The Masters: Ranking the 25 most exceptional performances at Augusta
By Bill Felber
T-17: Tom Watson, 1977 Masters, 276 (-12), Std. Deviation -2.40
The 1977 golf season is famously remembered for Tom Watson’s pulsating British Open duel with Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry. That classic finish overshadowed the pair’s battle a few months earlier at Augusta National, also won by Watson.
Nicklaus and Watson were the game’s dominant players. Nicklaus had recently emerged from a six-season stretch in which he won seven majors, among them the 1972 and 1975 Masters. Watson was seeking his first Green Jacket, but he had won the 1975 British Open.
Watson helped set the early pace, sharing the 36-hole lead with Rod Funseth, each of them 5-under par. Nicklaus was three back in a tie for 8th. When both men shot 70 on Saturday, Watson stood tied with Ben Crenshaw for the lead with Nicklaus in a tie for fourth.
Nicklaus ratcheted up the pressure with birdies on the first two Sunday holes, moving him within a stroke of Watson and co-leader Rick Massengale. Starting at 5, though, Watson responded with four consecutive birdies that left Nicklaus four back at the turn.
But Watson gave a stroke back with a bogey at 10, and Nicklaus made up two more with birdies at 10 and 12. The pair were tied through 16, but Watson’s birdie at the 17th forced Nicklaus to birdie 18 to tie. Instead he bogeyed, setting Watson’s final margin at two strokes.