Golf Masters Winners List Home > Events > Golf > Majors > The Masters > Winners Masters Champions Here is the winners list of all US Masters golf tournaments since the first in 1934, won by Horton Smith (and again in 1936). Since 1949, a green jacket has been awarded to the champion. Jack Nicklaus has the most Masters wins with six (between 1963 and 1986). When he won his last in 1986 he was 46 years, 82 days old, making him the oldest winner of the Masters. Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods have won four tournaments each. South African Gary Player in 1961 became the first non-American player to win the tournament. Year Gary Player - Golf Topics - ESPN Gary Player Later Years Gary Player is a South African golfer and one of the most successful international golfers in history. During a professional career that began in 1953, Player won nine major championships and nine events on the Champions Tour. Player was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

Player is known as the "Black Knight," for his all-black golfing ensembles, or the "International Ambassador of Golf," thanks to his 15 million miles in travel, more than any other athlete. Player was the first non-American, non-European golfer to reach international fame. Player now owns several businesses, including Gary Player Design, Player Real Estate, Black Knight Enterprises and the Gary Player Stud Farm. He also owns and operates The Player Foundation, which aims to improve underprivileged education around the world. Gary Player was born Nov. 1, 1935, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was the third of three children to his parents, Harry -- a captain in a gold mine -- and Muriel Player. His mother died of cancer when Player was only 8 years old. Player didn't begin playing golf until he was 14, but it didn't take long for him to pick up the sport. His father had taken out a loan to buy Player a set of clubs, and he played his first round at a course in Johannesburg -- parring the first three holes. Two years later, he avowed to his father that he would be the No. 1 golfer in the world.

Two years after that, he turned professional and began trying to make that claim a reality. He turned pro at 18 in 1953. He quickly began racking up wins in Africa and Europe, and four years later, he joined the PGA Tour. Gary Player began his professional career in Africa in the mid-1950s, winning his first South African Open in 1956. He had traveled to England briefly several years before, where he was told he did not have what it took to be a golfer. He responded by returning in 1956 and winning the Dunlop Masters at Sunningdale Country Club. One year later, in 1957, Player joined the PGA Tour. He won his first major championship only two years after joining the PGA when he took the 1959 British Open, becoming the youngest man to win that tournament. In 1961, he set another record when he became the first non-American to win the Masters. That year, Player topped the PGA money list for the first time. By then, Player was not only succeeding on the greens, but gaining more popularity off them.

His all-black golfing ensembles earned him the nickname "The Black Knight," and he became known for his impressive fitness routines and bulging muscles (from which another nickname, "Mr. Fitness," stemmed). He won a third major, the PGA Championship, in 1962, and in 1965, he won the U.S. Open in a playoff and earned a career Grand Slam before he turned 30. But Player was not content participating in only PGA events. He continued playing in South African Opens -- winning 13 in his career -- and Australian Opens (winning seven). In every year from 1955 to 1982, Player won at least one sanctioned international tournament. His constant travel -- he estimates he's spent three years of his life in airplanes and traveled more than 15 million miles -- leads many to believe that the "International Ambassador of Golf" has traveled more than any other athlete. Also significant about Player's popularity and success was his nationality. A South African, Player was the first non-American, non-European golfer to gain worldwide notoriety and a truly international following.

He represented his country at the World Cup 16 times, winning twice -- in 1965 and 1977. He also won the World Match Play Championship a record five times between 1965 and 1974. In all, Player won titles in the U.S., England, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, North Africa, West Africa, Canada, Japan, Latin America and Brazil (where, in 1974, he shot the only 59 ever in a national open). Player won a second PGA Championship in 1972, and two more Masters titles in 1974 and 1978. He became the first and only man to win Open Championships in three different decades when he added victories in 1968 and 1974 to his 1959 title. That 1978 Masters title was his final major victory on the PGA Tour, and he won it despite being seven back at the start of the final round. But, at age 42, Player birdied seven of the final 10 and won the tournament by one stroke.

Even after giving up most other PGA Tour events, Player participated in the Masters every year until 2009, playing for his record 52nd time. In 1998, at 62, he became the oldest golfer ever to make the cut. Champions Tour By the time Player joined the Seniors Tour in 1985, he already had recorded 21 victories on the PGA Tour (he would earn three more PGA titles while playing on the senior circuit). He went on to find great success on the Champions Tour as well, winning 19 events in 10 years -- nine of those being major titles. His first senior win came in 1985, when he won the Quadel Seniors Classic, and he would win his first senior major one year later, when he won the Senior PGA Championship for the first time. He went on to win the Senior PGA title two more times in the next four years, also winning a Players Championship and two U.S. Senior Opens in that time. Two of those -- a Senior PGA Championship and a U.S. Senior Open -- came in a five-win season in 1988.

In 2009, Player competed in the Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale Country Club -- 53 years after he earned his first European Tour victory at the same venue. Since his retirement from the PGA Tour, Gary Player has become known as one of the greatest golfers in the history of the game. He was one of the inaugural inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. He also won the South African Sportsman of the Century award in 2000, and he earned a decoration for meritorious services and the gold Order of Ikhamanga for services to sport by the South African government. Now he focuses much of his attention on The Player Foundation, which helps improve underprivileged schools. The foundation established the Blair Atholl Schools in Johannesburg in the 1980s, which created schools for more than 500 students from kindergarten to eighth grade. When celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2008, the foundation had rasied more than $35 million. Player also owns Black Knight Enterprises, which handles Player's licensing, events and marketing, as well as wine, apparel, memorabilia and publishing efforts.

Player's oldest son, Marc, owns and operates Black Knight International, which represents Player in commercial activities. He also owns a well-respected real estate company and a stud farm that has become known for breeding high-quality thoroughbred race horses. Player also has become a renowned golf course architect in recent years. He has completed more than 300 projects in 35 countries on five continents. His company offers three design brands -- Gary Player Design, Player Design and Black Knight Design -- each of which places a different focus on appearance or environmental policies for courses.

GARY PLAYER QUICK FACTS Golfer Gary Player: Biography and Career Facts • British Open: 1959, 1968, 1974 • PGA Championship: 1962, 1972 • Member, World Golf Hall of Fame • Recipient, South African Sportsman of the Century award • PGA Tour money leader, 1961 • Captain, International team, 2003, 2005, 2007 Presidents Cup Quote, Unquote: • Gary Player: "The harder you practice the luckier you get." • Gary Player: "I've studied golf for almost 50 years now and know a hell of a lot about nothing." continue reading below our video Profile of Jack Nicklaus Trivia: • Gary Player was the only golfer of the 20th Century to win a British Open title in three different decades. • Player holds the record for most times playing in The Masters . He played 52 Masters tournaments, the last in 2009. Gary Player Biography: Gary Player was the first "international" golfer to gain stardom.

By "international," we mean non-American and non-European, and we also mean world-traveler. Player, living up to one of his many monickers as "The International Ambassador of Golf," is estimated to have flown more than 15 million miles traversing the globe to play golf tournaments . While countryman Bobby Locke preceded him to the PGA Tour , South African Player was the first international star to build a long-term presence on the PGA Tour, while also playing around the world. Along the way, Player won tournaments in 27 consecutive years, and 163 tournaments total worldwide. Player turned pro in 1953 and joined the PGA Tour in 1957. His first major championship win came at the 1959 British Open , and he was the first non-American to win The Masters when he did so in 1961. The PGA Championship followed in 1962, and when Player won the 1965 U.S. Open he became, at the time, only the third winner of the career grand slam .

Throughout the 1960s, Player was part of golf's "Big Three," a group of superstars that also including Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer . The three were friendly rivals both on and off the course for the remainder of their careers, and into the 2010s were still playing the Masters Par-3 Contest together. They also served as honorary starters together at The Masters. The last of Player's nine wins in majors came at the 1978 Masters , where his final-round 64 propelled him from a 7-shot deficit to a 1-stroke victory. Player won the South African Open 13 times; the Australian Open seven times; and the World Match Play Championship five times. He continued winning after joining the Champions Tour in 1985, including six senior majors. Off the course, Player worked behind-the-scenes to improve the racial situation in his native South Africa, which for most of his life existed under the shroud of apartheid. He founded The Player Foundation to promote education among his country's underpriveleged, and the foundation built the Blair Atholl Schools in Johannesburg, which has educational facilities for more than 500 students.

Player is a breeder of racehorses and a designer of golf courses, with more than 200 courses around the world. He also has his own wine and apparel labels. Player was also a lifelong fitness buff and promoter of health and fitness initiatives, both inside and outside of golf. In the 2000-oughts, Player three times served as International team captain in the Presidents Cup . All three times the opposing captain was Nicklaus. Nicklaus and Team USA got the better of it twice, but at the 2003 Presidents Cup the captains agreed to call it a tie and share the cup - a first - as darkness fell on the final day with a tie score and a playoff in progress. Gary Player was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974 as part of its first class. History of The Game Of Golf Including it's origins 'Francis Ouimet and the 1913 U.S. Open:' 'The 1913 U.S. Open Championship was played at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, one of the earliest American golf courses. Harry Vardon had come back to the U.S. again and entered the Open, expected by many to win.

His primary competition was expected to come from friend and fellow Brit Ted Ray. No one saw Francis Ouimet coming.' 'Ouimet was a 20-year-old amateur and former caddy from Brookline when he entered the U.S. Open in 1913. Tied with the two British stars after the first three rounds of the tournament, Ouimet managed two birdies in his final six holes to finish tied for the lead at the end of the four rounds. A playoff was required, and Ouimet, much to the shock and delight of the crowd, ended the playoff round with a one-over-par 72, beating out Vardon and Ray. Ouimet's victory became national news, catapulting golf into even greater popularity. Ouimet would go on to win two Amateur Championships and a French Amateur Championship. He would also appear on the American team in the newly-created Walker Cup in 1922, a tournament between American and British teams played every other year. Ouimet would play on every Walker Cup team from 1922 to 1949, captaining the squad between 1936 and 1949.

