The 1977 Masters Tournament was the 41st Masters Tournament, held April 7–10 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

Tom Watson, age 27, won the first of his two green jackets, two strokes ahead of runner-up Jack Nicklaus. The two were tied after 68 holes, then Watson birdied the par-4 17th. Needing a birdie to tie, Nicklaus bogeyed the final hole, one of 19 times in his career that he was the runner-up in a major championship. It was the second of Watson's eight major championships, and he won a second Masters in 1981.

The pair again dueled for a major title in the final round in July in Scotland, at the Open Championship at Turnberry, also won by Watson.

Although he had won a major in 1975 and led the PGA Tour in season earnings entering this Masters, Watson had been labeled a "choker" early in his pro career, known for relinquishing leads in the final round of majors and regular events. Notable among these was the U.S. Open in 1974 at Winged Foot; his win here and in Scotland put that to rest.

Field 1. Masters champions Tommy Aaron, George Archer (11), Gay Brewer (8), Billy Casper (8,12), Charles Coody (8,10), Raymond Floyd (8,9,10,12), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus (2,4,8,9,10,11,12), Arnold Palmer, Gary Player (3,4), Sam Snead, 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) Lou Graham (8,12), Hale Irwin (8,12), Johnny Miller (3,8,9,12), Jerry Pate (9,10,11)

3. The Open champions (last five years) Tom Watson (9,11), Tom Weiskopf (8,9,10,12)

Lee Trevino (4,11,12) was recovering from back surgery and did not play

4. PGA champions (last five years) Dave Stockton (10)

5. 1976 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists James T. Mason (a), Cary Parker Moore Jr. (a), Bill Sander (6,7,a), Stan Souza (a)

6. Previous two U.S. Amateur and Amateur champions Vinny Giles (a), Fred Ridley (7,a), Dick Siderowf (7,a)

7. Members of the 1976 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team John Fought (a)

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1976 Masters Tournament Buddy Allin (11), Jim Colbert, Ben Crenshaw (9,10,11), Al Geiberger (9,11,12), Hubert Green (9), Dave Hill (11), Tom Kite (11), Gene Littler (12), Roger Maltbie (11), Rik Massengale (11), Jerry McGee (10), Curtis Strange, Larry Ziegler (11)

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1976 U.S. Open Butch Baird (11), Rod Funseth, Mark Hayes (11), Don January (10,11), Lyn Lott, Mike Morley, Andy North, J. C. Snead (11,12)

John Mahaffey was injured and did not play

10. Top eight players and ties from 1976 PGA Championship Gil Morgan, John Schlee

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters Andy Bean, Woody Blackburn, Danny Edwards, Lee Elder, Gibby Gilbert, Joe Inman, Gary Koch, Billy Kratzert, Bruce Lietzke, Mac McLendon, Tom Purtzer, Bob Wynn

Blackburn and Kratzert were the winners of the Walt Disney World National Team Championship. Subsequent winners of this pairs event did not receive an invitation.

12. Members of the U.S. 1975 Ryder Cup team Bob Murphy

13. Foreign invitations Isao Aoki, Seve Ballesteros, Bruce Devlin (8), David Graham (10,11), Dale Hayes (8), Tommy Horton, John Lister (11), Graham Marsh (8,11), Takashi Murakami, Jack Newton, Christy O'Connor Jnr, Peter Oosterhuis (8), Bob Shearer

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

Round summaries First round Thursday, April 7, 1977 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Hubert Green 67 −5T2 Don January 69 −3 Billy Kratzert T4 Hale Irwin 70 −2 Tom Kite Rik Massengale Jerry Pate Tom Watson T9 Buddy Allin 71 −1 Ben Crenshaw Raymond Floyd Mark Hayes Dave Hill Gene Littler Gary Player Source:

Second round Friday, April 8, 1977 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Rod Funseth 72-67=139 −5 Tom Watson 70-69=139 T3 Ben Crenshaw 71-69=140 −4 Billy Kratzert 69-71=140 T5 Hubert Green 67-74=141 −3 Gary Player 71-70=141 Bob Shearer 74-67=141T8 David Graham 75-67=142 −2 Mac McLendon 72-70=142 Jack Nicklaus 72-70=142 Jerry Pate 70-72=142 Source:

Third round Saturday, April 9, 1977 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Ben Crenshaw 71-69-69=209 −7 Tom Watson 70-69-70=209 3 Rik Massengale 70-73-67=210 −6T4 Jim Colbert 72-71-69=212 −4 Jack Nicklaus 72-70-70=212 T6 Rod Funseth 72-67-74=213 −3 Hubert Green 67-74-72=213 Tom Kite 70-73-70=213 Gary Player 71-70-72=213 T10 Danny Edwards 72-74-68=214 −2 Raymond Floyd 71-72-71=214 Hale Irwin 70-74-70=214 Don January 69-76-69=214 Source:

