Take a glance around the Internet, and you’ll find various rankings of best Masters tournaments, best Masters events, best Masters shots, etc. etc. All of them are strictly opinion-based, and while we here at Golf Digest value the noble opinion, we also say: Why resort to it when you’ve got the pistol of objective science in your holster, loaded with the bullets of truth?
Today, we’re asking a very specific question: What are the 25 best final rounds in the history of the Masters? Note the specificity: Final rounds. Not best champions, not best shots, not best finales, although those obviously come into play. We’re taking a holistic look at the entire day, and to evaluate it properly, without recourse to emotion and vibes, we’ve rated each one on five distinct categories:
A. History/Star Power
These are two sides of the same coin, so we’re combining them—how important was this tournament in the history of the Masters, and indeed golf, and how famous/important were the players involved?
B. Back-Nine Drama
Is this an absolute seat-of-your-pants ’75 duel, or a ’97 runaway?
C. Memorable Shot(s)
Is there a specific shot or shots that lives on in our minds?
D. 18th Hole/Playoff Factor
How was the drama at the absolute conclusion?
E. Oddities/Intangibles
Did this launch the major career of the GOAT? Did somebody collapse in a manner so painful that we still talk about it today? Did a guy blow his chance by signing an incorrect scorecard?
We’ve assigned a score of 0-10 (actually, 5-10, there is grade inflation here) to each, and compiled what we now present as a definitive ranking. Before we get there, though, we want you to keep a couple more things in mind:
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—All five categories matter equally, which means that something like the 1997 Masters might be lower than you’d expect because it would suffer on the “drama” front.
—There is a slight bias, with 10 of these 25 coming since 2000. This is partly because we’ve had some wildly compelling finishes since 2000, partly because prior to the late ’60s they weren’t grouping the leaders together in the final round, and partly because television coverage has created indelible moments that in the past would have been ephemeral. It is not because we are prisoners of our own perspectives, unable to understand or appreciate the past. Never.
You can see the breakdown of each tournament and category here. For the entries that follow, we’ll only be listing the final score. We start the countdown at 25…
25. 1934 – Horton kicks it off
Total Score: 32.3
As you might guess, the first-ever Masters—called the Augusta National Invitational Tournament back then—primarily gets historical points. Horton Smith did hit a big putt on the 17th hole, but back then the leaders weren’t necessarily teeing off last, and Smith wasn’t paired with runner-up Craig Wood. But this is the OG Masters, Bobby Jones came out of retirement to ensure it would be a success, and everything that followed flowed from this. That’s enough to just crack the top 25.
24. 1980 – Seve’s Euro Breakthrough
Total Score: 34.0
Absolute respect for Seve Ballesteros becoming the first European champion at Augusta, racking up huge points for intangibles and history. But he came in with a seven-shot lead, and although he flirted with blowing it early on the back nine, this was never a true sweat.
23. 1956 – Jack Burke Jr.’s Comeback
Total Score: 36.1
The intangibles here are through the roof, a perfect 10 out of 10: Burke came from eight shots back on a ridiculously hard day, E. Michael Johnson figured out that it was the sixth-best final round statistically by a champion ever, and that’s after he showed up late (he went to church) and had only 15 minutes to warm up. Meanwhile, the leader Venturi sorta/kinda collapsed with an 80—which sounds bad until you remember that 80 was close to average for that particular day—and there are reports that his wife was crying while she watched it on TV. Intense stuff! It also happens to be the first televised Masters. It loses a lot in lack of star power, few memorable shots, and the fact that different tee times sapped the final round drama.
22. 2010 – Phil’s Third Opus
Total Score: 38.5
The shot through the trees on 13 is going to live on for eternity. It’s one of just five perfect 10s in that category, and it’s so good that I honestly forgot he missed the four-foot eagle putt badly. From there, the drama dissipated—Lee Westwood couldn’t make a move—and Phil ended up winning by three.
21. 2016 – The Spiethian Tumble
Total Score: 38.7
Here we have another perfect 10 in “Memorable Shots,” and it’s a pair that Spieth wishes he didn’t remember—dunking it in the water, twice, on 12 and blowing what seemed like a sure thing. The beneficiary was Danny Willett (massive hit to the star power score), and the last few holes weren’t very exciting, but the intangibles are high because, second to Norman’s fiasco in ’96, this is the most stomach-churning final round collapse in Masters history.
