The 2012 Masters Tournament was the 76th Masters Tournament, held April 5–8 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Bubba Watson won the year's first major championship on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff, defeating Louis Oosthuizen. It was his first major title and his fourth victory on the PGA Tour. Watson was the eighth consecutive first-time major champion, and the 14th winner in as many majors. He won a second Masters two years later in 2014.

Two pre-tournament favorites, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, both finished at 293 (+5) in a tie for 40th place. Phil Mickelson was in the final pairing and in contention during the final round, but a triple-bogey six on the fourth hole knocked him back and he finished two strokes behind, in a four-way tie for third. Bo Van Pelt posted the lowest round of the tournament with a 64 (−8) early on Sunday, which propelled him up the leaderboard 35 places to tie for 17th.

It was the first playoff in three years at the Masters; Ángel Cabrera won on the second extra hole in 2009.

Course

HoleNameYardsPar HoleNameYardsPar1Tea Olive4454 10Camellia49542Pink Dogwood575511White Dogwood50543Flowering Peach350412Golden Bell15534Flowering Crab Apple240313Azalea51055Magnolia455414Chinese Fir44046Juniper180315Firethorn53057Pampas450416Redbud17038Yellow Jasmine570517Nandina44049Carolina Cherry460418Holly4654Out3,72536In3,71036Source:Total7,43572

Field The Masters has the smallest field of the four major championships. Officially, the Masters remains an invitation event, but there is a set of qualifying criteria that determines who is included in the field. Each player is classified according to the first category by which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.

Golfers who qualify based solely on their performance in amateur tournaments (categories 6–10) must remain amateurs on the starting day of the tournament to be eligible to play.

Three players were appearing in their first major: Kelly Kraft, Corbin Mills and Randal Lewis. Twelve others were appearing in their first Masters: Keegan Bradley, Patrick Cantlay, Bryden Macpherson, Kevin Chappell, Robert Garrigus, Webb Simpson, Harrison Frazar, Kyle Stanley, Scott Stallings, Brendan Steele, Bae Sang-moon and Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño.

Notable absences included Mark O'Meara (injured), Ernie Els and Retief Goosen (not ranked high enough). O'Meara had appeared in the previous 27 Masters, Els in the previous 18, and Goosen in the previous 12. (Els would win the Open Championship in July to ensure an invitation to the next five Masters.)

1. Past Masters Champions

Ángel Cabrera (2,11) Fred Couples (11) Ben Crenshaw Trevor Immelman (11) Zach Johnson (18,19) Bernhard Langer Sandy Lyle Phil Mickelson (13,15,16,17,18,19) Larry Mize José María Olazábal Charl Schwartzel (11,15,18,19) Vijay Singh (15,17) Craig Stadler Tom Watson Mike Weir Tiger Woods (2,4,11,16,18,19) Ian Woosnam

Mark O'Meara withdrew shortly before his tee time due to injury. Past champions not playing: Tommy Aaron, Jack Burke Jr., Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Fuzzy Zoeller. Player joined Nicklaus and Palmer to serve as "honorary starters" and teed off on the first day at the first hole to kick off the tournament.

2. Last five U.S. Open Champions

Lucas Glover (16) Graeme McDowell (18,19) Rory McIlroy (11,12,16,18,19)

3. Last five British Open Champions

Stewart Cink Darren Clarke (13,18) Pádraig Harrington (4) Louis Oosthuizen (18,19)

4. Last five PGA Champions

Keegan Bradley (14,15,16,17,18,19) Martin Kaymer (18,19) Yang Yong-eun (12,17,18,19)

5. Last three winners of The Players Championship

K. J. Choi (11,15,17,18,19) Tim Clark Henrik Stenson

6. Top two finishers in the 2011 U.S. Amateur

Patrick Cantlay (a) Kelly Kraft (a)

7. Winner of the 2011 Amateur Championship Bryden Macpherson (a)

8. Winner of the 2011 Asian Amateur Hideki Matsuyama (a)

9. Winner of the 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links Corbin Mills (a)

10. Winner of the 2011 U.S. Mid-Amateur Randal Lewis (a)

11. The top 16 finishers and ties in the 2011 Masters Tournament

Jason Day (12,15,17,18,19) Luke Donald (15,16,17,18,19) Ross Fisher Edoardo Molinari Geoff Ogilvy (17,18,19) Ryan Palmer Justin Rose (15,16,17,18,19) Adam Scott (15,16,17,18,19) Brandt Snedeker (15,16,17,18,19) Steve Stricker (15,16,17,18,19) Bo Van Pelt (15,17,18,19) Lee Westwood (12,18,19)

12. Top 8 finishers and ties in the 2011 U.S. Open

Kevin Chappell Sergio García (18,19) Robert Garrigus Peter Hanson (18,19)

13. Top 4 finishers and ties in the 2011 British Open Championship Thomas Bjørn (18,19) Dustin Johnson (15,16,17,18,19) withdrew with a back injury prior to the start of the tournament.

