1941 Masters Tournament

The 1941 Masters Tournament was the eighth Masters Tournament, held April 3–6 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Craig Wood won his first major title, three strokes ahead of runner-up Byron Nelson.

Wood opened with a 66 and led by five strokes after the first round.^[1][2] During the final round, Nelson caught him on the front nine and the two were briefly co-leaders. Wood scored a 34 (−2) over the final nine holes to secure the victory.^[3] The purse was $5,000 and the winner's share was $1,500.^[4]

Wood, 39, led the entire tournament, the Masters' first wire-to-wire champion. He also won the next major, the 1941 U.S. Open. Prior to his win at the Masters, Wood had lost in a playoff (or extra holes) in all four of the modern major championships, a dubious distinction since matched by only one other, Greg Norman.^[5]

Through 2019, there have been only five wire-to-wire champions; Wood was followed by Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Raymond Floyd (1976), and Jordan Spieth (2015).

Field

1. Masters champions

Jimmy Demaret (9), Ralph Guldahl (2,9,10,12), Byron Nelson (2,6,9,10,12), Gene Sarazen (2,4,6,9,10,12), Horton Smith (10)

• Henry Picard (6,9,10) did not play.

2. U.S. Open champions

Tommy Armour (4,6,10), Walter Hagen (4,6), Bobby Jones (3,4,5), Lawson Little (3,5,9,10), Tony Manero (9), Francis Ouimet (3,a), Sam Parks Jr. (10)

3. U.S. Amateur champions

Dick Chapman (11,a)

4. British Open champions

Denny Shute (6)

5. British Amateur champions

Charlie Yates (9,a)

6. PGA champions

Paul Runyan (9,12)

7. Members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team

• Not held

8. Members of the U.S. Walker Cup team

• Not held

9. Top 30 players and ties from the 1940 Masters Tournament

Johnny Bulla, Sammy Byrd, Harry Cooper, Ed Dudley (10), Jim Foulis (10), Willie Goggin, Jimmy Hines (10), Ben Hogan (10,12), Lloyd Mangrum (10), Jug McSpaden (10,12), Dick Metz (10), Toney Penna, Sam Snead (10,12), Frank Walsh (10), Al Watrous, Craig Wood (10)

• Johnny Farrell (2,10), Ed Oliver, Johnny Revolta (6,10) and Bud Ward (3,11,a) did not play.

10. Top 30 players and ties from the 1940 U.S. Open

Bruce Coltart, Vic Ghezzi, Andy Gibson, Jock Hutchison Jr., Gene Kunes, Ray Mangrum, Henry Ransom, Jack Ryan, Felix Serafin, Andrew Szwedko (a)

• Al Huske, Eddie Kirk (12), Wilford Wehrle (11,a) and Pat Willcox did not play.

11. 1940 U.S. Amateur quarter-finalists

George Dawson (a), Duff McCullough (a)

• Ray Billows (a), John P. Burke (a) and Johnny Fischer (3,a) did not play

12. 1940 PGA Championship quarter-finalists

13. One amateur, not already qualified, selected by a ballot of ex-U.S. Amateur champions

Art Doering (a)

14. One professional, not already qualified, selected by a ballot of ex-U.S. Open champions

Jimmy Thomson

15. Two players, not already qualified, with the best scoring average in the winter part of the 1940 PGA Tour

Leonard Dodson, Clayton Heafner

16 Foreign invitations

Jim Ferrier (9,10), Martin Pose

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

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 3, 1941

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Craig Wood	66	−6
T2	Willie Goggin	71	−1
	Ben Hogan
	Lawson Little
	Byron Nelson
T6	Harry Cooper	72	E
	Felix Serafin
T8	Johnny Bulla	73	+1
	Sammy Byrd
	Ed Dudley
	Clayton Heafner
	Tony Manero
	Toney Penna
	Jack Ryan
	Jimmy Thomson
	Sam Snead

Source:^[1][2]

