What are the best all-time finishes by an amateur at the Masters?
Amateurs have always been a major part of the Masters.
From the Amateur Dinner to the Crow’s Nest and Silver Cup, amateurs at the Masters are a focal point of the week at Augusta National Golf Club. They have made some memorable runs throughout the history of the event, including Sam Bennett in 2023, eventually finishing T-14.
Although an amateur has never won the Masters, 11 have finished inside the top 10, including three runner-up finishes. The best finish this century was Ryan Moore is 2005 at T-11 and Casey Wittenberg in 2004 at T-13.
There are five amateurs teeing it up in the 2024 edition of the Masters.
Here’s a look at the best all-time finishes by an amateur at the Masters.
2nd: Ken Venturi, 1956
1956 was a historic Masters year. It was the first time CBS televised it, and has continued every year since. It was the last year the Masters didn’t have a 36-hole cut. And it’s the year amateur Ken Venturi finished solo second after leading after the three first rounds. Venturi was eight shots ahead of eventual winner Jack Burke Jr., but an 8-over final round was his undoing.
T-2: Frank Stranahan, 1947; Charles R. Coe, 1961
Frank Stranahan was a powerlifter and golfer, and he had five runner-up finishes in major championships. For Coe, it was his third top-10 finish at the Masters, but the T-2 was his best.
3rd: Billy Joe Patton, 1958
In the 1954 Masters, Patton came within one stroke of being in a three-man playoff with Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. His final round 71 included a hole-in-one on the par-3 sixth hole and a double bogey on the par-5 13th, when he tried to reach the green in two and put his ball into Rae’s Creek.
4th: Harvie Ward, 1957
Ward is one of two golfers to win the U.S., British, and Canadian Amateurs. He won the U.S. Am in consecutive years from 1955-56. He also played on three Walker Cup teams, winning all six of his matches.
6th: Charles Coe, 1959; Lawson Little, 1935
For Coe, it was his second-best finish at the Masters in 1959.
Gene Sarazen’s famous albatross is what the second playing of the Masters is most known for, but Little became the first amateur to record a top finish, placing T-6.
T-7: Jack Nicklaus, 1961
Nicklaus won the Masters six times. In 1961, he finished T-7 as an amateur, perhaps foreshowing his greatness at Augusta National.
8th: Billy Joe Patton, 1958
The second of Patton’s three top-10 finishes.
T-8: Billy Joe Patton, 1959; Harvie Ward, 1955
Patton, along with Coe, are the only two Masters participants to finish in the top 10 three times. For Ward, in 11 Masters appearances, he finished in the top 10 twice, in the top 25 five times, and only missed two cuts.
T-9: Charles Coe, 1962
Coe is one of the best amateur golfers in history, and he had three top-10 finishes at the Masters. His other Masters accolades are: most top-25 finishes (9); top-10 finishes (3); eagles (6), rounds played (67) and most times low amateur (6). He won low amateur honors in four different decades. (40s, 50s, 60s and 70s).