In 1951, he was named captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland, the first non-British person awarded that high honor.' 'The Amateur Game:' 'Both in Britain and the U.S., amateur golf was as highly regarded and popular in the 1800s and into the 1900s as professional golf. The Amateur Championships of Britain and America were extremely well attended and well thought-of events. In Britain, early amateur domination came in the form of John Ball, who won the British Amateur Championship eight times, three more than any other player has ever won. Interestingly, Ball never won twice in a row - all his victories came at least a year apart from each other. Ball also became the first to win both an Amateur and Open Championship, one of only three in history who have done so. Harold Hilton, another top amateur of the time, was the first to win both championships, winning two Opens and four Amateurs. He also became the first British player to win both the British and U.S. Amateur Championships.' 'In the U.S., the first amateur star was Walter Travis. The Australian who had moved to the U.S.

as a child first won the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1900 and would collect two more titles. Only three other players have ever won three or more U.S. Amateur Championships. He also became the first American player to win the British Amateur Open, capturing the 1904 title. Following Travis's success was Jerome Travers, who between 1907 and 1913 won four titles. Travers would also become one of the first Amateur winners to also win a U.S. Open.' 'The greatest amateur of the first half of the 1900s, however (and one of the greatest of all-time) was Bobby Jones. Of the seven U.S. Amateur Championships between 1924 and 1930, Jones won five of them; those five victories are also the most all-time in Amateur Championship history. His greatest feat, another unmatched in history, came in 1930. In that single year, Bobby Jones won the U.S. Open, the British Open, the U.S. Amateur Championship and the British Amateur Championship.

That accomplishment was dubbed the "Grand Slam." No other player has ever completed a single-season Grand Slam, though five others have completed a career Grand Slam, winning all four majors in their career.' 'The Professional Game:' 'In 1916, as professional golf gained more ground in the U.S., players wanted an organizational body to govern the game: U.S. amateurs had the USGA and British players had the R&A (taking its name from the Royal and Ancient Club), so they wanted one of their own. That January , the Professional Golfer's Association of America was born. Seven months later, they established the first PGA Championship, played at a course in Bronxville, New York, with $2,500 awarded to the winner (equal to $50,000 today). ' 'The earliest PGA star was undoubtedly Walter Hagen. While Bobby Jones dominated the amateur game in America, Hagen controlled the pro game. In his career, Hagen won 11 professional titles: the U.S. Open twice, the British Open four times and the PGA Championship five times. His five PGA Championship titles are the most all-time, along with Jack Nicklaus' five wins.

Four of those victories came in a row, from 1924-27. No other golfer has ever won more than two in a row. Over his career, Hagen earned about $1 million in prize money, by far the most at the time (and equal to about $12.5 million today).' 'The Game Changes:' 'Bobby Jones' retirement in 1930 marked the beginning of a new era in golf. Steel-shafted golf clubs became the standard, and with the improved equipment, scores began lowering: shooting par generally wasn't good enough anymore. Crossover between the amateur and pro games began to end as well. After Jones' 1930 Open victory, only one other player (Johnny Goodman in 1933) won the U.S. Open as an amateur. Amateur success in pro tournaments (or lack thereof) was attributed to the much higher amounts of money coming into the game after 1930; as soon as an amateur player could compete on the pro level, they made the jump to professional.

' 'The PGA Tour, which had been established in 1916 along with the PGA, began recognizing the money winner of each year's tour in 1934. That first season, Paul Runyan was the highest money winner, tallying seven wins and just over $6700 (equal to $107,000 today). That same season, the pro tour earned a profit of $135,000 ($2.16 million today). By 1949, under the leadership of Boston promoter Fred Corcoran, the tour earned a profit of $600 thousand, and raised that total to over $2 million in the '60s (today, those totals are equal to $5.4 million and $14.5 million, respectively).' 'The 1930s also saw the creation of a new tournament, the Masters (originally named the Augusta National Invitation Tournament). The first tourney was held in 1934, with Horton Smith its winner, and quickly became one of the premier golf events on the PGA Tour schedule. The creation of the Masters Tournament also ushered in the era of the modern majors.

Originally, the majors (the four major golf tournaments of the year) were the British and U.S. Opens and Amateur Championships. With the rise of professional golf, the majors eventually became the U.S. and British Opens, the PGA Championship and the Masters.' 'The 1930s in golf, however, failed to produce a single dominant figure. While there were certainly star players, no one controlled the game like the figures before. From 1934 to 1939, no player won the money leader title more than once. It wasn't until 1940 and Ben Hogan that golf once again had a titan. Hogan, a Texan, won the money title five times in his career. He tallied four U.S. Open titles, won the Masters twice, the PGA Championship twice and won a single British Open, becoming only the second player (after Gene Sarazen) to win the career Grand Slam in the Masters era. He also won the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in the same year, 1953, considered one of the greatest achievements in golf history.' 'Following World War II, another golfer hit the scene, challenging Hogan's dominance: Byron Nelson.

Nelson became the first golfer on the PGA Tour to win more than 10 events in a single year, winning an astonishing 18 events in 1945 (an unmatched feat in history). He also became the first player to top $50,000 in winnings in a single year, earning over $63,000 in '45 (worth $751 thousand today). ' 'One golfer of the era not remembered for singular dominance by rather for consistency was Sam Snead. Playing across four decades on the PGA Tour, Snead won three money titles, three PGA Championships, three Masters and a British Open, never able to capture a U.S. Open titles (though he was a runner-up five times, including losing a playoff in 1947). Snead's claim to fame, however, is his PGA Tour win total. Between his first victory on the Tour in 1936 and his last in 1965, Sam Snead won 82 Tour events, the most all-time. ' 'Women's Golf:' 'Evidence from the history of golf says that women have been involved and interested in the game almost since its inception.