20. 2012 – Bubba From the Woods
Total Score: 40.1
Here we have a third straight 10/10 legendary Masters shot, and we’re back on the positive side of the scales with Bubba Watson’s ingenious punch-hook from the trees on no. 10 in the playoff to send Louis Oosthuizen packing. It’s impossible not to get goosebumps watching that shot, no matter what you think of Bubba—and many of us have thought many things. What’s more, that final round included Oosthuizen’s early albatross, pumping up the intangibles score. Beyond those two moments, though, it was kind of a weird final round, with most of the drama coming late, but those two shots are plenty to boost it into the top 20.
19. 1998 – O’Meara’s Near Walk-Off
Total Score: 40.8
Here’s a question that’s strangely hard to answer—has there ever been a walk-off birdie on the 18th hole in regulation at Augusta, by which I mean that it’s the literal last shot of the tournament and gave the player a one-shot win? O’Meara came very close, with this epic tourney-winner in 1998, but Couples still had to clean up when he was done. Perhaps later on in this post, we’ll come back to this question. Anyway, this was a monumental putt and an incredible 18th hole, snatching perfect 10s in both categories.
18. 1968 – DiVicenzo’s Folly
Total Score: 40.9
For history and intangible, we’re simply off the charts—DiVicenzo signing an incorrect scorecard deservedly owns a spot in the annals of all-time sports blunders, although as I explored in a deep-dive podcast, I don’t think he should be blamed as much as his partner Tommy Aaron and, most of all, Augusta National itself. Nevertheless, his famous quote, “what a stupid I am!” lives in golf history, and watching the end of the final round broadcast is a particularly surreal experience. Also, though nobody really cares since it was dwarfed by the magnitude of what came next, the back-and-forth action throughout the day was pretty solid.
17. 2011 – Schwartzel’s Charge
Total Score: 41.0
The intangibles are strong here—this is the tournament when Rory mercilessly crushed the competition over three days, then shot an 80 in a collapse that felt like the beginning of a nasty Masters curse, until he broke it 14 years later. After he ejected on Sunday, it was a terrific back-nine duel where it looked one of the Australians, Jason Day or Adam Scott, would break their nation’s Augusta 0-fer, right up until the moment when Charl Schwartzel reeled off an insane four-birdie stretch on 15 through 18 to leave them in the dust. It’s arguably the greatest closing stretch in Masters history.
Total Score: 41.4
What more can you even say about this? Like the DiVicenzo business, we have perfect 10s here for history and intangibles, and even with the Tiger and Rory wins in the last six years, it remains one of three most famous Masters of all-time. In our system, it falls because at a certain point the back nine drama seeped away, the 18th hole didn’t matter except as an extension of Norman’s suffering, and the only memorable shot is the one they replay where he falls backward to the ground, even though it probably wouldn’t have mattered if he made it. This is just sheer pain…so check out Jamie Kennedy and I dissecting the hell out of it in the first episode of The 50 Things That Changed Golf.
15. 1962 – Palmer over Player (and Finsterwald)
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Total Score: 41.9
This was Arnold Palmer at the peak of his powers, but the wild thing about the ’62 Masters is that he seemingly tried to give it away a few times, starting in the final round when he found himself five over after 10 holes, blowing his two-shot lead and then some. He needed to get hot to even force a playoff, and he did, with clutch birdies on 16 and 17. That left him tied with Gary Player and Dow Finsterwald, leading to the first ever three-man 18-hole playoff in Masters history. Again, Palmer stumbled, going out in 37 and trailing player by three, but a 31 on the back left Player in the dust, and he had his third green jacket. High points here on almost everything but memorable shots.
14. 1942 – Nelson over Hogan Before the War
Total Score: 42.2
Excellent history and star power here, with excellent intangibles since it was the last Masters before they shut it down for the big fight in Europe. The drama was superb too, with Hogan coming back from a three-shot deficit on Sunday to force a playoff and Nelson fighting back from that same deficit in the playoff, which was the first of just five 18-hole playoffs in Masters history. (Yes, we’re counting those rare playoffs as part of the final round.) Extra trivia: Bobby Jones refereed the playoff.
13. 1997 – Hello, World
Total Score: 43.0
You’re mad about this, aren’t you? I can feel your rage coming through the screen. Tough luck—this is about final rounds, and while this particular final round was incredible for Tiger’s dominance and the launch of a legend, the drama was as low as it gets. He won by 12 shots! However, the scene on 18 was electric, and the hug with his father (post-bypass surgery) is still as moving today as it was then, so he gets a sneaky 10 in that category. In fact, no other round on this list had perfect 10s in three categories. So don’t mourn its placement; be happy that it would win a match play showdown with any other final round on the list.
