The 10 Most Surprising Masters Winners

We’re only one week away from the Masters.

You know what that means—we’re all Masters all the time here at MGS.

One of the many charming parts of the Masters is the tournament’s illustrious history. The great champions are revered; the storybook endings are celebrated for as long as golf is played.

Included in that lore are all the Masters winners we never saw coming. These are the guys who caught lightning in a bottle and, against all odds, took down top competition to don the green jacket.

When putting together this list, I realized there is an argument to be made for the two most famous Masters tournaments in history: 1986 (Jack Nicklaus) and 2019 (Tiger Woods).

Those were surprising results. Nicklaus hadn’t won a major in six years; Woods hadn’t won a major in 11 years. But they are also the two greatest golfers to ever live, so how surprised could we truly be about them climbing the Augusta National mountain one last time? Nicklaus finished T6 in the 1985 Masters and Woods finished runner-up in the 2018 PGA Championship, the major prior to that Masters.

Iconic? Yes. As surprising as some of the other names on this list? No.

So with that in mind, here are the 10 Masters winners that shocked us all by capturing green jacket glory.

10. Zach Johnson (2007)

While this didn’t end up being a surprise when looking back on Johnson’s terrific career, it was a total stunner in the moment.

Johnson came into the tournament at +12500, which are remarkably distant odds. He had won just once on the PGA Tour—three years prior at a much smaller tournament.

That year’s Masters brought unusually cold and windy conditions, leading to 1-over being the winning score. Johnson conquered the par-5s with strategy, laying up and wedging it close. He was 11-under on those holes throughout the tournament.

Woods and Retief Goosen, two players with considerably more pedigree, could not track Johnson down.

9. Bob Goalby (1968)

Bob Goalby was a good player who won 11 times on Tour and nearly captured multiple majors so his inclusion on this list is not purely about his lack of profile.

The surprise is more about how he won the 1968 Masters.

Famously, Roberto De Vicenzo signed an incorrect scorecard after the final round. His playing partner Tommy Aaron marked him down for a four on the 17th hole when he had made a three.

De Vicenzo, the reigning Open Champion and an Argentina golf legend, had to accept the higher score, missing out on a playoff with Goalby.

There has never been an incorrect scorecard as costly as that one.

I highly recommend going back and listening to the ceremony around the 1:08:00 mark of the video above. It’s a painful watch but incredible viewing.

8. Danny Willett

Although Willett was a top-20 player in the world at the time of his Masters triumph, he is still one of the most surprising winners in tournament history.

For one, Willett never won again on Tour. The Masters is his one and only victory. He did win seven times on the European Tour but never established himself in the U.S.

But even more surprising than that was how Willett capitalized on the collapse of Jordan Spieth.

Willett was five strokes back of Spieth as the back nine started. Three pars later and he was one stroke ahead due to the Spieth’s meltdown.

In the end, it was a stunning three-stroke victory for the Englishman.

7. Fuzzy Zoeller (1979)

Winning the Masters in your debut is surprising. Only the first two Masters champions (Horton Smith and Gene Sarazen) held that distinction until Fuzzy Zoeller won the 1979 Masters—and not a single golfer has done it since.

Zoeller did have a great career, winning the 1984 U.S. Open and 10 Tour titles, so his winning the Masters is a little like Johnson in that it wasn’t all that surprising in retrospect.

However, a Masters rookie winning was surprising. And how it all happened was even crazier.

Zoeller started the final round six strokes back of Ed Sneed, who held a five-stroke lead on the next-closest challengers.

Sneed held firm most of the day and was miles ahead of Zoeller as the back nine started. That’s when Zoeller made birdies at Nos. 13, 15 and 17 prior to Sneed making bogey on his final three holes.

Zoeller would win a playoff over Sneed and Tom Watson. For Sneed, his collapse is among the most painful in golf history.

6. Tommy Aaron (1973)

Aaron, 36, only won twice on the Tour and had a respectable yet modest career in major championships.

His claim to fame came in 1973 when he started the final round of the Masters four strokes behind Peter Oosterhuis. Aaron made birdie on the first three holes and finished with a 4-under 68, one stroke ahead of J.C. Snead and two strokes better than Nicklaus.

5. Herman Keiser (1946)

The first Masters in the post-World War II era went to the little-known Herman Keiser.

Keiser won five Tour titles in his career but never came close to contending in a major other than winning the 1946 Masters over Ben Hogan.

Heading into the final round with a five-stroke lead, Keiser shot 74 and narrowly clung onto victory after Hogan three-putted for bogey on the 72nd hole.

Hogan wouldn’t win a Masters until 1951; Keiser would eventually retire to Ohio and become a driving range owner.

4. Charles Coody (1971)

Charles Coody won just three times on Tour, his last being the 1971 Masters as a 35-year-old journeyman.

While Coody did have eight top-10 finishes in majors throughout his career, the surprise here is who he beat as Coody found a way past Nicklaus and Johnny Miller during their primes.

Coody went into the back nine even with Nicklaus at 8-under. With four holes to play, Miller charged ahead of both of them by two strokes.

But two late Coody birdies and a stumble from Miller made the difference.

3. Larry Mize (1987)

Mize had a decent pro career, winning four times on Tour and recording two more top-10 Masters finishes after winning in 1987. He even backed up his Masters victory with a top-five finish in the U.S. Open a couple of months later which put him in the top 10 in the world.

But in terms of an unlikely player making the most unlikely shot, few can match what Mize, an Augusta native, did against Greg Norman on the second playoff hole in 1987.

Norman, the top dog in the sport at the time, sat in a much better position on the par-4 11th hole when Mize holed his pitch from 140 feet away to stun Norman.

It was David taking down Goliath.

2. Trevor Immelman (2008)

Perhaps the most boring Masters Sunday of the past 30 years or more, Trevor Immelman cruised to an easy triumph despite a final-round 75 that included a late double bogey.

Nobody ever came close to catching him, including Woods (solo second), Stewart Cink and Brandt Snedeker.

The victory was only Immelman’s second on Tour—and it turned out to be his last as he regressed significantly as a player until starting a career as a CBS analyst. Immelman never had another top-10 finish in a major after the 2008 Masters.

Immelman came into the week at +15000 to win the tournament, the longest odds I could find for a Masters victor.

1. Charl Schwartzel (2011)

Schwartzel’s 2011 Masters victory earns the top spot for several reasons.

For starters, Schwartzel was +10000 to win heading into the week. He had never won in the United States and would add only one more Tour victory in his career (2016 Valspar Championship) although he fared better on the European Tour.

The then 26-year-old South African was certainly a long shot but the real surprise was more about how the day unfolded. That 2011 Masters had more drama than just about any year in the tournament’s history as players like Rory McIlroy, Woods, Jason Day and a host of others had legitimate chances to win. McIlroy had a four-shot lead heading into the final day.

But, stunningly, it was Schwartzel who holed a shot for eagle on the par-4 third and then made birdie on his final four holes to steal the tournament from much bigger names.

So those are my most surprising Masters winners. Who else would you include on this list?

Let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: Larry Mize won the 1987 Masters in stunning fashion. (GETTY IMAGES/David Cannon)

The post The 10 Most Surprising Masters Winners appeared first on MyGolfSpy.