Final round Sunday, April 10, 1977

Final leaderboard Champion Silver Cup winner (low amateur)(a) = amateur(c) = past champion Top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (US$)1 Tom Watson 70-69-70-67=276 −12 40,0002 Jack Nicklaus (c) 72-70-70-66=278 −10 30,000T3 Tom Kite 70-73-70-67=280 −8 17,500 Rik Massengale 70-73-67-70=2805 Hale Irwin 70-74-70-68=282 −6 12,500T6 David Graham 75-67-73-69=284 −4 10,500 Lou Graham 75-71-69-69=284T8 Ben Crenshaw 71-69-69-76=285 −3 5,667 Raymond Floyd (c) 71-72-71-71=285 Hubert Green 67-74-72-72=285 Don January 69-76-69-71=285 Gene Littler 71-72-73-69=285 John Schlee 75-73-69-68=285 Leaderboard below the top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney ($)T14 Billy Casper (c) 72-72-73-69=286 −2 3,000 Jim Colbert 72-71-69-74=286 Rod Funseth 72-67-74-73=286 Jerry Pate 70-72-74-70=286 Tom Weiskopf 73-71-71-71=286T19 George Archer (c) 74-74-69-70=287 −1 2,500 Andy Bean 74-70-71-72=287 Danny Edwards 72-74-68-73=287 Lee Elder 76-68-72-71=287 Gary Player (c) 71-70-72-74=287T24 Billy Kratzert 69-71-78-70=288 E 2,200 Andy North 74-74-71-69=288 Arnold Palmer (c) 76-71-71-70=288 Bob Wynn 75-73-70-70=288T28 Isao Aoki 73-76-70-70=289 +1 2,000 Bruce Lietzke 73-71-72-73=289 Jerry McGee 73-73-72-71=289T31 Graham Marsh 77-72-72-69=290 +2 1,975 Bob Murphy 74-72-71-73=290T33 Seve Ballesteros 74-75-70-72=291 +3 1,950 Mark Hayes 71-72-72-76=291T35 Tommy Aaron (c) 73-72-73-74=292 +4 1,925 Johnny Miller 78-71-69-74=292 Bob Shearer 74-67-75-76=292 Art Wall Jr. (c) 75-74-71-72=292T39 Dave Hill 71-72-76-74=293 +5 1,900 J. C. Snead 72-76-73-72=293 Dave Stockton 73-72-75-73=293T42 Buddy Allin 71-74-75-74=294 +6 1,875 Bruce Devlin 75-69-77-73=294 Gary Koch 78-71-72-73=29445 Mac McLendon 72-70-78-75=295 +7 1,850T46 Lyn Lott 76-72-77-71=296 +8 1,825 Peter Oosterhuis 73-75-76-72=29648 Mike Morley 75-73-73-76=297 +9 1,80049 Bill Sander (a) 80-69-78-72=299 +11 050 John Fought (a) 73-74-78-78=303 +15CUT Charles Coody (c) 72-78=150 +6 Al Geiberger 76-74=150 Bob Goalby (c) 76-74=150 Dale Hayes 75-75=150 Joe Inman 75-75=150 Tom Purtzer 75-75=150 Butch Baird 76-75=151 +7 John Lister 80-71=151 James T. Mason (a) 76-75=151 Takashi Murakami 78-73=151 Dick Siderowf (a) 76-75=151 Gay Brewer (c) 78-74=152 +8 Gibby Gilbert 76-76=152 Tommy Horton 77-75=152 Cary Parker Moore Jr. (a) 76-76=152 Gil Morgan 73-79=152 Woody Blackburn 74-79=153 +9 Roger Maltbie 77-76=153 Jack Newton 76-77=153 Curtis Strange 79-74=153 Doug Ford (c) 77-77=154 +10 Fred Ridley (a) 76-78=154 Larry Ziegler 83-71=154 Christy O'Connor Jnr 78-79=157 +13 Stan Souza (a) 75-83=158 +14 Vinny Giles (a) 82-79=161 +17WD Sam Snead (c) 83 +11

Sources:

Scorecard Hole  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9  101112131415161718Par454343454 443545344 Watson −7−7−7−7−8−9−10−11−11−10−10−10−11−10−11−11−12−12 Nicklaus −5−6−6−6−6−6−6−7−7−8−8−9−10−10−11−11−11−10 Massengale −6−7−7−7−8−8−9−10−10−9−8−8−8−8−8−8−8−8 Crenshaw −7−6−5−5−5−5−5−5−5−5−4−2−2−2−3−3−3−3 Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par EagleBirdieBogeyDouble bogeyTriple bogey+ Source:

References

External links Masters.com – past winners Augusta.com – 1977 Masters leaderboard and scorecards