Second round

Friday, April 4, 1941

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Craig Wood	66-71=137	−7
2	Byron Nelson	71-69=140	−4
3	Lawson Little	71-70=141	−3
T4	Sammy Byrd	73-70=143	−1
	Willie Goggin	71-72=143
	Ben Hogan	71-72=143
	Clayton Heafner	73-70=143
	Jug McSpaden	76-67=143
T9	Ed Dudley	73-72=145	+1
	Harry Cooper	72-73=145

Source:^[6]

Third round

Saturday, April 5, 1941

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Craig Wood	66-71-71=208	−8
2	Sammy Byrd	73-70-68=211	−5
3	Byron Nelson	71-69-73=213	−3
T4	Willie Goggin	71-72-72=215	−1
	Lawson Little	71-70-74=215
6	Jimmy Demaret	77-69-71=217	+1
7	Ben Hogan	71-72-75=218	+2
T8	Dick Chapman (a)	76-73-70=219	+3
	Vic Ghezzi	77-71-71=219
	Clayton Heafner	73-70-76=219

Source:^[7][8]

Final round

Sunday, April 6, 1941

Final leaderboard

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Craig Wood	66-71-71-72=280	−8	1,500
2	Byron Nelson (c)	71-69-73-70=283	−5	800
3	Sammy Byrd	73-70-68-74=285	−3	600
4	Ben Hogan	71-72-75-68=286	−2	500
5	Ed Dudley	73-72-75-68=288	E	400
T6	Vic Ghezzi	77-71-71-70=289	+1	275
	Sam Snead	73-75-72-69=289
8	Lawson Little	71-70-74-75=290	+2	200
T9	Willie Goggin	71-72-72-76=291	+3	117
	Lloyd Mangrum	71-72-72-76=291
	Jug McSpaden	76-67-80-68=291

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T12	Jimmy Demaret (c)	77-69-71-75=292	+4	100
	Clayton Heafner	73-70-76-73=292
T14	Harry Cooper	72-73-75-73=293	+5
	Ralph Guldahl (c)	76-71-75-71=293
	Jimmy Thomson	73-75-72-73=293
17	Jack Ryan	73-74-74-74=295	+7
18	Denny Shute	77-75-74-70=296	+8
T19	Dick Chapman (a)	76-73-70-78=297	+9
	Jimmy Hines	76-74-75-72=297
	Gene Kunes	76-74-76-71=297
	Dick Metz	74-72-75-76=297
	Sam Parks Jr.	75-76-75-71=297
	Toney Penna	73-74-80-70=297
	Gene Sarazen (c)	76-72-74-75=297
	Felix Serafin	72-79-74-72=297
	Horton Smith (c)	74-72-77-74=297
28	Ray Mangrum	76-70-78-74=298	+10
T29	Jim Ferrier	75-76-73-75=299	+11
	Jim Foulis	76-75-71-77=299
	Martin Pose	77-74-76-72=299
32	Al Watrous	74-75-76-75=300	+12
33	Leonard Dodson	75-77-78-71=301	+13
34	George Dawson (a)	74-78-77-73=302	+14
T35	Paul Runyan	78-78-74-73=303	+15
	Charlie Yates (a)	78-75-75-75=303
37	Frank Walsh	74-76-76-78=304	+16
38	Tommy Armour	75-75-76-79=305	+17
39	Johnny Bulla	73-76-78-79=306	+18
40	Bobby Jones	76-74-78-79=307	+19
41	Bruce Coltart	80-78-75-75=308	+20
42	Andy Gibson	78-75-80-76=309	+21
43	Jock Hutchison Jr.	77-81-76-78=312	+24
T44	Tony Manero	73-80-78-82=313	+25
	Duff McCullough (a)	79-74-84-76=313
46	Art Doering (a)	77-79-77-81=314	+26
47	Andrew Szwedko (a)	81-79-78-81=319	+31
WD	Francis Ouimet (a)	82	+10
	Walter Hagen	87	+15
	Henry Ransom

Sources:^[9][10]

References

External links

• Masters.com – past winners and results
• Augusta.com – 1941 Masters leaderboard