The 1978 Masters Tournament was the 42nd Masters Tournament, held April 6–9 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Gary Player overcame a 7-shot deficit going into the final round to win his third Masters and ninth major championship. Player, age 42, shot a record-tying 64 (−8) in the final round to win by one stroke. The runners-up were Rod Funseth, defending champion Tom Watson, and 54-hole leader Hubert Green, the reigning U.S. Open champion, who shot an even-par 72.

Tied for tenth place at the start of the round, Player shot a 30 on the back nine in the summer-like heat. He holed seven putts ranging from , including a final one of for birdie at 18. The leader in the clubhouse, Player had to wait forty minutes for the final groups to finish. Funseth had five birdies, but his two bogeys were both three-putts and he parred the last three holes. Watson eagled 13 and birdied both 15 and 16, but missed an putt for par on the final hole. After a bogey at 16, Green hit an outstanding approach shot at 18 which left a birdie putt from three feet (0.9 m) to tie, but he missed after being inadvertently distracted by a radio announcer.

Player became the oldest winner of the Masters and the first over forty in nearly a quarter century; Sam Snead won his third green jacket at age 41 in 1954. Player retained the honor for eight years, until Jack Nicklaus won his sixth at 46 in 1986.

Field 1. Masters champions Tommy Aaron, George Archer (8), Gay Brewer, Billy Casper (8), Charles Coody (10), Raymond Floyd (8,11,12), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus (4,8,9,10,11,12), Arnold Palmer (8), Gary Player (3,8,9), Sam Snead, Art Wall Jr., Tom Watson (3,8,9,10,11,12)

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 (8,9,10,12), Hubert Green (8,9,11,12), Hale Irwin (8,11,12), Johnny Miller (3), Jerry Pate (8,10,11)

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

4. PGA champions (last five years) Dave Stockton (12), Lee Trevino (11), Lanny Wadkins (10,11,12)

5. 1977 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists Doug Fischesser (a), Ralph Landrum (a), Jay Sigel (7,a)

John Fought (6,7) forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

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

Bill Sander (7) forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

7. Members of the 1977 U.S. Walker Cup team Mike Brannan (a), Gary Hallberg (a), Vance Heafner (a), Lindy Miller (a), Fred Ridley (a)

Scott Simpson forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1977 Masters Tournament Andy Bean, Jim Colbert, Ben Crenshaw (11), Danny Edwards, Lee Elder, Rod Funseth (9), Don January (10,12), Tom Kite, Billy Kratzert (11), Gene Littler (10,11), Rik Massengale, Andy North (11), John Schlee, Bob Wynn

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1977 U.S. Open Wally Armstrong, Terry Diehl, Al Geiberger (10,11), Jay Haas (11), Joe Inman, Gary Jacobson, Lyn Lott, Mike McCullough, Steve Melnyk, Tom Purtzer

10. Top eight players and ties from 1977 PGA Championship Jerry McGee (11,12)

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters Miller Barber, Dave Eichelberger, Mike Hill, Mac McLendon, Gil Morgan, Mike Morley, Bill Rogers, Jim Simons, Ed Sneed (12), Leonard Thompson

12. Members of the U.S. 1977 Ryder Cup team Dave Hill

13. Foreign invitations Isao Aoki, Seve Ballesteros (11), Bobby Cole (11), Antonio Garrido, David Graham (8), Peter McEvoy (6,a), Tsuneyuki Nakajima, Peter Oosterhuis (9), Masashi Ozaki, Manuel Piñero

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

Round summaries First round Thursday, April 6, 1978 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 John Schlee 68 −42 Joe Inman 69 −3T3 Billy Kratzert 70 −2 Lee Trevino T5 Tom Kite 71 −1 Jerry McGee Steve Melnyk T8 Wally Armstrong 72 E Hubert Green Dave Hill Don January Gene Littler Lyn Lott Mac McLendon Jack Nicklaus Jerry Pate Gary Player Leonard Thompson Tom Weiskopf Source:

Second round Friday, April 7, 1978 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Rod Funseth 73-66=139 −5 Lee Trevino 70-69=139T3 Hale Irwin 73-67=140 −4 Gene Littler 72-68=140 T5 Hubert Green 72-69=141 −3 Leonard Thompson 72-69=141 Tom Watson 73-68=141T8 Wally Armstrong 72-70=142 −2 Miller Barber 75-67=142 Joe Inman 69-73=142 Don January 72-70=142 Arnold Palmer 73-69=142 Source:

Third round Saturday, April 8, 1978 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Hubert Green 72-69-65=206 −10 T2 Rod Funseth 73-66-70=209 −7 Tom Watson 73-68-68=2094 Gene Littler 72-68-70=210 −6 T5 David Graham 75-69-67=211 −5 Hale Irwin 73-67-71=211 Billy Kratzert 70-74-67=211 Lee Trevino 70-69-72=2119 Wally Armstrong 72-70-70=212 −4 T10 Seve Ballesteros 74-71-68=213 −3 Gay Brewer 73-71-69=213 Gary Player 72-72-69=213 Tom Weiskopf 72-71-70=213 Source:

