1980 Masters Tournament


The 1980 Masters Tournament was the 44th Masters Tournament, held April 10–13 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
Seve Ballesteros, age 23, won his first Masters and second major championship title, four strokes ahead of runners-up Jack Newton and Gibby Gilbert. Ballesteros had a seven stroke lead after 54 holes and extended it to ten strokes after the front nine of the final round at 16-under-par, eyeing the Masters record of 271 set by Jack Nicklaus in 1965. A new record was to be rewarded with a $50,000 bonus from Golf magazine. An hour later, after he found the water at 12 and 13 at Amen Corner, the lead had been reduced to three. Ballesteros regrouped with a birdie at 15 and parred the rest to shoot even-par 72 for the round and held on for the victory.
Well back in the field on Sunday, Nicklaus, age 40, was paired with Arnold Palmer, age 50, which drew large galleries. Palmer shot 69 to finish at even par and T24, Nicklaus had 73 to finish at 291 and T33. It was their first pairing at Augusta in five years and the first time Palmer had finished higher than Nicklaus there since 1967. Nicklaus regrouped and won two majors in 1980, the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship and was the runner-up the following April.
Ballesteros, of Spain, was the first winner of the Masters from Europe, and won a second green jacket in 1983.
This was the final Masters with Bermuda and ryegrass greens, which were replaced with bentgrass following this tournament.
Greg Norman was invited to play in what would have been his first Masters but declined. He decided to defend his 1979 Hong Kong Open championship. Another Australian, Stewart Ginn, was also invited but declined in order to play in Hong Kong.

Field

;1. Masters champions
Tommy Aaron, George Archer, Gay Brewer, Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Raymond Floyd, Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Sam Snead, Art Wall Jr., Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller
;The following categories only apply to Americans
;2. U.S. Open champions
Lou Graham, Hubert Green, Hale Irwin, Andy North, Jerry Pate
;3. The Open champions
Johnny Miller
;4. PGA champions
John Mahaffey, Dave Stockton, Lanny Wadkins
;5. 1979 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists
Cecil Ingram III, Mark O'Meara, Joey Rassett
;6. Previous two U.S. Amateur and Amateur champions
Jay Sigel
;7. Members of the 1979 U.S. Walker Cup team
Doug Clarke, Doug Fischesser, Mike Gove, Jim Holtgrieve, Griff Moody, Hal Sutton, Marty West
;8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1979 Masters Tournament
Miller Barber, Bobby Clampett, Lee Elder, Joe Inman, Tom Kite, Billy Kratzert, Bruce Lietzke, Gene Littler, Artie McNickle, Jim Simons, J. C. Snead, Ed Sneed, Craig Stadler, Leonard Thompson, Lee Trevino
;9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1979 U.S. Open
Ben Crenshaw, Keith Fergus, Bob Gilder, Larry Nelson, Calvin Peete, Tom Purtzer, Bill Rogers, Tom Weiskopf
;10. Top eight players and ties from 1979 PGA Championship
Rex Caldwell, Gibby Gilbert, Jay Haas, Don January, Ron Streck, Howard Twitty
;11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters
Andy Bean, George Burns, Jim Colbert, Dave Eichelberger, Ed Fiori, John Fought, Al Geiberger, Lon Hinkle, Wayne Levi, Jerry McGee, Jeff Mitchell, Gil Morgan, Jack Renner, Chi-Chi Rodríguez, Curtis Strange, Doug Tewell, D. A. Weibring
;12. Members of the U.S. 1979 Ryder Cup team
Mark Hayes
;13. Foreign invitations
Isao Aoki, Seve Ballesteros, David Graham, Mark James, Sandy Lyle, Graham Marsh, Peter McEvoy, Toru Nakamura, Jack Newton

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Source:

Missed the cut

Source:

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 10, 1980
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Seve Ballesteros66−6
T1David Graham66−6
T1Jeff Mitchell66−6
T4Hubert Green68−4
T4Jack Newton68−4
T6Tom Kite69−3
T6Larry Nelson69−3
T8Gibby Gilbert70−2
T8Artie McNickle70−2
T8Andy North70−2
T8Jim Simons70−2
T8Ed Sneed70−2

Source:

Second round

Friday, April 11, 1980
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
1Seve Ballesteros66-69=135−9
T2Rex Caldwell73-66=139−5
T2David Graham66-73=139−5
T4Tom Kite69-71=140−4
T4Jerry Pate72-68=140−4
T4Jim Simons70-70=140−4
T4Ed Sneed70-70=140−4
T4Doug Tewell71-69=140−4
T9Ed Fiori71-70=141−3
T9Jeff Mitchell66-75=141−3
T9Larry Nelson69-72=141−3

Source:

Third round

Saturday, April 12, 1980
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
1Seve Ballesteros66-69-68=203−13
2Ed Fiori71-70-69=210−6
T3David Graham66-73-72=211−5
T3Jack Newton68-74-69=211−5
T3Andy North70-72-69=211−5
T3J. C. Snead73-69-69=211−5
T7Rex Caldwell73-66-73=212−4
T7Jim Colbert72-70-70=212−4
T7Gibby Gilbert70-74-68=212−4
T7Jim Simons70-70-72=212−4
T7Fuzzy Zoeller72-70-70=212−4

Source:

Final round

Sunday, April 13, 1980
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo parMoney
1Seve Ballesteros66-69-68-72=275−1355,000
T2Gibby Gilbert70-74-68-67=279−930,500
T2Jack Newton68-74-69-68=279−930,500
4Hubert Green68-74-71-67=280−815,750
5David Graham66-73-72-70=281−713,200
T6Ben Crenshaw76-70-68-69=283−59,958
T6Ed Fiori71-70-69-73=283−59,958
T6Tom Kite69-71-74-69=283−59,958
T6Larry Nelson69-72-73-69=283−59,958
T6Jerry Pate72-68-76-67=283−59,958
T6Gary Player71-71-71-70=283−59,958

Source:

Scorecard

Final round
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15161718
Par454343454443545344
Ballesteros−14−14−15−15−16−16−16−16−16−15−15−13−12−12−13−13−13−13
Gilbert−4−4−4−5−5−6−6−6−6−6−6−6−7−8−9−10−10−9
Newton−5−6−6−6−6−7−6−7−6−6−7−8−9−9−9−9−9−9
Green−3−4−5−5−5−5−5−6−6−5−5−4−5−5−7−7−8−8
Graham−5−5−5−5−5−5−5−5−4−4−4−5−6−6−7−7−7−7
Flori−6−6−6−6−6−5−5−5−5−5−6−5−5−5−5−5−5−5
Snead−5−6−5−5−4−4−4−4−4−4−4−4−4−4−4−3−3−3
North−4−1−1−1−1−1−1−1+1+1+1+1+1E−1−1−1E

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
EagleBirdieBogeyDouble bogeyTriple bogey +