The Royal and Ancient Club was founded in 1754 - within 60 years, women were on record as being active on the course. Within another sixty years, they had formed a club as well, the Ladies Golf Club of St. Andrews in 1867. In 1893, the Ladies Golf Union was formed, the governing body for women's golf in the U.K. and Ireland. In the U.S., women came to golf just about as early as men; just one year after John Reid set up the first golf course, he and his wife played another couple in mixed doubles, the first recorded mixed doubles match in the U.S. ' 'As in men's golf, early domination of the sport belonged to Great Britain. However, by about the 1920s, American women had developed a greater affinity for the game. In 1932, The USGA and the Ladies Golf Union established the Curtis Cup Match, a competition between American and British teams held every two years. The first was held in England, with the Americans winning.

Much like its male counterpart, the Walker Cup, early domination in the Curtis Cup belonged to the U.S.' 'Babe:' 'Though women's golf has never achieved the same level of popularity as men's golf, it certainly has had its stars. Its first (and perhaps biggest) was Mildred Didrikson Zaharias, better known as Babe. Zaharias, widely considered perhaps the greatest female athlete of all time, did not excel solely in golf. As an 18-year-old, she entered a national track and field event in Illinois and won the team title - as the only member of her team. She entered eight of the 10 events, winning six of them (and placing 2nd and 4th in the other two) and set three world records. She went on to win two gold medals at the 1932 Olympics, and was disqualified from winning a third for diving over the bar in the high jump (something that had never been done before, and was later legalized).

With her popularity skyrocketing, she went on a tour of the country, first as a vaudeville performer, later playing baseball, football, basketball, trying out skiing, boxing and fly-casting.' 'Though she started playing golf shortly after the Olympics, she decided to get serious about the game a few years later. It was during this period that she was paired with a professional wrestler at a tournament in 1938, George Zaharias. The two made an immediate connection and were married shortly afterward. However, as much as Babe's private life was enjoying success, her professional life was not - women's pro golf was not yet established, and the only two major tournaments were for amateurs (the National Women's Amateur Championship and the British Ladies' Championship). As a result, Zaharias applied for amateur status and, in 1944, the USGA approved it. As soon as World War II ended and those tournaments got started up again, Zaharias won them, winning the Women's Amateur Championship once, in '46 and the British Ladies' Championship once, in '47.

By this time, women's pro golf was finally starting to come together.' 'There have been a number of major championships in women's golf throughout the years. The earliest is the Women's Western Open, which began play in 1930. The second was the Titleholder's Championship in 1937, the third the U.S. Women's Open in 1946. All three of these were retroactively named majors by the LPGA. The Ladies Professional Golfer's Association was formed in 1950 by a group of 13 golfers, one of whom was Babe Zaharias. Of the three majors formed during her career, Zaharias won all three, winning the Western Open four times, the Titleholders three times and the U.S. Open three times.' 'Sadly, she was stricken with cancer and died in 1956 at 42. ' 'Arnie's Army Storms Golf:' 'The 1950s were another period without a clear dominating figure in men's golf.

In the decade, no player (other than Sam Snead) captured the events winner title (awarded to the player who won the most events in the season) and no one won the money leader title more than once. Players like Hogan and Snead were nearing the end of their careers, no longer ruling the scene. Nelson had retired in the '40s. Golf's popularity was still on the rise; it was now entering television for the first time, as major tournaments appeared on TV on Saturdays and Sundays. The sport, however, needed a national figure, and at the end of the decade, one finally appeared.' 'Arnold Palmer, born in Pennsylvania in 1929, turned pro in 1954 after winning the U.S. Amateur Championship, and within three years captured the events winner title. A year later, in 1958, he won the money title. He would win three money titles in his career, as well as a U.S. Open title, a British Open title and four Masters titles, at the time the most in history.

Palmer became the game's first superstar, attracting a horde of followers at each tournament nicknamed "Arnie's Army." He totaled 62 PGA Tour wins in his career, ranking 5th all-time.' 'The Golden Bear and the Black Knight:' 'Palmer's fame was helped along by the presence of two significant rivals, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. Player was a South African who turned professional in 1953. He joined the PGA Tour in '57. Within two years, he already began to win. His first major championship victory came in 1959 at the Open Championship, the first of three British Open titles he would win. He won the PGA Championship twice and the Masters three times. He finally completed the career Grand Slam in 1965 when he won the U.S. Open (his only victory there). He is one of only eight golfers to have won the Masters three times or more. His last major victory came in 1978, at the Masters, when he stormed back from a 7-hole deficit after three rounds to win by a stroke. He was nicknamed "the Black Knight" because he famously wore all black while playing.

Player, though considered a rival of Palmer, was considered more a rival of his contemporary, Jack Nicklaus.' 'Nicklaus, nicknamed "the Golden Bear" because of his build and hair color, would retire from professional golf considered by many to be the greatest golfer of all time. During his career, he would eclipse all golfers that came before him by winning a total of 18 majors, a record that still stands today. His 73 PGA Tour wins rank him second on the all-time list. He turned pro in 1961, winning his first major (the U.S. Open) within a year. He won each major at least three times, becoming history's first three-time career Grand Slam holder. He won the U.S. Open four times, the British Open three times and the PGA Championship five times. His greatest success, however, came at the Masters. The six-time winner of the tournament (by far a tournament record) last won a major title at Augusta in 1986. The win came as a shock to the golf world, as Nicklaus had last won a major six years previous.

