
(Golf Australia magazine columnist-at-large, The Thing About Golf podcast host)
It was the end of a long day at Augusta National during Masters week. Hours after the crowds had departed the premises, I was headed for the car park alongside a couple of colleagues. Making our way through the deserted grounds, we headed towards a
large gate which was conveniently open and would expedite our arrival in the aforementioned car park. Ah, but there was a security guard by the aforementioned gate. As we wished him a good evening, he blocked our path and told us we had to walk maybe 50-yards further to another gate, one designated by some unseen power for our departure. Could he not apply commonsense and allow us to walk out the first gate? He could not, even when there was literally no one else there. Welcome to the weird world created by Augusta National, folks.
JIMMY EMANUEL
(Playing From The Tips and The Thing About Golf podcast host)
Like so many Aussie golf fans, most of my Masters memories weren’t good for the longest time ... including The Shark’s capitulation in 1996 being my earliest memory
of tournament golf. In 2013, sitting on the couch and not knowing if coffee or beer was the right celebratory beverage, that all changed, of course.
Personally, though, I can’t top 2019 and the return of Tiger on the ground. From taking my first steps on the property, to seeing the scale of the course in person, to Sunday evening and hearing the patrons chant his name as they left the premises, everything on my Masters debut was perfect … except missing the media ballot to play on Monday.
BRENDAN LAHEY
(Golf Australia magazine reader)
We watched for three days as Greg Norman made 5-footer after 5-footer in the first three rounds to take that six-shot lead into the final round in ’96. Woke up extra early and by the time he nearly chipped in on 15, then into the water on 16, we were devastated. Total disbelief. We were gutted for him (and ourselves, of course).
JOSEPH SPAGNOLO
(Golf Australia magazine reader)
One of my all-time favourite Masters moments is Tiger Woods’ 2019 victory. After years of personal and professional struggles, his emotional win marked a remarkable comeback. The roar of the crowd as he sank the final putt, followed by his heartfelt embrace with his son, encapsulated the essence of resilience and triumph. It was a powerful reminder of the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity, making it a defining moment not just in golf, but in sports history. The joy and inspiration it brought to fans worldwide solidified its place as a cherished memory in the Masters’ legacy.
BOB LONGLAND
(Golf Australia magazine reader)
In 1977, while working in Atlanta GA, I was able to get a four-day ticket to the Masters. There were only 25,000 patrons admitted daily back then, so walking the course and getting up close to the players was relatively easy. It was thrilling to follow my idol, Jack Nicklaus, only to see him defeated by one shot by Tom Watson. Equally memorable was following Bob Shearer in company with his wife, Kathie, as he carded a creditable T35. To this day, and despite the many changes, I can still recall the details of this golfing cathedral.
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