The 1998 Masters Tournament was the 62nd Masters Tournament, held from April 9–12 at Augusta National Golf Club. Mark O'Meara won his first major championship with a birdie putt on the final hole to win by one stroke over runners-up David Duval and Fred Couples. He birdied three of the final four holes in a final round 67 (−5).

In one of the most remarkable performances of his career, Jack Nicklaus tied for sixth place at the age of 58. His final round 68 (−4) yielded a 283 (−5), the lowest 72-hole score by a player over age 50 at the Masters until Phil Mickelson shot a score of 280 (−8) in the 2023 tournament. Nicklaus was in contention for the title until well into the back nine holes in the final round. It was his last serious run for a major championship, twelve years after his sixth Masters victory in 1986.

In his first Masters, David Toms shot a 29 (−7) on the back nine on Sunday, en route to a 64 (−8). He had six consecutive birdies on holes 12–17.

O'Meara's win came in his 15th attempt at Augusta, setting a record for appearances before a victory. He had previously been considered one of the best players to never win a major. Later in July, he won the Open Championship and earned PGA Tour Player of the Year honors for 1998.

Matt Kuchar, a 19-year-old sophomore at Georgia Tech, was the low amateur at even-par 288 and tied for 21st place. The reigning U.S. Amateur champion, he carded a four-under 68 in the third round.

Field 1. Masters champions Tommy Aaron, Seve Ballesteros, Gay Brewer, Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Fred Couples (9,12), Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Doug Ford, Bernhard Langer (9), Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, Jack Nicklaus, José María Olazábal (9,10), Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson (9), Tiger Woods (9,12,13), Ian Woosnam, Fuzzy Zoeller George Archer, Jack Burke Jr., Bob Goalby, Herman Keiser, Cary Middlecoff, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, and Art Wall Jr. did not play.

2. U.S. Open champions (last five years) Ernie Els (9,10,12,13), Lee Janzen (11,13), Steve Jones (12,13), Corey Pavin

3. The Open champions (last five years) John Daly, Tom Lehman (9,10,13), Justin Leonard (9,11,12,13), Greg Norman (12,13), Nick Price (4,9,12,13)

4. PGA champions (last five years) Paul Azinger, Mark Brooks, Steve Elkington (9,13), Davis Love III (9,10,11,12,13)

5. U.S. Amateur champion and runner-up Joel Kribel (a), Matt Kuchar (a)

6. The Amateur champion Craig Watson (a)

7. U.S. Amateur Public Links champion Tim Clark (a)

8. U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Ken Bakst (a)

9. Top 24 players and ties from the 1997 Masters Stuart Appleby (13), Mark Calcavecchia (12,13), Fred Funk, John Huston (12), Per-Ulrik Johansson, Tom Kite (11), Jesper Parnevik (12,13), Costantino Rocca, Vijay Singh (12,13), Jeff Sluman, Paul Stankowski (13), Tommy Tolles (10,13), Lee Westwood, Willie Wood

10. Top 16 players and ties from the 1997 U.S. Open Billy Andrade, Olin Browne, Stewart Cink (12,13), Jim Furyk (11,13), Jay Haas, Scott Hoch (11,12,13), Bradley Hughes, Jeff Maggert (11,13), Scott McCarron (12,13), Colin Montgomerie, David Ogrin, Bob Tway

Loren Roberts (12,13) was unable to compete due to a rib injury.

11. Top eight players and ties from 1997 PGA Championship Phil Blackmar (12)

12. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters Michael Bradley, Billy Ray Brown, David Duval (13), David Frost, Bill Glasson (13), Tim Herron, Gabriel Hjertstedt, Billy Mayfair, Phil Mickelson (13), Frank Nobilo (13), Scott Simpson, David Toms

13. Top 30 players from the 1997 PGA Tour money list John Cook, Brad Faxon, Andrew Magee, Mark O'Meara

14. Special foreign invitation Darren Clarke, Ignacio Garrido, Retief Goosen, Shigeki Maruyama, Masashi Ozaki

Round summaries First round Thursday, April 9, 1998 Friday, April 10, 1998 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Fred Couples69−3T2 Scott Hoch70−2 José María Olazábal Paul StankowskiT5 Paul Azinger71−1 Phil Blackmar David Duval Colin Montgomerie Tiger Woods Fuzzy Zoeller First round suspended by darkness; start was delayed by 90 minutes to get course playable after heavy rains Wednesday night.

Second round Friday, April 10, 1998 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Fred Couples69-70=139−5 David Duval71-68=1393 Scott Hoch70-71=141−3T4 Paul Azinger71-72=143−1 Jay Haas72-71=143 Phil Mickelson74-69=143 José María Olazábal70-73=143 Tiger Woods71-72=143T9 Scott McCarron73-71=144E Mark O'Meara74-70=144 Source:

Amateurs: Kuchar (+4), Kribel (+6), Watson (+13), Clark (+14), Bakst (+16).