12. 2001 – Tiger Slammed
Total Score: 43.1
Obviously, history and intangibles are off the charts here at the conclusion of the greatest sustained feat of excellence in modern golf history. The back nine drama gets high marks too, with Woods fending off Duval and Mickelson and punctuating it all with a birdie on 18. (Arguably, this is the closest we ever got to a pure Tiger vs. Phil major showdown.) The scene on 18 in particular elevates this one, because even though the competitive tension was kaput when Tiger landed his approach on the green, the fact that he sunk the putt, and Venturi’s quote—”I think it’s the greatest feat i’ve ever known in all of sports”—makes for incredible theater.
11. 1988 – Sandy’s Bunker Bonanza Total Score: 44.8
Nominative determinism is the idea that your name determines your fate—a guy named “Baker” becoming a pastry chef—and after 1988, Sandy Lyle became a great argument in favor. His sandy lie on 18 after his tee shot seemed to be really bad news, sitting by the front lip, but a beautiful 7-iron set up a dramatic walk-off birdie. (So yes, someone has made a necessary jacket-winning birdie as the last shot of a tournament, to answer the question posed in no. 19 above.) He earned the little jig he danced on the green, because earlier on the back nine, he looked like he had blown it and handed the thing to Mark Calcavecchia. It’s a perfect 10 for 18th hole drama, and a 9.9 for that memorable sand shot.
10. 1987 – Mize’s Miracle
Total score: 45.0
PLAYOFF PAYOFF: McIlroy moments after sinking a three-foot birdie set up by a 125-yard gap wedge approach.
Photo by Stephen Denton
SWEET MOMENTS: Rory with wife, Erica, and their daughter, Poppy.
Photo by JD Cuban
THE HANDSHAKE: The champion is greeted by the author.
One of the weird quirks of the Masters is that it seems like great results come in three-year streaks—’96 through ‘98 and ‘10 through ‘12, and this stretch from ‘86 through ‘88. Just before Lyle worked his magic and just after [spoiler redacted], Larry Mize had set the stage with his playoff hole-out, adding another answer to the open-ended question, “how many ways can Greg Norman have his heart broken?” Even before Mize’s Miracle, this was a fabulously crowded leaderboard with crazy ebbs and flows, Seve making and then bowing out of the playoff, and also this attempted game-winner from Norman on 18 that I urge you to watch again to see how absurd it is that it doesn’t go in. But it’s the playoff chip-in, of course, that needs to be seen to be believed. Come for the celebration, stay for the shot of Norman looking like the loneliest man in existence.
9. 2004 – Phil Can Win a Major
Total Score: 45.3
Wait, you thought Sandy Lyle was the only man with a walk-off birdie to win? Ladies and gents, Phil Mickelson, for his maiden major victory. These were truly wild scenes on 18, with Chris DiMarco’s sand shot coming to rest inches behind Phil’s ball on 18, giving him the perfect read. Everything about this was elite, including the back-nine drama as Ernie Els tried to chase him down (and briefly caught him). And on the intangibles front, Els even got a controversial drop on 11. But as the first major for one of our great champions, it stands out as an underrated part of history.
8. 2013 – C’Mon, Aussie! Total Score: 45.8
I’ll be honest—I didn’t think this one would score as high as it did. But when you really look back, the only category in which it’s not elite is history and name recognition, and if you were Australian instead of me, you’d say it was very historic, since Adam Scott became the first Masters winner from that country. But the back-nine drama here was excellent, with Scott, Day, and Angel Cabrera fighting for every birdie, Scott’s winning putt is an all-time memorable shot. We can’t sleep on the intangibles either; Day’s heartbreak and Cabrera’s near theft and the darkness and rain at the end are pretty great too.
7. 1975 – Duel of Duels…of Duels
Total Score: 45.9
This was just an outrageous back nine between Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, and Johnny Miller, with the lead seeming to change every 30 seconds. It was ultimately decided by Jack Nicklaus doing very Jack Nicklaus things, ending with a 40-foot bomb on 16 to move a shot ahead of both (watching he and his caddie jump up and down as it goes in is top-tier stuff). The very last moments of the event were incredible too, with both Miller and Weiskopf having makeable birdies to get into a playoff (Weiskopf’s a bit better than makeable), and Nicklaus having to watch in agony…until they both missed. This is the only perfect 10 we gave out for back nine drama, and the rest wasn’t too shabby either.
6. 2005 – IN YOUR LIFE!
Total Score: 46.0
Look, I recommend just watching this from Tiger’s tee shot on 16. Settle in, absorb the vibes of that day, and give yourself some lead-in to the fireworks. You’ll start living in that mental place where you realize the bad tee shot only exists to set up the ensuing heroics, which is perfect in every respect right down to the ball hanging for a moment on the lip and Lundquist’s call. But I’m here to tell you that the final round offers more than just that shot. It’s got Chris DiMarco bravely chasing Tiger down from three shots back, Tiger seeming to secure it on 16 only to bogey the last two holes and fall into a playoff, DiMarco almost holing a birdie chip on 18 to win it all, and then Tiger’s dagger in the playoff. It was only ever a two-horse race, but aside from Tiger v. Bob May, it was probably the best major duel of his career.