However, the Golden Bear had enough magic left to capture the Green Jacket, an honorarium bestowed on each winner of the Masters, one last time.' 'Changing and Adding:' 'In 1968, the PGA Tour, which had, since its inception in 1916 been governed by the PGA of America, broke off, becoming its own organization. Initially, tournament players had formed their own group, the Association of Professional Golfers. They quickly abandoned this, forming the PGA Tournament Players Division, later simply named the PGA Tour. All the records of the PGA Tour prior to the split were carried over. In '72, Europe finally had its own official tour, the PGA European Tour, which comprised 15 different countries.

Its all time leader in wins is Spaniard Seve Ballesteros (who also had success on the PGA Tour).' 'In 1974, a local board of directors in Pinehurst, North Carolina established the World Golf Hall of Fame, inaugurating their first class that year, comprised of Patty Berg, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Francis Ouimet, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Harry Vardon and Babe Zaharias. While the Hall of Fame was initially a local venture, it eventually came under the purview of the PGA, moving to St. Augustine, Florida in 1998 and continuing as world golf's official Hall of Fame.' 'That same year, 1974, a new tournament was established, one that would go on to be considered alongside the four majors. The Tournament Players Championship, later renamed simply The Players Championship, is played in Florida every year, dubbed by many "the Fifth Major" though it has never officially received that distinction.

The Players Championship awards the highest prize money of any golf tournament; its first winner, Jack Nicklaus, received $50,000 out of a total purse of $250,000 ($217,000 and $1.09 million today). Nicklaus also holds the distinction of winning the tourney three times, the most in history.' 'The World's Number One:' 'With the official addition of the European Tour, and its subsequent legitimization among the world's top golfers, more and more golfers began splitting their time between the European and PGA Tours. Many golfers (non-Americans) would primarily play on the European Tour, then play in the major tournaments in the U.S. This led to a problem for the Royal and Ancient Club: their system of invitation to the British Open was now leaving out many top golfers because they split time between the tours. This led to the development of the World Golf Rankings. This system, endorsed by the four majors and the six top international golf tours, ranks the world's golfers on a points system, derived from their finishes in tournaments.

The rankings were first released prior to the 1986 Masters Tournament - the top six were Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson, Mark O'Meara and Greg Norman. Interestingly, the top three were all European players - none of them ever finished as the money or wins leader on the PGA Tour. However, that first year, Greg Norman ended the year ranked number one, which he would do six more times in his career, a record when he retired. Only one other golfer would tally more year-end number ones than Norman�but we'll get to him later.' 'Between 1986 and 1997, Norman's last year at number one, there were only five players who finished the year at number one: Norman, Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Nick Price and Nick Faldo. Of those five, only Faldo achieved that feat more than once. Norman dominated the world rankings, yet only won the money title on the PGA Tour three times in his career and only ever won titles in one major championship, winning the British Open twice.

Other golfers of the era were big winners in the majors: Tom Watson won five British Opens, a U.S. Open, and two Masters, failing to capture the career Grand Slam by never winning the PGA Championship. Faldo won two Masters and three British Opens while Ballesteros accomplished the same feat, and Curtis Strange became the first player since Ben Hogan in the 1950's to win back-to-back U.S. Opens, winning in '88 and '89 (and no player has done so since). But on the horizon as the calendar turned to the late '90s was a player that would capture golf's attention and awards like almost no one else before.' 'Tiger:' 'Eldrick Woods was born in 1975 in California, and his father Earl had him playing golf from an incredibly early age - even appearing on a TV talk show to showcase his talents at the age of two. After attending Stanford University for two years and winning the U.S. Amateur Championship three times (including as the youngest ever, a record which stood until 2008), he turned pro in 1996.

The man nicknamed "Tiger" immediately became a sensation, winning the 1997 Masters with a still-record low of -18. The son of an African-American man and a Thai woman, he also became the first non-white player ever to win at Augusta. He wouldn't stop there - Woods, at present, has captured a total of 14 major victories, second all-time to Nicklaus. With four Masters titles, three U.S. Open titles, three British Open titles and four PGA Championship titles, he is also the only person besides Nicklaus to have completed three career Grand Slams. In 2000-01, he also became the only person in history to hold all four majors titles simultaneously, winning the 2000 U.S. and British Opens and PGA Championship, followed by the 2001 Masters title. However, since he did not win them in the same year, it did not count as a single season Grand Slam. Still, he managed to best Bobby Jones in 2008 when he won his 14th major, eclipsing Jones' 13.

He also has 71 PGA Tour wins, 3rd all time, only two behind Nicklaus and 11 behind Snead. At only 34, many believe he will someday beat Snead's record. Tiger also holds the record for most number one year-end rankings (with 11 as of 2009) and the record for most weeks at number one (with 615 straight weeks - 284 more than Greg Norman, who is second). Woods has also won more money than any other golfer in history, with his prize money as of 2010 totaling over $93 million.' 'Golf Today:' 'Tiger still dominates the fans' attention in golf, though due to injury and personal problems he has failed to win a major since 2008. TV ratings when Tiger is playing for a championship as opposed to when Tiger isn't are considerably higher.

