1981 Masters Tournament

The 1981 Masters Tournament was the 45th Masters Tournament, held April 9–12 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Tom Watson won his second green jacket and fifth major title by two strokes over Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller.

Five-time champion Nicklaus shot a bogey-free 65 on Friday and led by four strokes after 36 holes,^[2] but a 75 on Saturday put him a stroke behind Watson entering the final round. It was the fourth runner-up finish for Nicklaus at the Masters and the third for Miller.^[3][4][5] Nicklaus won his sixth Masters five years later in 1986 at age 46.

Defending champion Seve Ballesteros shot 154 (+10) and missed the cut by six strokes;^[2] he also missed the cut as defending champion in 1984. Lee Trevino, needing a green jacket to complete the career grand slam, also shot 154 with an ailing back.^[2] His best finishes at Augusta were tenth place ties in 1975 and 1985.

Greg Norman, age 26, appeared in his first Masters and was fourth, the first of his eight top-five finishes at Augusta. He was runner-up three times, in 1986, 1987, and 1996.

This was the first Masters with bentgrass greens, which were formerly Bermuda and ryegrass.^[6][7][8]

Field

1. Masters champions

Tommy Aaron, George Archer, Seve Ballesteros (3,8), Gay Brewer, Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Raymond Floyd (8,11), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus (2,3,4,9,10), Arnold Palmer (8), Gary Player (8), Sam Snead, Art Wall Jr., Tom Watson (3,8,9,11), Fuzzy Zoeller (8,12)

• 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)

Hubert Green (8,12), Hale Irwin (9,11,12), Andy North (8,9), Jerry Pate (8)

3. The Open champions (last five years)

Johnny Miller (11)

4. PGA champions (last five years)

John Mahaffey (11,12), Dave Stockton, Lanny Wadkins (12)

5. 1980 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists

Jim Holtgrieve (7,a), Bob Lewis (a), Hal Sutton (6,7,a), Dick von Tacky (a)

6. Previous two U.S. Amateur and Amateur champions

Jay Sigel (7,a)

• Mark O'Meara forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

7. Members of the 1980 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team

Bob Tway (a)

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1980 Masters Tournament

Andy Bean (10,11,12), Jim Colbert, Ben Crenshaw (11), Ed Fiori, Gibby Gilbert, Jay Haas, Tom Kite (11,12), Billy Kratzert (11), Gil Morgan (9,10,12), Larry Nelson (11,12), Calvin Peete, Jack Renner, Jim Simons, J. C. Snead

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1980 U.S. Open

Keith Fergus, Joe Hager, Mark Hayes (12), Lon Hinkle (10), Joe Inman, Pat McGowan, Mike Morley, Mike Reid, Bill Rogers (10,11), Ed Sneed, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange (10,11), Lee Trevino (10,11,12), Bobby Wadkins

10. Top eight players and ties from 1980 PGA Championship

Howard Twitty (11), Bobby Walzel

11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

John Cook, Bob Gilder, Phil Hancock, Scott Hoch, Peter Jacobsen, Wayne Levi, Bruce Lietzke, Mark Pfeil, Don Pooley, Scott Simpson, Mike Sullivan, Doug Tewell

12. Members of the U.S. 1979 Ryder Cup team

Lee Elder

13. Foreign invitations

Isao Aoki (9), Bruce Devlin (9), Duncan Evans (6,a), David Graham (4,8,11), Dan Halldorson (11), Sandy Lyle, Jack Newton (8), Greg Norman, Norio Suzuki

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

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 9, 1981

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Lon Hinkle	69	−3
	Johnny Miller
	Greg Norman
	Curtis Strange
T5	Isao Aoki	70	−2
	John Cook
	David Graham
	Hubert Green
	Jim Holtgrieve (a)
	Jack Nicklaus
	Jim Simons

Source:^[9]

Second round

Friday, April 10, 1981

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Jack Nicklaus	70-65=135	−9
T2	Lon Hinkle	69-70=139	−5
	Bruce Lietzke	72-67=139
	Greg Norman	69-70=139
	Tom Watson	71-68=139
T6	David Graham	70-70=140	−4
	Hubert Green	70-70=140
T8	Jim Colbert	73-68=141	−3
	John Cook	70-71=141
	Peter Jacobsen	71-70=141
	Johnny Miller	69-72=141

Source:^[10][11]

Third round

Saturday, April 11, 1981

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Tom Watson	71-68-70=209	−7
2	Jack Nicklaus	70-65-75=210	−6
3	Greg Norman	69-70-72=211	−5
T4	Bruce Lietzke	72-67-73=212	−4
	John Mahaffey	72-71-69=212
T6	John Cook	70-71-72=213	−3
	Ben Crenshaw	71-72-70=213
	Lon Hinkle	69-70-74=213
	Peter Jacobsen	71-70-72=213
T10	Gay Brewer	75-68-71=214	−2
	David Graham	70-70-74=214
	Hubert Green	70-70-74=214
	Johnny Miller	69-72-73=214
	Jerry Pate	71-72-71=214
	Dave Stockton	72-72-70=214
	Lanny Wadkins	72-71-71=214

Source:^[12]

Final round

Sunday, April 12, 1981

Final leaderboard

Champion

Silver Cup winner (low amateur)