5. 1935 – Shot Heard ‘Round the World
Total Score: 46.1
With good reason, Sarazen’s double eagle on 15 is probably the most famous golf shot of the 20th century. Can you imagine if, in a tight Masters, someone did that today? With three holes left? It would be absolute bedlam and we’d never stop talking about it. Craig Wood had him dead to rights! But that wasn’t all this tournament offered—it was the only 36-hole playoff in Masters history, with Sarazen beating Wood, and need we remind you, it was the second-ever Masters, so you have to wonder how important that shot was in solidifying the legend of this event. Yes, this is old as hell, with wonky tee times and no footage, but it more than deserves its spot here in the top five.
4. 2019 – Tiger, One Last Time
Total Score: 46.2
Obviously, the history and intangibles are off the charts here, easy perfect 10s for both between Tiger breaking his drought, the hug with his children, and the sheer magic of the day. But don’t forget how compelling this final round was, particularly all the action on 12, when it seemed practically mandatory for every player to hit into the water…except the man who took the green jacket. If you’ve ever been tempted to believe in the golf gods, watching Molinari, Koepka, and Finau dunk their tee shots one after the other might put you over the top. Those shots were more memorable than anything positive, and Tiger was able to limp home with a bogey on 18, but when you look at the two Masters wins that book-ended his major career, this one is the more exciting of the two.
3. 1978 – Gary’s Charge
Total Score: 47.6
This, statistically, is the second-greatest final round by a champion ever, but considering the circumstances, and with respect to Ben Hogan in 1951, it has be the best pure single round in Masters history. Player was a man on fire, and it happened on a day that was on fire, with temperatures spiking as he shot 30 on the back nine, including a 15-foot birdie for his finale on 18. I’m not saying this is quite as good as Johnny Miller’s Oakmont 63, but it’s up there for final round heroics, and 1978 doesn’t stop there—he had to watch Tom Watson make bogey to slip out of a playoff on 18, and Rod Funseth narrowly miss a birdie to do the same. Then things got really crazy. Hubert Green, the 54-hole leader, put his approach on 18 to three feet. Needing birdie to make the playoff…well, what happens next has to be seen to be believed. It’s all theater—the announcer referencing “it ain’t easy being green,” the radio distracting him, Player’s face superimposed in the corner, half Darth Vader, half corny class photo, Green’s caddie collapsing on the fringe when the putt misses, and Player leaping up instantly to shake everyone’s hand in Butler Cabin. Social media would break if this happened today…it’s electric.
2. 2025 – Rory At Last
Total Score: 47.8
It’s all so fresh in our minds, it barely needs recapping. The years of drought, the final pairing with Bryson (including the odd gamesmanship we’re still learning about now), and the ridiculous sequence of devastating chokes followed by the clutchest play you’ve ever seen, all the way to the surprise charge by Justin Rose and the playoff. The history, the star power, the memorable shots (there are almost too many to count, but obviously the second on 15 takes the cake), the back nine drama, and the intangibles that keep coming. I don’t think I’ll ever experience anything close to the highs and lows endured in this round, and the only shocking thing here is that it’s not no. 1.
1. The Bear in Winter
Total Score: 48.2
I was three years old when this happened, so there’s an obvious bias in me threatening to put 2019 or 2025 as the top answer. And yet…when you really study this final round, for the first time or the fiftieth time, there’s no appropriate reaction beyond your jaw hitting the floor. In some ways, it’s like an entire decade packed into one day—Seve charging, Seve falling apart, Norman collapsing but then somehow fighting back with a fury before blowing it again, and Nicklaus just pounding away, making every putt in sight and summoning up energy fields that reverberated across the course. (I mean, hell, even the supporting actors and bit players are people like Bernhard Langer and Tom Watson.) This final round was so good that the most memorable shot might not even belong to Nicklaus, but to Norman, who sprayed his approach on 18 into the gallery.
OK, I take that back, the most memorable is the “YES, SIR!” putt on 17, but you get my point. It had everything, and it’s the timeless epic that foretold Tiger’s win in 2019. Pound for pound, though, this one’s even better.
The Masters The 25 Greatest Masters Finishes Each tournament scored across five categories — hover any row to see the breakdown. History / Name Back 9 Drama Memorable Shot 18th Hole Factor Oddities / Intangibles Year Score Total Golf Digest ratings
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