Still, the sport of golf in general is strong, attracting strong TV revenues and awarding higher and higher purses every year - for example, the Players Championship, the highest purse in golf, awarded the equivalent of $217,000 to the winner out of $1.09 million in its first year. The 2010 Players Championship gave its winner $1.71 million out of a $9.5 million purse. Golf is going strong. What remains to be seen is what will happen when Tiger finally retires, and whether a new figure can arise to capture the world's attention in the sport.' Lee Elder paved the way for black golfers; Even with Tiger Woods racial tension still exists | Golf.com Posted: Mon Apr. 7, 2008 Updated: Sat Nov. 29, 2014 Install App Through the mist he appeared in a doorway of the Augusta National clubhouse, his forehead creased, his eyes heavy from haunted sleep. Out stepped Lee Elder, dressed in shades of green, carrying his thoughts into the moist Georgia morning. For months the hate mail had said he would never make it to this day in April 1975.

Watch your step when you get to Augusta, other letter writers warned him. There will be blood. To be safe, he had rented two houses in town and kept moving between them, the former golf-course hustler playing the odds. He made sure he had people around him when he ate his meals. He was as inconspicuous as a man whose face was all over the evening news could be. Elder made his way to the 1st tee, where no black man had ever gone during Masters week without carrying a 50-pound bag and wearing a white coverall. Elder was there with a golf ball and a few tees. In front of thousands of eyes he reached down, stuck a peg in the soft soil and placed his ball on top of it. He took a deep breath. He told himself to relax. And then he prayed silently in front of his hushed audience: O Lord, please don't let me embarrass myself. Thirty-three years later there is great anticipation focused on another black man teeing it up at Augusta, but it's less about race and sociology and more about winning the Grand Slam.

Winner of seven of his last eight events worldwide, Tiger Woods arrives next week as the overwhelming favorite to win his fifth Masters and continue a run at immortality. But even as Woods thrives as the No. 1 golfer and most popular athlete in the world, an entire sport riding his red shirttails, old racial tensions occasionally reverberate through the game. In the unique case of Augusta National, with its Old South heritage seemingly frozen in time  a patrician and male white membership, aging blacks on the service staff and plantation-style buildings  a sense of the segregated past still lingers beneath the din of back-nine Sunday roars. When Elder's left-to-right tee shot touched down on Augusta National's 1st fairway, it broke one of the last racial barriers in sports. Yet it did not free him from his memories of black children blown up in church, the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., cities set on fire. America was still grappling with integration, and Elder was in the middle of it. Man, the stories he could tell.

There was the time in Pensacola, Fla., when Elder and the PGA Tour's other black players were forced to change their clothes in the parking lot because club members wouldn't allow them in the clubhouse. Or the time in Memphis when the harassment of Elder escalated from his ball mysteriously disappearing on the course to a late-night phone call that awakened Elder in his hotel room. "N-----," the voice said, "you better not win this golf tournament." Elder played the rest of the tournament with a police escort. It was then that Elder accepted the fact that he might not grow old. Any one of those threats could be real. Any one of the crackpots flooding him with hate mail might come after him with a gun. Would it be someone following him in the gallery, or standing near the putting green, or sitting in the clubhouse parking lot? "It's hard to explain what it was like for Lee," says Gary Player, who as apartheid reigned in 1971, boldly invited Elder to play in the South African PGA Championship. Lee accepted.

"How do you explain," asks Player, "what it was like being a Jew during the war?" How do you explain that in 2008, before the season was even a month old, the golf world was tripping all over itself on the issue of race? The two winning streaks overlapped for a time, though reported in separate sections of the newspaper. The biracial candidate for president was stumping in New Orleans and Richmond and Madison, scooping up delegates, winning 11 contests in a row in February. That was the number of consecutive tournament victories the multiracial golfer was chasing  Byron Nelson's record, one of the most hallowed in the game. Woods had won in Chicago and Atlanta to end the 2007 season. He bested the fields in San Diego, Tucson and Orlando in the first 11 weeks of '08. At a point when the momentum and the buzz were building for each man, an insensitive remark interrupted the discussion like a tray of dishes crashing to the floor. For Barack Obama it was the unearthing of incendiary sermons earlier this decade by his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, regarding U.S. policy.

For Woods it was an offhand remark by Golf Channel commentator Kelly Tilghman during the Mercedes-Benz Championship, a January tournament in which he wasn't even playing. During the telecast analyst Nick Faldo remarked that fellow pros would have to gang up on Woods to stop his victory march, after which Tilghman suggested they "lynch him in a back alley." Tilghman was suspended for two weeks. After Golfweek used an image of a noose on the cover to peg a story inside about the controversy, editor Dave Seanor lost his job. "[Tilghman's] statement was very harsh; I thought it warranted a longer suspension," says Elder. "The noose on the cover went a little far." Though he didn't start it, Woods ended up in the middle of the firestorm after his agent released a statement saying that his client was friends with Tilghman and "regardless of the choice of words used," she meant no ill intent. Some applauded Woods's measured response and desire to defuse the situation. Others, including NFL Hall of Famer and longtime activist Jim Brown, criticized Woods for missing an opportunity to condemn the use of lynch, which for many evokes images of black bodies hanging limp from ancient trees.