Final round Sunday, April 9, 1978

Final leaderboard Champion Silver Cup winner (low amateur)(a) = amateur(c) = past champion Top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (US$)1 Gary Player (c) 72-72-69-64=277 −11 45,000T2 Rod Funseth 73-66-70-69=278 −10 21,667 Hubert Green 72-69-65-72=278 Tom Watson (c) 73-68-68-69=278T5 Wally Armstrong 72-70-70-68=280 −8 11,750 Billy Kratzert 70-74-67-69=2807 Jack Nicklaus (c) 72-73-69-67=281 −7 10,0008 Hale Irwin 73-67-71-71=282 −6 8,500T9 David Graham 75-69-67-72=283 −5 6,750 Joe Inman 69-73-72-69=283 Leaderboard below the top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney ($)T11 Don January 72-70-72-70=284 −4 4,417 Jerry McGee 71-73-71-69=284 Tom Weiskopf 72-71-70-71=284T14 Peter Oosterhuis 74-70-70-71=285 −3 3,300 Lee Trevino 70-69-72-74=285T16 Raymond Floyd (c) 76-71-71-68=286 −2 2,950 Lindy Miller (a) 74-71-70-71=286 0T18 Seve Ballesteros 74-71-68-74=287 −1 2,550 Tom Kite 71-74-71-71=287 Gil Morgan 73-73-70-71=287 Jerry Pate 72-71-72-72=287 Ed Sneed 74-70-70-73=287 Lanny Wadkins 74-70-73-70=287T24 Miller Barber 75-67-73-73=288 E 2,200 Andy Bean 76-68-73-71=288 Gene Littler 72-68-70-78=288 Leonard Thompson 72-69-75-72=28828 Bobby Cole 77-70-70-72=289 +1 2,000T29 Gay Brewer (c) 73-71-69-77=290 +2 1,975 Mac McLendon 72-72-72-74=290 Bill Rogers 76-70-68-76=290T32 Jim Colbert 74-73-75-69=291 +3 1,950 Terry Diehl 74-72-74-71=291 Johnny Miller 77-72-72-70=291 Andy North 73-76-72-70=29136 Tommy Aaron (c) 73-74-71-74=292 +4 1,925T37 Ben Crenshaw 75-70-74-74=293 +5 1,900 Mike Hill 73-75-74-71=293 Arnold Palmer (c) 73-69-74-77=293 Tom Purtzer 78-69-74-72=29341 Lyn Lott 72-76-71-75=294 +6 1,875T42 Lee Elder 73-75-74-73=295 +7 1,850 Al Geiberger 75-73-75-72=295 John Schlee 68-75-77-75=295T45 Vance Heafner (a) 73-74-74-75=296 +8 0 Dave Hill 72-76-74-74=296 1,825T47 Jay Haas 74-73-74-76=297 +9 1,800 Gary Hallberg (a) 73-73-78-73=297 049 Dick Siderowf (a) 77-72-78-71=298 +1050 Bob Wynn 74-70-78-77=299 +11 1,75051 Steve Melnyk 71-78-75-76=300 +12 1,72552 Bob Goalby (c) 73-75-78-75=301 +13 1,70053 Peter McEvoy (a) 73-75-77-77=302 +14 0CUT Charles Coody (c) 75-75=150 +6 Dave Eichelberger 79-71=150 Lou Graham 75-75=150 Masashi Ozaki 76-74=150 Manuel Piñero 78-72=150 Billy Casper (c) 76-75=151 +7 Mike Morley 78-73=151 Dave Stockton 76-75=151 Isao Aoki 79-73=152 +8 Art Wall Jr. (c) 74-78=152 Gary Jacobson 79-74=153 +9 Jay Sigel (a) 76-77=153 Doug Ford (c) 78-76=154 +10 Sam Snead (c) 79-75=154 Antonio Garrido 77-78=155 +11 Ralph Landrum (a) 79-77=156 +12 Rik Massengale 81-75=156 Jim Simons 79-77=156 Danny Edwards 79-79=158 +14 Tsuneyuki Nakajima 80-80=160 +16 Mike Brannan (a) 80-82=162 +18 Doug Fischesser (a) 81-84=165 +21 Fred Ridley (a) 84-81=165WD George Archer (c) 81 +9 Mike McCullough 82 +10

Sources:

Scorecard Hole  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10 11  12 131415161718Par454343454 443545344 Player −3−4−4−5−5−5−4−4−5−6−6−7−8−8−9−10−10−11 Funseth−7−8−8−8−7−7−7−8−8−9−9−9−10−9−10−10−10−10 Green −9−10−10−10−9−9−9−10−10−10−9−9−10−10−11−10−10−10 Watson −7−8−8−8−8−8−8−8−8−8−8−8−10−9−10−11−11−10 Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par {|class="wikitable" span = 50 style="font-size:85%; |- |style="background: Red;" width=10| |Eagle |style="background: Pink;" width=10| |Birdie |style="background: PaleGreen;" width=10| |Bogey |} Source:

References

External links Masters.com – past winners Augusta.com – 1978 Masters leaderboard and scorecards