Third round Saturday, April 11, 1998 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Fred Couples69-70-71=210−6T2 Paul Azinger71-72-69=212−4 Phil Mickelson74-69-69=212 Mark O'Meara74-70-68=212T5 David Duval71-68-74=213−3 Jim Furyk76-70-67=213T7 Jay Haas72-71-71=214−2 Scott Hoch70-71-73=214 José María Olazábal70-73-71=214T10 Ernie Els75-70-70=215−1 Colin Montgomerie71-75-69=215 Jack Nicklaus73-72-70=215 Tiger Woods71-72-72=215

Final round Sunday, April 12, 1998

Final leaderboard Champion Silver Cup winner (low amateur)(a) = amateur(c) = past champion Top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (US$)1 Mark O'Meara 74-70-68-67=279 −9 576,000T2 Fred Couples (c) 69-70-71-70=280 −8 281,600 David Duval 71-68-74-67=2804 Jim Furyk 76-70-67-68=281 −7 153,6005 Paul Azinger 71-72-69-70=282 −6 128,000T6 Jack Nicklaus (c) 73-72-70-68=283 −5 111,200 David Toms 75-72-72-64=283T8 Darren Clarke 76-73-67-69=285 −3 89,600 Justin Leonard 74-73-69-69=285 Colin Montgomerie 71-75-69-70=285 Tiger Woods (c) 71-72-72-70=285 Leaderboard below the top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney ($)T12 Jay Haas 72-71-71-72=286 −2 64,800 Per-Ulrik Johansson 74-75-67-70=286 Phil Mickelson 74-69-69-74=286 José María Olazábal (c) 70-73-71-72=286T16 Mark Calcavecchia 74-74-69-70=287 −1 48,000 Ernie Els 75-70-70-72=287 Scott Hoch 70-71-73-73=287 Scott McCarron 73-71-72-71=287 Ian Woosnam (c) 74-71-72-70=287T21 Matt Kuchar (a) 72-76-68-72=288 E 0 Willie Wood 74-74-70-70=288 38,400T23 Stewart Cink 74-76-69-70=289 +1 33,280 John Huston 77-71-70-71=289 Jeff Maggert 72-73-72-72=289T26 Brad Faxon 73-74-71-72=290 +2 26,133 David Frost 72-73-74-71=290 Steve Jones 75-70-75-70=29029 Michael Bradley 73-74-72-72=291 +3 23,68030 Steve Elkington 75-75-71-71=292 +4 22,720T31 Andrew Magee 74-72-74-73=293 +5 21,280 Jesper Parnevik 75-73-73-72=293T33 Phil Blackmar 71-78-75-70=294 +6 18,112 John Daly 77-71-71-75=294 Lee Janzen 76-74-72-72=294 Davis Love III 74-75-67-78=294 Fuzzy Zoeller (c) 71-74-75-74=29438 Tom Kite 73-74-74-74=295 +7 15,680T39 Bernhard Langer (c) 75-73-74-74=296 +8 14,720 Paul Stankowski 70-80-72-74=296T41 Corey Pavin 73-77-72-75=297 +9 13,440 Craig Stadler (c) 79-68-73-77=29743 John Cook 75-73-74-76=298 +10 12,48044 Lee Westwood 74-76-72-78=300 +12 11,84045 Joel Kribel (a) 74-76-76-75=301 +13 046 Gary Player (c) 77-72-78-75=302 +14 11,200CUT Billy Ray Brown 76-75=151 +7 Nick Faldo (c) 72-79=151 Raymond Floyd (c) 74-77=151 Retief Goosen 74-77=151 Tim Herron 76-75=151 Sandy Lyle (c) 74-77=151 Billy Mayfair 76-75=151 Nick Price 75-76=151 Tommy Tolles 75-76=151 Tom Watson (c) 78-73=151 Olin Browne 72-80=152 +8 Larry Mize (c) 73-79=152 Masashi Ozaki 75-77=152 Bob Tway 74-78=152 Billy Andrade 75-78=153 +9 Bradley Hughes 75-78=153 Frank Nobilo 77-76=153 Costantino Rocca 81-72=153 Stuart Appleby 77-77=154 +10 Shigeki Maruyama 74-80=154 Greg Norman 76-78=154 Jeff Sluman 78-76=154 Ben Crenshaw (c) 83-72=155 +11 David Ogrin 77-78=155 Mark Brooks 80-76=156 +12 Tom Lehman 80-76=156 Vijay Singh 76-80=156 Seve Ballesteros (c) 78-79=157 +13 Fred Funk 79-78=157 Ignacio Garrido 85-72=157 Gabriel Hjertstedt 79-78=157 Scott Simpson 79-78=157 Craig Watson (a) 79-78=157 Gay Brewer (c) 72-86=158 +14 Tim Clark (a) 80-78=158 Tommy Aaron (c) 81-79=160 +16 Ken Bakst (a) 82-78=160 Bill Glasson 82-79=161 +17 Charles Coody (c) 79-85=164 +20 Arnold Palmer (c) 79-87=166 +22 Billy Casper (c) 81-86=167 +23WD Doug Ford (c) 86 +14

Sources:

Scorecard Hole 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 101112131415161718Par454343454 443545344 O'Meara −4−5−6−7−7−7−7−7−7−6−6−6−6−6−7−7−8−9 Couples −5−6−6−7−7−7−8−9−8−8−8−8−6−6−8−8−8−8 Duval −2−3−3−3−3−3−4−4−5−6−7−7−8−8−9−8−8−8 Furyk −3 −4 −4 −3 −2 −2 −2 −3 −4 −5 −5 −5 −6 −6 −5 −6 −7 −7 Azinger −4 −5 −5 −4 −4 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −4 −5 −5 −6 −6 −6 −6 Nicklaus −1 −2 −3 −2 −2 −3 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 −3 −4 −4 −5 −5 −5 −5 Toms +3 +2 +2 +3 +3 +3 +2 +2 +2 +1 +1 E −1 −2 −3 −4 −5 −5 Mickelson −4 −5 −5 −5 −5 −5 −4 −4 −4 −4 −4 −2 −2 −1 −2 −3 −1 −2 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 |style="background: Green;" width=10| |Double bogey |} Source:

Quotes "Good-looking putt...Mark O'Meara has won the Masters!" – Jim Nantz's (CBS Sports) call as O'Meara sunk his birdie putt on the 18th hole to defeat Fred Couples and David Duval and win the tournament

References

External links Masters.com – Past winners and results Augusta.com – 1998 Masters leaderboard and scorecards