For all of his accomplishments on the course, Woods has not yet escaped the public perception that he doesn't take on the tough, hot-button issues as boldly as he attacks a par-5. "When Tiger said years ago that he was Cablinasian, to me that was a way of avoiding a sort of connection to African-American culture," says Dr. Todd Boyd, a professor of race and popular culture at Southern California and the author of Young, Black, Rich & Famous. "It's his right to define himself as he sees fit, but before we start with his lack of politics, we start with the fact that he has presented himself as an athlete who wants to excel based on his own excellence on the golf course, and there's not much after that." Woods's handling of the Tilghman controversy even put longtime friends Jariah Beard and Jim Dent in different camps. The two men grew up together in Augusta, where they caddied, played golf and dealt with bigotry's thorns in different ways. Beard, who was on the bag when Fuzzy Zoeller won the 1979 Masters, insists that Woods's response to Tilghman's gaffe was more about protecting his endorsements than friendship.

"He handled it the way the white people wanted him to," Beard, 67, says. "That's why he makes so much money. If he says something too much, they'll take away his money or he might get heckled. That's the way he's been. More power to him." Dent, 68, who never won a PGA Tour event but is a 12-time winner on the seniors tour, disagrees. "When you're in sports, you don't think about the outside things," he says. "You simply do your job and enjoy what you're doing. The lady didn't mean anything. She used the wrong word. If someone was to tell me I was that good, I'd think that was a compliment." When Woods is asked why he doesn't speak out more on social issues, his reply is that he addresses them every day through the endeavors of his learning center in Anaheim. For more than a decade he has been the face of the game, an inspiration to minorities and all youth to take up what for many of his admirers is an expensive and time-consuming sport. He is the embodiment of health, focus and hard work, gracious in victory and defeat, a dogged competitor who utters an occasional foul word.

As an ambassador of his sport, what more can Woods do? "I think Tiger handles his role in a way that is comfortable for him," says Joe Louis Barrow Jr., executive director of The First Tee, a Tour-backed youth development program, and son of the great heavyweight champion Joe Louis. "My father was criticized in the 1960s for not being more vocal and because he wasn't Muhammad Ali. They didn't realize what he did to integrate golf [he was the first African-American to play in a PGA-sanctioned event, at the 1952 San Diego Open], what he did for the Army [working to integrate bases and buying tickets for black troops to watch his exhibitions]. He didn't publicize what he did. I get concerned when people want to place expectations on people when they don't recognize the things they are already doing." Sam Puryear, the only black golf coach at a major Division I program, sees in Woods a golfer pulled in more directions than anyone can know. "I think Tiger is one of those guys who comes along every 100 or 200 years," says Puryear, the coach at Michigan State.

"He's been able to transcend all of golf's antiquated views." Elder's take on Tiger is somewhere in the middle. He appreciates what Woods stands for and applauds the work of his learning center, which assists children of every hue. He marvels at Woods's accomplishments yet says, "I'd like him to be a little more outspoken. Sometimes you have to put something out there that's going to be a focal point for people to listen to and get people to say, 'Hey, maybe he's right. Maybe we should look at making this change.'" After Elder played in the 1975 Masters, golf had reason to feel good about itself, or so it seemed. His presence at Augusta National was a sign of progress, to be sure. But it had come too late for men such as Charlie Sifford and Teddy Rhodes and countless other black golfers who had lived for the challenge and the wonder of the game, only to be told they weren't welcome at its best courses or invited to pursue its most coveted trophies. At the time that they were trying to make their way as professionals, golf reflected much of America  segregation, hostility and threats of violence.

For blacks, professional golf meant the United Golf Association (UGA), like baseball's Negro leagues an organization with superior talent but inferior facilities and prize money. Though Brown was scoring touchdowns for the Cleveland Browns and Willie Mays was patrolling centerfield for the San Francisco Giants, the PGA's "Caucasian only" clause didn't come off the books until 1961. What's more, it wasn't until 29 years later, when Shoal Creek C.C., near Birmingham, gave a black man an honorary membership and made a commitment to integrate to head off protests at the PGA Championship, that many of golf's governing bodies, including the PGA Tour, the PGA of America and the U.S. Golf Association, instituted policies that they would no longer stage tournaments at clubs with discriminatory practices. (Augusta National also accepted its first black member in 1990.) A handful of blacks went through PGA qualifying school, with Sifford the first to earn membership. Elder gained tour status in '67. "It's very difficult for a Negro to play on the tour," Elder said two years later.

"It's not only me, but the others feel the same pressures from the galleries." Sifford won the 1967 Greater Hartford Open and the '69 Los Angeles Open, only to be ignored by the Masters. Augusta National was still inviting only the players it wanted. When the 18-foot birdie putt dropped, its significance had barely registered before PGA Tour official Jack Tuthill put his arm around Elder and whisked him off the green. Elder had just defeated Peter Oosterhuis on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff in the 1974 Monsanto Open in Pensacola, and he was being led to a police car so he could be escorted to the clubhouse in safety. It wasn't until 1972 that the Masters began inviting all Tour-event winners. So with his Monsanto victory Elder also secured a trip to Augusta National. He was matter-of-fact, when asked recently about Tuthill's quickly steering him to the patrol car  "I had had several death threats," Elder said  while Oosterhuis got a ride to the clubhouse in a golf cart.

