1981 Masters Tournament

The 1981 Masters Tournament was the 45th Masters Tournament, held April 9–12 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Tom Watson won his second green jacket and fifth major title by two strokes over Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller.

Five-time champion Nicklaus shot a bogey-free 65 on Friday and led by four strokes after 36 holes, but a 75 on Saturday put him a stroke behind Watson entering the final round. It was the fourth runner-up finish for Nicklaus at the Masters and the third for Miller. Nicklaus won his sixth Masters five years later in 1986 at age 46.

Defending champion Seve Ballesteros shot 154 (+10) and missed the cut by six strokes; he also missed the cut as defending champion in 1984. Lee Trevino, needing a green jacket to complete the career grand slam, also shot 154 with an ailing back. His best finishes at Augusta were tenth place ties in 1975 and 1985.

Greg Norman, age 26, appeared in his first Masters and was fourth, the first of his eight top-five finishes at Augusta. He was runner-up three times, in 1986, 1987, and 1996.

This was the first Masters with bentgrass greens, which were formerly Bermuda and ryegrass.

Field
Tommy Aaron, George Archer, Seve Ballesteros (3,8), Gay Brewer, Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Raymond Floyd (8,11), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus (2,3,4,9,10), Arnold Palmer (8), Gary Player (8), Sam Snead, Art Wall Jr., Tom Watson (3,8,9,11), Fuzzy Zoeller (8,12)
 * 1. Masters champions


 * Jack Burke Jr., Jimmy Demaret, Ralph Guldahl, Claude Harmon, Ben Hogan, Herman Keiser, Cary Middlecoff, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard, and Gene Sarazen did not play.


 * The following categories only apply to Americans

Hubert Green (8,12), Hale Irwin (9,11,12), Andy North (8,9), Jerry Pate (8)
 * 2. U.S. Open champions (last five years)

Johnny Miller (11)
 * 3. The Open champions (last five years)

John Mahaffey (11,12), Dave Stockton, Lanny Wadkins (12)
 * 4. PGA champions (last five years)

Jim Holtgrieve (7,a), Bob Lewis (a), Hal Sutton (6,7,a), Dick von Tacky (a)
 * 5. 1980 U.S. Amateur semi-finalists

Jay Sigel (7,a)
 * 6. Previous two U.S. Amateur and Amateur champions


 * Mark O'Meara forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

Bob Tway (a)
 * 7. Members of the 1980 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team

Andy Bean (10,11,12), Jim Colbert, Ben Crenshaw (11), Ed Fiori, Gibby Gilbert, Jay Haas, Tom Kite (11,12), Billy Kratzert (11), Gil Morgan (9,10,12), Larry Nelson (11,12), Calvin Peete, Jack Renner, Jim Simons, J. C. Snead
 * 8. Top 24 players and ties from the 1980 Masters Tournament

Keith Fergus, Joe Hager, Mark Hayes (12), Lon Hinkle (10), Joe Inman, Pat McGowan, Mike Morley, Mike Reid, Bill Rogers (10,11), Ed Sneed, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange (10,11), Lee Trevino (10,11,12), Bobby Wadkins
 * 9. Top 16 players and ties from the 1980 U.S. Open

Howard Twitty (11), Bobby Walzel
 * 10. Top eight players and ties from 1980 PGA Championship

John Cook, Bob Gilder, Phil Hancock, Scott Hoch, Peter Jacobsen, Wayne Levi, Bruce Lietzke, Mark Pfeil, Don Pooley, Scott Simpson, Mike Sullivan, Doug Tewell
 * 11. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Lee Elder
 * 12. Members of the U.S. 1979 Ryder Cup team

Isao Aoki (9), Bruce Devlin (9), Duncan Evans (6,a), David Graham (4,8,11), Dan Halldorson (11), Sandy Lyle, Jack Newton (8), Greg Norman, Norio Suzuki
 * 13. Foreign invitations


 * Numbers in brackets indicate categories that the player would have qualified under had they been American.

First round
Thursday, April 9, 1981 Source:

Second round
Friday, April 10, 1981 Source:

Third round
Saturday, April 11, 1981 Source:

Final round
Sunday, April 12, 1981

Final leaderboard
Sources:

Scorecard
Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par Source: