1970 Masters Tournament

1970 Masters Tournament

Front cover of the 1970 Masters Guide
Tournament information
Dates	April 9–13, 1970
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	6,980 yards (6,383 m)[1]
Field	83 players, 48 after cut[2]
Cut	150 (+6)[1]
Winner's share	$25,000
Champion
Billy Casper
279 (−9), playoff
Location map
Augusta National Location in the United States Show map of the United States Augusta National Location in Georgia Show map of Georgia
← 1969 1971 →

The 1970 Masters Tournament was the 34th Masters Tournament, held April 9–13 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. A field of 83 players started the tournament and 48 made the 36-hole cut at 150 (+6).

Billy Casper defeated Gene Littler 69 to 74 in an 18-hole playoff on Monday to win his third major championship. It was the last 18-hole playoff at the Masters; the format was changed to sudden-death in 1976 and first used in 1979.^[3] To get into the playoff, Casper scored a final round of 71 (−1), while Littler shot a 70 to tie at 279 (−9).^[4]

Jack Nicklaus shot 69-69 on the weekend, but was hampered by a second round 75 and finished in 8th place. It was the final Masters tournament as a player for 1938 champion Henry Picard, who withdrew without finishing the first round.^[5] Three-time Masters champion Sam Snead finished in a tie for 23rd place at the age of 57. It was the Masters debut of two-time champion Tom Watson, then a 20-year-old amateur from Stanford who shot 77-76 and missed the cut by three strokes.^[6]

Harold Henning won the eleventh Par 3 contest on Wednesday with a score of 21.

Dick Schaap's The Masters: The Winning of a Golf Classic covered in detail the 1970 tournament.^[7]

1. Masters champions

George Archer (8,9), Gay Brewer, Jack Burke Jr. (8), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Ralph Guldahl, Herman Keiser, Cary Middlecoff, Jack Nicklaus (2,3,8,11), Arnold Palmer (9), Henry Picard, Gary Player (2.3,10), Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Art Wall Jr.

• Jimmy Demaret, Ben Hogan, Claude Harmon, and Byron Nelson did not play.

The following categories only apply to Americans

2. U.S. Open champions (last five years)

Billy Casper (8,11), Orville Moody (9,10)

• Lee Trevino (8,11) did not play.

3. The Open champions (last five years)

4. PGA champions (last five years)

Julius Boros (9), Raymond Floyd (9,10,11), Al Geiberger (8,9), Don January (8), Dave Marr (9)

5. The first eight finishers in the 1969 U.S. Amateur

Charles Coe (a), Vinny Giles (7,a), John Farquhar (a), Steve Melnyk (6,7,a), Allen Miller (7,a), Ed Updegraff (7,a), Tom Watson (a), Bob Zender (a)^[8][9]

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

• Bruce Fleisher (7) forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

7. Members of the 1969 U.S. Walker Cup team

John Bohmann (a), Bill Hyndman (a), Joe Inman (a), Dick Siderowf (a), Lanny Wadkins (a)

8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1969 Masters Tournament

Tommy Aaron (11), Miller Barber (9,10,11), Frank Beard (11), Deane Beman (9), Charles Coody (9,10), Dale Douglass (9,11), Lionel Hebert, Dave Hill (9,11), Gene Littler (11), Mason Rudolph, Dan Sikes (11), Dave Stockton, Tom Weiskopf, Bert Yancey

9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1969 U.S. Open

Bunky Henry, Howie Johnson, Bob Murphy, Dean Refram, Phil Rodgers, Bob Rosburg, Kermit Zarley

10. Top eight players and ties from 1969 PGA Championship

Bert Greene, Terry Wilcox, Jimmy Wright, Larry Ziegler

11. Members of the U.S. 1969 Ryder Cup team

Ken Still

12. One player, either amateur or professional, not already qualified, selected by a ballot of ex-Masters champions.^[10]

Bob Lunn

13. Leading six players, not already qualified, from a points list based on finishes in PGA Tour events since the previous Masters^[10]

Homero Blancas, Larry Hinson, Grier Jones, Dick Lotz, Chi-Chi Rodríguez, R. H. Sikes

14. Foreign invitations

Maurice Bembridge, Roberto Bernardini, Michael Bonallack (6,a), Peter Butler, Bob Charles, Bruce Crampton (8,9), Roberto De Vicenzo (3), Bruce Devlin (8,9), Bernard Gallacher, Harold Henning (8), Hsieh Yung-yo, Tony Jacklin (3), George Knudson (8), Takaaki Kono (8), Sukree Onsham

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

Thursday, April 9, 1970

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Tommy Aaron	68	−4
T2	Gene Littler	69	−3
	Bert Yancey
T4	Charles Coody	70	−2
	Bob Lunn
	Chi-Chi Rodríguez
	Dan Sikes
	R. H. Sikes
T9	Frank Beard	71	−1
	Jack Nicklaus

Source:^[11]

Friday, April 10, 1970

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Gene Littler	69-70=139	−5
	Bert Yancey	69-70=139
T3	Billy Casper	72-68=140	−4
	Bob Lunn	70-70=140
T5	Tommy Aaron	68-74=142	−2
	Gary Player	74-68=142
T7	Dave Hill	73-70=143	−1
	Takaaki Kono	75-68=143
T9	Charles Coody	70-74=144	E
	Larry Hinson	72-72=144
	Dave Stockton	72-72=144

Source:^[12]

Saturday, April 11, 1970

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Billy Casper	72-68-68=208	−8
2	Gene Littler	69-70-70=209	−7
3	Gary Player	74-68-68=210	−6
T4	Tommy Aaron	68-74-69=211	−5
	Charles Coody	70-74-67=211
	Bert Yancey	69-70-72=211
T7	Dave Hill	73-70-70=213	−3
	Dave Stockton	72-72-69=213
9	Takaaki Kono	75-68-71=214	−2
T10	Frank Beard	71-76-68=215	−1
	Larry Hinson	72-72-71=215
	Bob Lunn	70-70-75=215
	Jack Nicklaus	71-75-69=215

Source:^[13]

Sunday, April 12, 1970

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
T1	Billy Casper	72-68-68-71=279	−9	Playoff
	Gene Littler	69-70-70-70=279
3	Gary Player (c)	74-68-68-70=280	−8	14,000
4	Bert Yancey	69-70-72-70=281	−7	10,000
T5	Tommy Aaron	68-74-69-72=283	−5	6,667
	Dave Hill	73-70-70-70=283
	Dave Stockton	72-72-69-70=283
8	Jack Nicklaus (c)	71-75-69-69=284	−4	4,500
9	Frank Beard	71-76-68-70=285	−3	4,000
T10	Bob Lunn	70-70-75-72=287	−1	3,500
	Chi-Chi Rodríguez	70-76-73-68=287

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T12	Charles Coody	70-74-67-77=288	E	3,000
	Bert Greene	75-71-70-72=288
	Tony Jacklin	73-74-70-71=288
	Don January	76-73-69-70=288
	Takaaki Kono	75-68-71-74=288
17	Bob Charles	75-71-71-72=289	+1	2,700
T18	Howie Johnson	75-71-73-71=290	+2	2,500
	Dick Lotz	74-72-72-72=290
	Orville Moody	73-72-71-74=290
T21	Miller Barber	76-73-77-65=291	+3	2,250
	Terry Wilcox	79-70-70-72=291
T23	Deane Beman	74-72-72-74=292	+4	2,020
	Julius Boros	75-71-74-72=292
	Charles Coe (a)	74-71-72-75=292		0
	Bob Murphy	78-70-73-71=292		2,020
	Sam Snead (c)	76-73-71-72=292
	Tom Weiskopf	73-73-72-74=292
T29	Hsieh Yung-yo	75-75-69-74=293	+5	1,650
	Jimmy Wright	75-72-71-75=293
T31	George Archer (c)	73-72-74-75=294	+6	1,650
	Gay Brewer (c)	78-70-72-74=294
	Bruce Devlin	72-74-78-70=294
	Larry Hinson	72-72-71-79=294
	Ken Still	74-73-74-73=294
T36	Arnold Palmer (c)	75-73-74-73=295	+7	1,575
	Dan Sikes	70-77-71-77=295
T38	Maurice Bembridge	77-72-70-77=296	+8	1,575
	Bruce Crampton	75-71-75-75=296
	Dale Douglass	76-74-72-74=296
	Vinny Giles (a)	78-72-72-74=296		0
	Grier Jones	73-75-73-75=296		1,575
43	Steve Melnyk (a)	73-76-71-77=297	+9	0
44	Bob Rosburg	77-73-75-73=298	+10	1,500
T45	Al Geiberger	73-77-74-75=299	+11	1,500
	George Knudson	73-72-78-76=299
47	R. H. Sikes	70-75-77-78=300	+12	1,500
48	Dean Refram	76-74-78-75=303	+15	1,500
CUT	Roberto De Vicenzo	78-73=151	+7
	Bernard Gallacher	77-74=151
	Harold Henning	74-77=151
	Bunky Henry	77-74=151
	Dave Marr	75-76=151
	Lanny Wadkins (a)	79-72=151
	Raymond Floyd	76-76=152	+8
	Bill Hyndman (a)	76-76=152
	Mason Rudolph	76-76=152
	Ed Updegraff (a)	78-74=152
	Art Wall Jr. (c)	76-76=152
	Kermit Zarley	74-78=152
	Lionel Hebert	75-78=153	+9
	Cary Middlecoff (c)	78-75=153
	Tom Watson (a)	77-76=153
	Peter Butler	82-72=154	+10
	John Farquhar (a)	74-80=154
	Larry Ziegler	76-78=154
	Homero Blancas	81-74=155	+11
	Doug Ford (c)	76-79=155
	Bob Goalby (c)	77-78=155
	Gene Sarazen (c)	81-74=155
	Bob Zender (a)	77-78=155
	Joe Inman (a)	77-79=156	+12
	Dick Siderowf (a)	80-76=156
	Allen Miller (a)	81-76=157	+13
	Phil Rodgers	78-79=157
	Jack Burke Jr. (c)	78-80=158	+14
	Herman Keiser (c)	79-79=158
	John Bohmann (a)	81-78=159	+15
	Roberto Bernardini	80-80=160	+16
	Michael Bonallack (a)	75-86=161	+17
	Sukree Onsham	78-84=162	+18
	Ralph Guldahl (c)	84-83=167	+23
WD	Henry Picard (c)

Sources:^[14][15]

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
Casper	−8	−8	−8	−9	−9	−9	−9	−7	−8	−8	−7	−7	−8	−8	−9	−9	−9	−9
Littler	−7	−7	−7	−7	−8	−8	−8	−9	−8	−8	−8	−8	−9	−9	−10	−9	−9	−9
Player	−6	−6	−6	−7	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−8	−9	−8	−8	−9	−9	−8
Yancey	−5	−6	−7	−7	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−7

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Monday, April 13, 1970

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	Billy Casper	69	−3	25,000
2	Gene Littler	74	+2	17,500

Source:^[16]

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
Casper	−1	−1	−2	−2	−2	−2	−3	−3	−3	−2	−3	−2	−2	−1	−1	−2	−3	−3
Littler	E	+1	+1	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+4	+4	+4	+3	+3	+2	+2	+3	+2

Source:^[17]

• Masters.com – past winners and results
• Augusta.com – 1970 Masters leaderboard and scorecards