"I wasn't aware of the significance of Lee Elder getting into the [Masters]," says Oosterhuis, then a young player from England without PGA Tour status and now an analyst for CBS and the Golf Channel. "There was a huge cheer when he won, and he was escorted away among cheering friends." Looking back on that day, Player says, "One of the things that is quite sad for me is that Americans don't know how significant it was what Lee did. Many athletes are given great rewards for their athletic prowess. I think Lee Elder did something that beats the prowess of an athlete." Elder had grown up poor in Dallas. He was nine when his father, Charles, died in Germany during World War II. His mother, Almeta, rarely left her room after that and died three months later. One of 10 children, Lee was eventually sent to Los Angeles to live with an aunt. As a preteen he picked up work as a caddie and later started hustling for extra money, once playing an 18-hole match cross-handed. Elder went on to dominate the UGA the way Woods rules the PGA Tour, winning 18 of 22 events in one stretch.

But his best days as a golfer had passed by the time he stepped to the 1st tee at the Masters in 1975. He was 40 and, as a regular on the banquet circuit in the 51 weeks between winning in Pensacola and arriving in Augusta, he had put on at least 10 pounds. His telephone never stopped ringing, and his practice habits suffered. His game lost its precision, he says now. Though Elder may have been leery of Masters officials who had ignored black players through the years, he says Augusta National chairman Clifford Roberts greeted him upon his arrival. The media crush became so great during the week that Elder  repeatedly interrupted on his way to practice  asked officials if a pretournament press conference could be arranged, and the club obliged. The questions went on for more than three hours. Elder tried to keep his usual routine as best he could. He ate bacon, eggs and grits in the morning and played poker and bid whist at night. He counted down to his 11:15 a.m. tee time on Thursday and arrived at the club about an hour early. He received a bouquet of flowers, sent by friends in Washington, D.C.

Elder shot 74 that day and 78 the next. Though he missed the cut by four shots, he had received lusty applause at every hole. Elder went on to play in five more Masters, his best finish a tie for 17th in 1977. He was at Augusta in '97 to watch another historic chapter in golf and race unfold (in his haste to get there, Elder was ticketed for speeding in northeast Georgia): Woods blitzed the field by 12 shots, becoming the youngest champion and the first black champion in the 61 years the tournament had been played. The victory transcended what Elder's generation had only dreamed about. The sleek 21-year-old champion happily posed for a photo with the ground-breaking Elder. Now 73, Elder will be back at the Masters next week, a visit he has come to treasure. "Augusta National is the most gorgeous place you could be in April," he says. His face, once more, will appear in that clubhouse doorway.

More From the Web A History of the Masters Golf Tournament by TicketCity Masters Hospitality History of the Masters The Masters Golf Tournament, more commonly known as The Masters, is one of four major championships in professional golf. The tournament was started by Augusta National Golf Course designers Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones, who worked with architect Alister MacKenzie to design one of the most challenging courses in the nation. Bobby Jones initially had the idea to design the course, as he wanted to build a golf course after he retired. The Augusta National Golf Course was officially opened in 1933. The first-ever Augusta National Masters Invitation Tournament was played in 1934. The tournament was won by Horton Smith, and the format of the first tournament was arranged so that golfers played holes 10-18 as the as the first nine, and 1-9 as the second nine. The very next year, the format was reversed, and has remained that way to present day. In the 1935 tournament, Gene Sarazen hit a double eagle by sinking a shot from the fairway on the par 5 15th hole. Sarazen would go on to win the tournament in a 36-hole playoff with Craig Wood.

Four years later in 1939, the Augusta National Invitation Tournament would switch names to become what we now know as The Masters. The Masters was not played from 1943-45 due to WWII. Instead, the Augusta National grounds were used to raise cattle and turkeys to help the war effort. In the 1960's and 1970's, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus dominated the tournament. These three key players won the event 11 times during that span of 20 years. In 1975, Lee Elder became the first black player to qualify for the Masters. He would play in the tournament fifteen years before the first black player was admitted as a member to Augusta National. Between the years of 1980 and 2000, non-American golfers took eleven victories in those twenty years. This was the longest streak for non-American golfers in any major U.S. tournament since the early U.S. Open years. In 1986, Jack Nicklaus became the oldest player to win the Masters, winning for a sixth time at the age of 46.

In 1997, Tiger Woods won the Masters by twelve shots at the age of 21, breaking the long-standing scoring record and also breaking the record for youngest player to win the Masters. The Augusta National Golf Course has been adjusted several times over the years. In 1998, the course measured 6925 yards from tee to pin on all holes. The course was adjusted to 7270 yards for 2002 and to 7445 yards in 2006. These adjustments have brought several criticisms, but most competitive players have defended the course as freshly challenging. Tickets for the Masters tournament are not super-expensive - rather, they are hard to get. Even the practice rounds are difficult to get into, as applications for practice round tickets must be made almost a year in advance just to get your name in a random drawing pool. Tickets to the tournament are only sold to members of a patrons list, which is closed. A waiting list for patrons has opened and closed periodically since 1972. As of 2008, The Masters has allowed patrons to accompany a child between the ages of 8-16 to the tournament for free.

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Question: In 1961, who became the first non- American golfer to win The Masters?
Answer: Gary Player