Masters Facts:
Truth be told, only a limited number of players really have a chance to win this tournament. The Masters is far from the deepest field of the four majors; in fact, it may be the thinnest. Because of the self-imposed rules as to how the field must be made up, room has to be made for a number of amateur players, including the U.S. Amateur champ, the U.S. Mid-Amateur and Public Links champions, the British Amateur champion, and others.
Here are the categories of players who must be invited:
Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime)
U.S. Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after five years)
The Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after five years)
PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after five years)
Winners of the Players Championship (Three years)
Current U.S. Amateur Champion (6-A) (Honorary, non-competing after one year); Runner-up (6-B) to the current US Amateur Champion
Current British Amateur Champion (Honorary, non-competing after one year)
Current U.S. Amateur Public Links Champion
Current U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion
The first 16 players, including ties, in the previous year’s Masters Tournament
The first 8 players, including ties, in the previous year’s U.S. Open
The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s British Open
The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s PGA Championship
The 30 leaders on the Final Official PGA Tour Money List for the previous calendar year
Winners of PGA Tour Regular Season and Playoff events that award at least a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, from previous Masters to current Masters
Those qualifying for the previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship
The 50 leaders on the Final Official World Golf Ranking for the previous calendar year
The 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the current Masters Tournament.
Obviously a number of former champions are no longer competitive forces on tour, but they take up spots in the field. As you might guess, there is overlap between two or more categories, at which point the Masters will give the extra spots to international players, many of whom, if they were not able to qualify through normal channels, are not really legitimate contenders.
Pardraig Harrington will be going after his third straight victory in a major tournament, having won last year's British Open and PGA. Since the time all four major titles were pro events, only Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan have won three majors in a row.
The Par 3 tournament at the Masters takes place on Wednesday. Here are the last ten winners of that contest:
2008 - Rory Sabbatini
2007 - Mark O'Meara
2006 - Ben Crane
2005 - Jerry Pate
2004 - Padraig Harrington
2003 - Padraig Harrington, David Toms (tie)
2002 - Nick Price
2001 - David Toms
2000 - Chris Perry
1999 - Joe Durant
You'll notice that the red-hot Padraig Harrington has won that Par 3 twice. However, keep in mind that the Par 3 winner has never gone on to win the Masters that weekend. Only two Par 3 winners - Chip Beck and Raymond Floyd - have even gone on to be the runner-up.
Tiger Woods has not finished below third place in his last four Masters tournaments.
As far as measuring "form" among these players is concerned, you have a pretty consistent barometer, as the Masters is the only major golf tournament which is held in the same place every year (Augusta National).
Jack Nicklaus is the oldest player to have won the Masters, taking the green jacket at age 46 in 1986.
In the last 25 years, six players have won the Masters at least twice:
Nick Faldo (1989, 1990, 1996)
Bernhard Langer (1985, 1993)
Ben Crenshaw (1984, 1995)
Jose-Maria Olazabal (1994, 1999)
Phil Mickelson (2004, 2006)
Tiger Woods (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005)
Brandt Snedeker is one of those former U.S. Amateur Public Links champions to get an automatic invitation to the Masters, appearing at Augusta for the first time in 2004. In 2007 he was named the PGA Tour rookie of the year and in 2008, off a top 20 in the PGA, he finished in a tie for third at the Masters, ahead of people like Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington. He then went on to a tie for ninth place at the U.S. Open.
In Masters history (72 tournaments), the championship has been won 55 times by an American player. However, with the emergence of international players, things have changed greatly in the last 25 years, during which time there have been 12 wins by international players and 13 by U.S. players.
For the first 66 years the Masters was contested, it was never won by a left-handed player. In the last six years, lefties have won three times; Mickelson of course has won twice, and Mike Weir won in 2003.
For the last two Masters champions - Zack Johnson in 2007 and Trevor Immelman last year - it was their first win in a major championship.
Immelman led the Masters after all four rounds last year. Previous to him, the last player to do that was Seve Ballesteros in 1980.
Tiger Woods missed the cut in the 1996 Masters, his second appearance in the tournament. He won the event the next year, which was the first time he appeared in the Masters as a pro. In 13 years he has finished in the top ten nine times.
In the last eleven years, there has not been a winning margin in the Masters over three strokes. Twice, the tournament was won in a playoff, twice it was one stroke, four times it has been two strokes, and three more times the margin was three.
In 2007, Zach Johnson won the Masters with a score of +1 (a total of 289). Before that, the last winner to finish over par was Jack Burke Jr., also at +1 in 1956.
In 72 Masters Tournaments, there have been 13 playoffs to determine the champion. Nick Faldo won the tournament in back-to-back years in a playoff.
The average score to win the last ten Masters championship is 279.2, which is almost nine under par. The average going back 20 years is ten-under-par 278. The average going back 50 years is 279.1, or roughly 8.9 under par.
Greg Norman is back in the Masters field this year after a six-year absence, and he got here by virtue of his third-place tie in last year's British Open. Norman has had eight top five finishes at the Masters, including three times as the runner-up or tied for second. In 1987, he lost the tournament in a playoff to Larry Mize. By the way, the '08 British Open was the only major championship he competed in since 2005.
Sergio Garcia may be considered the best active golfer not to have won a major. He has been a runner-up in three majors, and almost won the 2007 British Open but blew a late putt.
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