(a) = amateur

(c) = past champion

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Tom Watson (c)	71-68-70-71=280	−8	60,000
T2	Johnny Miller	69-72-73-68=282	−6	30,500
	Jack Nicklaus (c)	70-65-75-72=282
4	Greg Norman	69-70-72-72=283	−5	16,000
T5	Tom Kite	74-72-70-68=284	−4	12,667
	Jerry Pate	71-72-71-70=284
7	David Graham	70-70-74-71=285	−3	11,167
T8	Ben Crenshaw	71-72-70-73=286	−2	9,667
	Raymond Floyd (c)	75-71-71-69=286
	John Mahaffey	72-71-69-74=286

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T11	George Archer (c)	74-70-72-71=287	−1	7,333
	Hubert Green	70-70-74-73=287
	Peter Jacobsen	71-70-72-74=287
	Bruce Lietzke	72-67-73-75=287
T15	Gay Brewer (c)	75-68-71-74=288	E	5,500
	Bob Gilder	72-75-69-72=288
	Gary Player (c)	73-73-71-71=288
	Jim Simons	70-75-71-72=288
T19	Don Pooley	71-75-72-71=289	+1	4,500
	Curtis Strange	69-79-70-71=289
T21	John Cook	70-71-72-77=290	+2	3,600
	Gil Morgan	74-73-70-73=290
	Calvin Peete	75-70-71-74=290
	Lanny Wadkins	72-71-71-76=290
T25	Jim Colbert	73-68-74-76=291	+3	2,700
	Hale Irwin	73-74-70-74=291
	Wayne Levi	72-71-73-75=291
T28	Gibby Gilbert	71-71-76-74=292	+4	2,350
	Lon Hinkle	69-70-74-79=292
	Sandy Lyle	73-70-76-73=292
T31	Bruce Devlin	74-72-72-75=293	+5	2,013
	Jay Haas	75-71-72-75=293
	Jack Renner	73-72-73-75=293
	Dave Stockton	72-72-70-79=293
T35	Jay Sigel (a)	72-75-75-72=294	+6	0
	Mike Sullivan	72-74-74-74=294		1,800
T37	Keith Fergus	76-72-75-72=295	+7	1,617
	Scott Hoch	73-70-75-77=295
	Bill Rogers	76-72-75-72=295
T40	Charles Coody (c)	74-71-75-76=296	+8	1,500
	Bob Lewis (a)	77-70-73-76=296		0
	Howard Twitty	75-72-74-75=296		1,500
T43	Craig Stadler	76-71-73-77=297	+9	1,500
	Fuzzy Zoeller (c)	77-70-78-72=297
T45	Isao Aoki	70-76-77-77=300	+12	1,500
	Norio Suzuki	74-74-75-77=300
47	Jim Holtgrieve (a)	70-77-79-75=301	+13	0
48	Tommy Aaron (c)	77-71-76-79=303	+15	1,500
CUT	Andy Bean	75-74=149	+5
	Ed Fiori	72-77=149
	Dan Halldorson	76-73=149
	Mark Pfeil	74-75=149
	Scott Simpson	77-72=149
	Bobby Wadkins	73-76=149
	Lee Elder	77-73=150	+6
	J. C. Snead	72-78=150
	Mark Hayes	76-75=151	+7
	Pat McGowan	73-78=151
	Larry Nelson	78-73=151
	Mike Reid	76-75=151
	Bob Tway (a)	75-76=151
	Jack Newton	79-73=152	+8
	Joe Inman	74-79=153	+9
	Mike Morley	76-77=153
	Arnold Palmer (c)	75-78=153
	Ed Sneed	81-72=153
	Doug Tewell	79-74=153
	Bobby Walzel	75-78=153
	Seve Ballesteros (c)	78-76=154	+10
	Billy Casper (c)	76-78=154
	Joe Hager	81-73=154
	Lee Trevino	77-77=154
	Doug Ford (c)	79-76=155	+11
	Bob Goalby (c)	80-75=155
	Andy North	82-73=155
	Sam Snead (c)	77-78=155
	Hal Sutton (a)	80-75=155
	Art Wall Jr. (c)	76-79=155
	Billy Kratzert	83-75=158	+14
	Phil Hancock	82-77=159	+15
	Duncan Evans (a)	81-79=160	+16
	Dick von Tacky (a)	76-85=161	+17

Sources:^[13][14]

Scorecard

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	5	4	3	4	3	4	5	4	4	4	3	5	4	5	3	4	4
Watson	−7	−8	−8	−8	−8	−7	−7	−8	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−8	−8	−8	−8
Miller	−3	−4	−4	−3	−3	−2	−2	−3	−4	−3	−3	−3	−4	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6
Nicklaus	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−4	−5	−6	−6	−6
Norman	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5	−3	−3	−3	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5
Kite	E	E	−1	−1	E	E	E	E	E	E	E	−1	−2	−2	−3	−3	−4	−4
Pate	−2	−3	−4	−3	−3	−2	−2	−2	−2	−3	−3	−1	−2	−2	−3	−3	−4	−4

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
Source:^[4]

References

External links

• Masters.com – past winners and results
• Augusta.com – 1981 Masters leaderboard and scorecards