14. Top 4 finishers and ties in the 2011 PGA Championship

Jason Dufner (15,17,18,19) Anders Hansen (18,19) Robert Karlsson (18,19) David Toms (15,16,17,18,19) Scott Verplank

15. Top 30 leaders on the 2011 PGA Tour official money earnings list

Aaron Baddeley (17,18,19) Jonathan Byrd (17) Bill Haas (16,17,18,19) Charles Howell III (17) Freddie Jacobson (16,17,18,19) Matt Kuchar (17,18,19) Martin Laird (18,19) Hunter Mahan (16,17,18,19) Kevin Na Rory Sabbatini Webb Simpson (16,17,18,19) Nick Watney (16,17,18,19) Bubba Watson (16,17,18,19) Mark Wilson (16,17,19) Gary Woodland (17)

16. Winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, between the 2011 Masters Tournament and the 2012 Masters Tournament

Harrison Frazar Sean O'Hair Scott Stallings Kyle Stanley (19) Brendan Steele Johnson Wagner

17. All players qualifying for the 2011 edition of The Tour Championship

Chez Reavie John Senden (18,19)

18. Top 50 on the final 2011 Official World Golf Ranking list

Bae Sang-moon (19) Paul Casey (19) Simon Dyson (19) Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño Rickie Fowler (19) Jim Furyk (19) Miguel Ángel Jiménez Kim Kyung-tae (19) Francesco Molinari (19) Ian Poulter (19) Álvaro Quirós (19)

19. Top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking list on March 25, 2012

Ben Crane Paul Lawrie

20. International invitees Ryo Ishikawa

Round summaries First round Thursday, April 5, 2012 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Lee Westwood67−5T2 Peter Hanson68−4 Louis OosthuizenT4 Ben Crane69−3 Jason Dufner Miguel Ángel Jiménez Paul Lawrie Francesco Molinari Bubba WatsonT10 Jim Furyk70−2 Zach Johnson Vijay Singh Scott Stallings Source:

Second round Friday, April 6, 2012 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Fred Couples72-67=139−5 Jason Dufner69-70=139T3 Sergio García72-68=140−4 Rory McIlroy71-69=140 Louis Oosthuizen68-72=140 Bubba Watson69-71=140 Lee Westwood67-73=140T8 Miguel Ángel Jiménez69-72=141−3 Matt Kuchar71-70=141 Paul Lawrie69-72=141 Source:

Amateurs: Matsuyama (+1), Cantlay (+5), Kraft (+5), Macpherson (+9), Mills (+11), Lewis (+15).

Third round Saturday, April 7, 2012 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Peter Hanson68-74-65=207−92 Phil Mickelson74-68-66=208−83 Louis Oosthuizen68-72-69=209−74 Bubba Watson69-71-70=210−65 Matt Kuchar71-70-70=211−5T6 Pádraig Harrington71-73-68=212−4 Hunter Mahan72-72-68=212 Henrik Stenson71-71-70=212 Lee Westwood67-73-72=21210 Paul Lawrie69-72-72=213−3 Source:

Final round Sunday, April 8, 2012

Summary

For the third time in seven years, the Masters concluded on Easter Sunday. The leaderboard was active, as four players held at least a share of the lead during the final round. Louis Oosthuizen charged into the lead at the second hole with an albatross two on the par-5. It was only the fourth double eagle in Masters history and the first-ever on the second hole. The final pairing faltered: 54-hole leader Peter Hanson never got it going, with three bogeys before he carded his first birdie at the 15th hole. Three holes earlier, Hanson shanked his tee shot on the par-3 12th short of the water, bogeyed, and fell from contention. On the front nine, three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson pushed his tee shot left at the par-3 fourth and it caromed off a greenside grandstand. He made his second triple bogey of the week and came up two shots short of the playoff.

In the end, it came down to a three player race between Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson, and Matt Kuchar. Kuchar hit his approach at the 15th hole to three feet (0.9 m) and eagled to temporarily tie Oosthuizen at −9, but followed it with a bogey at the par-3 16th hole and finished two strokes back, in the four-way tie for third. After Watson made a two at the 16th for his fourth consecutive birdie, he was tied at the top with Oosthuizen at −10. Playing together in the penultimate pairing, both parred the 17th hole and were on the green in regulation at the uphill 18th. Oosthuizen missed a birdie putt from the back shelf and Watson had for his first major, but he missed the putt on the high side. After Watson tapped in, Oosthuizen holed his four-footer (1.2 m) to force a sudden death playoff.

Final leaderboard Champion Silver Cup winner (low amateur)(a) = amateur(c) = past champion Top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (US$)T1 Louis Oosthuizen 68-72-69-69=278 −10 Playoff Bubba Watson 69-71-70-68=278T3 Peter Hanson 68-74-65-73=280 −8 384,000 Matt Kuchar 71-70-70-69=280 Phil Mickelson (c) 74-68-66-72=280 Lee Westwood 67-73-72-68=2807 Ian Poulter 72-72-70-69=283 −5 268,000T8 Pádraig Harrington 71-73-68-72=284 −4 232,000 Justin Rose 72-72-72-68=284 Adam Scott 75-70-73-66=284