The Masters - Augusta, GA

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"Historically, golf has enjoyed unprecedented periods of expansion when the role model has been an erratic player.  Walter Hagen never knew where his ball was going and he had to invent six or seven new shots every time he played just to get his ball back into play.  Arnold Palmer was the same, with the added element of excitement that at any moment his trousers might fall down."  - Peter Dobereiner

The Ones That Got Away

It is the harsh reality of competitive golf that only one player gets to win each tournament. 

Unlike most team sports, where half of the participants will go home victorious, golf’s ratio for success is a bit less generous – roughly 155-1 in most full-field events.  Consequently, the stories of those who’ve lost are often more compelling (and certainly more plentiful) than the tales surrounding those who’ve won, and nowhere is this more true than at the Masters.

Why has the road to a Green Jacket been so disproportionally littered with heartbreak? 

First, surely, because it is a Major championship.  The bigger the stage, the larger the audience, magnifying both success and failure exponentially.  Of even greater importance, however, is the once-unique design of Augusta National, where the back nine’s blend of thrilling all-or-nothing holes was the perfect breeding ground for high drama, of both the positive and negative variety.  And this distinctiveness of design has been a huge factor in another important way, for Augusta is a golf course which long favored – or, at least, gave the distinct appearance of favoring – a specific kind of player.  If you hit it long, it was generally believed, you had a leg up.  If you could work the ball consistently from right-to-left, that advantage was magnified.  And if you were an aggressive sort, well, this was a golf course built largely with you in mind.

Thus in addition to its long and distinguished roll of champions, the Masters also possesses a celebrated list of non-winners, a ledger of golfing greats who somehow never quite got over the hump.  In a handful of cases, they’re players who came oh-so-agonizingly close one memorable time.  For others, their inclusion here represents more of a lifetime non-achievement award.

So, with no further adieu, 10 players whose Masters failures have most haunted the hills and pines of Augusta…

10) Jim Ferrier – Ferrier finished 2nd in 1950, two shots behind Jimmy Demaret, and was six times among the top seven between 1946-52, but his inclusion is based more on the type of golfer he was.  An big, powerful man once described by Bernard Darwin as “a magnificent specimen of humanity,” Ferrier easily possessed the length necessary for Augusta success, yet he was chiefly celebrated for his marvelous skills on and around the greens.  With only one Major championship (the 1947 PGA) against 18 official PGA Tour wins, it might be argued that Ferrier was, in general, a Major underachiever, but Augusta surely seemed built for his game.

9) Ernie Els  - In many ways Els might be viewed as a modern-day Jim Ferrier, being of similar size and possessing a comparable range of skills – with, perhaps, even a bit more length.  Of course, Ernie has also logged about 30 more worldwide victories than Ferrier, and two more Majors…making his Masters disappointments that much more palpable.  He was never out of the top six from 2000-04, highlighted by solo 2nds in 2000 and, especially, 2004, when his flawless Sunday 67 included two eagles, yet came up one shy when Phil Mickelson birdied the last to win.  With his power and shotmaking skills, how has he not won here?  Then again, he’s the only man here who still has a chance to remove himself from this list.

8) Tom Kite – The rare non-power hitter in this bunch, Kite strung together an impressive 10 top-10 finishes over a 12-year span (1975-86) with seven of those actually being top 5s.  His nearest miss came in 1986, when he missed a 10-footer at the last that would have forced a playoff with Jack Nicklaus – a disappointment historically overshadowed by Greg Norman’s 18th-hole meltdown minutes later.

7) Lloyd Mangrum – Against an impressive ledger of 36 PGA Tour victories, Hall-of-Famer Lloyd Mangrum must rate among the game’s more disappointing Major championship players, claiming only a single Major (the 1946 U.S. Open) in 40+ starts.  But this is hardly to suggest he didn’t play well; indeed, from 1940-56, he logged a remarkable 26 top-10 finishes in 35 Major starts, including 10 straight at Augusta from 1947-56.  Twice a Green Jacket bridesmaid (1940 and ’49), but never, unfortunately, a bride.

6) Johnny Miller – A dominant force during the early 1970s, Miller was three times a runner-up here, twice in heartbreaking fashion.  In 1971, he led through 68 holes before being overtaken by a charging Charles Coody, and in 1975 he fell victim (along with fellow sufferer Tom Weiskopf) to Jack Nicklaus’s famous 40-foot birdie putt at the 16th, losing by one.  The rest of his Masters record was less imposing, but those two occasions were mighty close.

5) Ed Sneed – A four-time PGA Tour winner, Sneed had only one chance to win at Augusta, but what a chance it was.  In 1979, he led by three strokes going to the 70th hole, then missed three consecutive par putts of six feet or less to surrender the lead, before losing in a three-way playoff (with Tom Watson) to Fuzzy Zoeller.  Even under the throttling pressure, who would bet he’d have missed all three?

4) Tom Weiskopf – Not many players have finished 2nd on four occasions here, but then not many players have done a lot of things on Tom Weiskopf’s résumé.  He finished one back of George Archer in 1969, three behind Jack Nicklaus in 1972, two back of Gary Player in 1974 and, agonizingly, one behind Jack Nicklaus in 1975, when three putts at the 16th and a missed 10-footer at the last did him in.  Once they tire of Tom Fazio, perhaps the club hire him as “consulting architect…”

3) Ken Venturi – Venturi very nearly won the 1956 Masters while still an amateur, leading by four through 54 holes before a closing 80 (in very windy conditions) saw him lose to Jack Burke, Jr. by one.  Two years later, he looked to be on his way after Arnold Palmer’s apparent five at the par-3 12th – but tournaments officials later accepted Palmer’s version of a disagreement over an imbedded ball ruling and retroactively gave Arnold a three, and, ultimately, the championship.  Finally, in 1960, Palmer birdied the 17th and 18th holes to edge Venturi by one.  It’s unlikely that any golfer has been tormented more by Augusta National, unless it’s…

2) Greg Norman – Perhaps the all-time poster boy for Masters futility, the powerful, hugely skilled Norman’s failure to win at Augusta must rate the most surprising cases of futility in Major championship history.  Eight times he has finished among the top 5 (!), three times suffering utterly agonizing defeat.  In 1986, he blew a 4 iron right of the 18th green, the ensuing bogey costing him a chance at playing off with Jack Nicklaus.  The next year reached a playoff, only to lose to Larry Mize’s miraculous chip on the second hole of sudden death.  And then there was 1996, when a his closing 78 allowed Nick Faldo to make up a six-shot 54-hole deficit and win going away.  Once upon a time, Jack Nicklaus suggested that Norman would claim multiple Green Jackets.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

1) Roberto de Vicenzo - Everyone else on this list could have won the Masters, but Argentina’s Roberto de Vicenzo essentially did – or, at least, a piece of it.  In 1968, de Vicenzo closed with a dazzling 65 to finish in an apparent tie with Bob Goalby, necessitating an 18-hole Monday playoff.  Unfortunately, playing partner Tommy Aaron had mistakenly marked de Vicenzo’s birdie at the 71st as a par. Thus while the card’s total of 65 was correct, the rules dictated that de Vicenzo be credited with the incorrect higher score of 66 – and with it 2nd place.  Forty years later, with non-stop TV coverage and live internet scoring rendering such clerical points 100% moot, professional golf still hasn’t adopted a local rule to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

Why not?