MASTERS '26: Key anniversaries over the years at Augusta National

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A look at some of the anniversaries this year at the Masters:

75 years ago (1951)

Winner: Ben Hogan

Score: 70-72-70-68—280

Margin: 2 shots

Prize: $3,000

Runner-up: Skee Riegel

Key to win: Hogan started the final round one shot behind Riegel and Sam Snead and shot 68 without making a bogey.

Noteworthy: Hogan won his second major after his near-fatal car accident. The following year, he wrote a letter to Augusta National co-founder Cliff Roberts suggesting a dinner for all the Masters champions.

AP story: “Icicle-nerved Ben Hogan added a sensational flourish to one of the great comeback sagas in sports Sunday when he won his first Masters golf championship with a near-record 280. The gristly little man from Texas subdued Augusta National’s treacherous acres with a grim and meticulous last round 68, four under par golf that burned off all opposition. The 38-year-old National Open champion, winner of that crown twice and the PGA as many times, thus completed his slam of major American pro championships.”

50 years ago (1976)

Winner: Raymond Floyd

Score: 65-66-70-70—271

Margin: 8 shots

Prize: $40,000

Runner-up: Ben Crenshaw

Key to the win: Floyd made birdie or eagle on every par 5 through 54 holes in building an eight-shot lead. He tied the 72-hole record held by Jack Nicklaus.

Noteworthy: Floyd joined Craig Wood, Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus as the only wire-to-wire winners of the Masters. There would not be another one until Jordan Spieth in 2015.

AP story: “Ray Floyd — never pressured, never pushed — took a casual little stroll through the Georgia piney woods this sunny Sunday, paused to strike the golf ball 70 times and ambled home with perhaps the easiest Masters victory of all time. Floyd, a 33-year-old one-time playboy turned solid, sober family man, won this 40th renewal of golf’s annual spring rite with a 271 total, 17 under par and matching the tournament record for 72 holes set by Jack Nicklaus in 1965. Only handsome young Ben Crenshaw — who gave a flock of giggling girls a little thrill when he hiked his britches above his knees to wade into the pond on the 16th hole — could generate any challenge at all and that was much too little, much too late.”

25 years ago (2001)

Winner: Tiger Woods

Score: 70-66-68-68—272

Margin: 2 shots

Prize: $1,008,000.

Runner-up: David Duval

Key to the win: Woods was locked in a thriller with his two chief rivals, Duval and Phil Mickelson. They each made bogey on the par-3 16th and never caught up to Woods, who didn’t drop a shot over the last six holes. His second Masters title allowed him to hold all four majors at the same time.

Noteworthy: Woods swept the four majors with a combined score of 65-under par and had at least a share of the lead after 13 of the 16 rounds.

AP story: “Slam or not, Tiger Woods was simply grand. With a heart-stopper at Augusta National punctuated with a birdie at the end, Woods claimed the greatest feat in modern golf Sunday by winning the Masters, giving him a clean sweep of the four professional majors in a span of 294 days. Woods closed with a 68, steady down the haunting back nine of Augusta National as David Duval and Phil Mickelson failed to harness the magic that has carried Woods to five of the last six majors. The only thing left to debate is what to call this remarkable feat. Purists argue that a Grand Slam is accomplished in a calendar year. Woods, emotionally drained after a relentless battle from start to finish, stayed out of the argument. “I won four,” he said.”

20 years ago (2006)

Winner: Phil Mickelson

Score: 70-72-70-69—281

Margin: 2 shots

Prize: $1,260,000

Runner-up: Tim Clark

Key to the win: Mickelson had a one-shot lead and didn’t make a bogey until the final hole. Fred Couples had a 4-foot birdie putt on the 14th to pull within one shot and three-putted.

Noteworthy: After going more than a decade before winning a major, Mickelson won three of the last nine.

AP story: “Phil Mickelson is a Masters champion again, and now he’s making it look easy. Once known as a lovable loser who needed a dozen years to figure out how to win golf’s biggest events, Mickelson captured his second straight major Sunday at Augusta National, and this one was hardly a nail-biter. He closed with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory over Tim Clark, and his second green jacket in three years. There were no thrills for Phil, rather calculated shots that forced Fred Couples, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh to try to catch him. Instead, they stumbled along with three-putts and a litany of other mistakes that allowed Mickelson to stroll up the 18th fairway already knowing how this major would end.”

10 years ago (2016)

Winner: Danny Willett

Score:70-74-72-67—283

Margin: 3 shots

Prize: $1,800,000

Runner-up: Jordan Spieth and Lee Westwood

Key to the win: Willett was five shots behind on the back nine when Spieth made bogeys at Nos. 10 and 11 and twice hit into Rae’s Creek to make a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 12th. Willett shot 33 on the back with birdies on the 13th, 14th and 16th holes.

Noteworthy: Willett became the first Englishman to win the Masters since Nick Faldo in 1996. Willett played the final round with Westwood, who also would play the final round with the U.S. Open champion (Dustin Johnson) two months later.

AP story: “Jordan Spieth couldn’t bear to watch, turning his head before another shot splashed into Rae’s Creek. Moments later, Danny Willett looked up at the large leaderboard at the 15th green and couldn’t believe what he saw. This Masters turned into a shocker Sunday, right down to the green jacket ceremony. Spieth was in Butler Cabin, just like everyone expected when he took a five-shot lead to the back nine at Augusta National. Only he was there to present it to Willett, who seized on Spieth’s collapse with a magnificent round that made him a Masters champion.”

5 years ago (2021)

Winner: Hideki Matsuyama

Score: 69-71-65-73—278

Margin: 1 shot

Prize: $2,070,000

Runner-up: Will Zalatoris

Key to the win: Matsuyama might have won this Saturday with a bogey-free 65 to build a four-shot lead. He led by as many as six shots but effectively sealed it when Xander Schauffele hit into the water on the 16th and made triple bogey. Matsuyama bogeyed three of the last four holes.

Noteworthy: The victory came 10 years after Matsuyama made his debut at Augusta National as the Asia-Pacific Amateur champion. Matsuyama was the first Masters champion since Trevor Immelman in 2008 to be over par in the last round.

AP story: “Hideki Matsuyama delivered golf-mad Japan the grandest and greenest prize of all. Ten years after Matsuyama made a sterling debut as the best amateur at Augusta National, he claimed the ultimate trophy Sunday with a victory in the Masters to become the first Japanese winner of the green jacket. Matsuyama closed with a 1-over 73 and a one-shot victory that was only close at the end, and never seriously in doubt after Xander Schauffele’s late charge ended with a triple bogey on the par-3 16th. Moments before Dustin Johnson helped him into the green jacket, Matsuyama needed no interpreter in Butler Cabin when he said in English, ‘I’m really happy.’”

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