The 1970 Masters Tournament was the 34thMasters Tournament, held April9–13 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. A field of 83players 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. To get into the playoff, Casper scored a final round of 71(−1), while Littler shot a 70 to tie at 279(−9).

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. 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.

Harold Henning won the eleventh Par3 Contest on Wednesday with a score of 21.

Dick Schaap's The Masters: The Winning of a Golf Classic covers in detail the 1970 tournament.

Field 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)

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. Bob Lunn

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

Round summaries First round Thursday, April 9, 1970 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 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:

Second round Friday, April 10, 1970 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 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=142T7 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:

Third round Saturday, April 11, 1970 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Billy Casper 72-68-68=208 −8 2 Gene Littler 69-70-70=209 −7 3 Gary Player 74-68-68=210 −6T4 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=2139 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:

Final round Sunday, April 12, 1970

Final leaderboard Champion Silver Cup winner (low amateur)(a) = amateur(c) = past champion Top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (US$)T1 Billy Casper 72-68-68-71=279 −9 Playoff Gene Littler 69-70-70-70=2793 Gary Player (c) 74-68-68-70=280 −8 14,0004 Bert Yancey 69-70-72-70=281 −7 10,000T5 Tommy Aaron 68-74-69-72=283 −5 6,667 Dave Hill 73-70-70-70=283 Dave Stockton 72-72-69-70=2838 Jack Nicklaus (c) 71-75-69-69=284 −4 4,5009 Frank Beard 71-76-68-70=285 −3 4,000T10 Bob Lunn 70-70-75-72=287 −1 3,500 Chi-Chi Rodríguez 70-76-73-68=287 Leaderboard below the top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney ($)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=28817 Bob Charles 75-71-71-72=289 +1 2,700T18 Howie Johnson 75-71-73-71=290 +2 2,500 Dick Lotz 74-72-72-72=290 Orville Moody 73-72-71-74=290T21 Miller Barber 76-73-77-65=291 +3 2,250 Terry Wilcox 79-70-70-72=291T23 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=292T29 Hsieh Yung-yo 75-75-69-74=293 +5 1,650 Jimmy Wright 75-72-71-75=293T31 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=294T36 Arnold Palmer (c) 75-73-74-73=295 +7 1,575 Dan Sikes 70-77-71-77=295T38 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 1,57543 Steve Melnyk (a) 73-76-71-77=297 +9 044 Bob Rosburg 77-73-75-73=298 +10 1,500T45 Al Geiberger 73-77-74-75=299 +11 1,500 George Knudson 73-72-78-76=29947 R. H. Sikes 70-75-77-78=300 +12 1,50048 Dean Refram 76-74-78-75=303 +15 1,500CUT 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 +23WD Henry Picard (c)

Sources:

Scorecard Hole  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18 Par454343454 443545344 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 BirdieBogeyDouble bogey

Playoff Monday, April 13, 1970 PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney ($)1 Billy Casper 69 −325,0002 Gene Littler 74 +217,500 Source:

Scorecard Hole 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 101112131415161718Par454343454 443545344 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:

References

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