XIV

1978 Masters Tournament

Tournament information
Dates	April 6–9, 1978
Location	Augusta, Georgia 33°30′11″N 82°01′12″W / 33.503°N 82.020°W / 33.503; -82.020
Course(s)	Augusta National Golf Club
Organized by	Augusta National Golf Club
Tour(s)	PGA Tour
Statistics
Par	72
Length	7,040 yards (6,437 m)
Field	78 players, 53 after cut
Cut	149 (+5)
Winner's share	$45,000
Champion
Gary Player
277 (−11)
Location map
Augusta National Location in the United States Show map of the United States Augusta National Location in Georgia Show map of Georgia
← 1977 1979 →

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 10 to 30 feet (3 to 9 m), including final one of 15 feet (4.6 m) 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 8-foot (2.4 m) 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

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	John Schlee	68	−4
2	Joe Inman	69	−3
T3	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

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Rod Funseth	73-66=139	−5
	Lee Trevino	70-69=139
T3	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=141
T8	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

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Hubert Green	72-69-65=206	−10
T2	Rod Funseth	73-66-70=209	−7
	Tom Watson	73-68-68=209
4	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=211
9	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 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Gary Player (c)	72-72-69-64=277	−11	45,000
T2	Rod Funseth	73-66-70-69=278	−10	21,667
	Hubert Green	72-69-65-72=278
	Tom Watson (c)	73-68-68-69=278
T5	Wally Armstrong	72-70-70-68=280	−8	11,750
	Billy Kratzert	70-74-67-69=280
7	Jack Nicklaus (c)	72-73-69-67=281	−7	10,000
8	Hale Irwin	73-67-71-71=282	−6	8,500
T9	David Graham	75-69-67-72=283	−5	6,750
	Joe Inman	69-73-72-69=283

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T11	Don January	72-70-72-70=284	−4	4,417
	Jerry McGee	71-73-71-69=284
	Tom Weiskopf	72-71-70-71=284
T14	Peter Oosterhuis	74-70-70-71=285	−3	3,300
	Lee Trevino	70-69-72-74=285
T16	Raymond Floyd (c)	76-71-71-68=286	−2	2,950
	Lindy Miller (a)	74-71-70-71=286		0
T18	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=287
T24	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=288
28	Bobby Cole	77-70-70-72=289	+1	2,000
T29	Gay Brewer (c)	73-71-69-77=290	+2	1,975
	Mac McLendon	72-72-72-74=290
	Bill Rogers	76-70-68-76=290
T32	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=291
36	Tommy Aaron (c)	73-74-71-74=292	+4	1,925
T37	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=293
41	Lyn Lott	72-76-71-75=294	+6	1,875
T42	Lee Elder	73-75-74-73=295	+7	1,850
	Al Geiberger	75-73-75-72=295
	John Schlee	68-75-77-75=295
T45	Vance Heafner (a)	73-74-74-75=296	+8	0
	Dave Hill	72-76-74-74=296		1,825
T47	Jay Haas	74-73-74-76=297	+9	1,800
	Gary Hallberg (a)	73-73-78-73=297		0
49	Dick Siderowf (a)	77-72-78-71=298	+10
50	Bob Wynn	74-70-78-77=299	+11	1,750
51	Steve Melnyk	71-78-75-76=300	+12	1,725
52	Bob Goalby (c)	73-75-78-75=301	+13	1,700
53	Peter McEvoy (a)	73-75-77-77=302	+14	0
CUT	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=165
WD	George Archer (c)	81	+9
	Mike McCullough	82	+10

Sources:

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
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

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Source:

References※

External links※

• Masters.com – past winners
• Augusta.com – 1978 Masters leaderboard and scorecards