2012 Masters Tournament

StatisticsPar72Length7,435 yards (6,799 m)^[1]Field95 players, 63 after cutCut149 (+5)Prize fundUS$8,000,000Winner's share$1,440,000Champion Bubba Watson278 (−10), playoffLocation map

The 2012 Masters Tournament was the 76th Masters Tournament, held April 5–8 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.^[2] Bubba Watson won the year's first major championship on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff, defeating Louis Oosthuizen.^[3] It was his first major title and his fourth victory on the PGA Tour.^[3] Watson was the eighth consecutive first-time major champion, and the 14th winner in as many majors.^[4][5] He won a second Masters two years later in 2014.

Two pre-tournament favorites,^[3][6] Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, both finished at 293 (+5) in a tie for 40th place. Phil Mickelson was in the final pairing and in contention during the final round, but a triple-bogey six on the fourth hole knocked him back and he finished two strokes behind, in a four-way tie for third.^[3] Bo Van Pelt posted the lowest round of the tournament with a 64 (−8) early on Sunday, which propelled him up the leaderboard 35 places to tie for 17th.

It was the first playoff in three years at the Masters; Ángel Cabrera won on the second extra hole in 2009.

Course

Hole	Name	Yards	Par		Hole	Name	Yards	Par
1	Tea Olive	445	4		10	Camellia	495	4
2	Pink Dogwood	575	5		11	White Dogwood	505	4
3	Flowering Peach	350	4		12	Golden Bell	155	3
4	Flowering Crab Apple	240	3		13	Azalea	510	5
5	Magnolia	455	4		14	Chinese Fir	440	4
6	Juniper	180	3		15	Firethorn	530	5
7	Pampas	450	4		16	Redbud	170	3
8	Yellow Jasmine	570	5		17	Nandina	440	4
9	Carolina Cherry	460	4		18	Holly	465	4
Out		3,725	36		In		3,710	36
Source:[1]					Total		7,435	72

Field

The Masters has the smallest field of the four major championships. Officially, the Masters remains an invitation event, but there is a set of qualifying criteria that determines who is included in the field.^[7] Each player is classified according to the first category by which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.

Golfers who qualify based solely on their performance in amateur tournaments (categories 6–10) must remain amateurs on the starting day of the tournament to be eligible to play.

Three players were appearing in their first major: Kelly Kraft, Corbin Mills and Randal Lewis. Twelve others were appearing in their first Masters: Keegan Bradley, Patrick Cantlay, Bryden Macpherson, Kevin Chappell, Robert Garrigus, Webb Simpson, Harrison Frazar, Kyle Stanley, Scott Stallings, Brendan Steele, Bae Sang-moon and Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño.^[8]

Notable absences included Mark O'Meara (injured), Ernie Els and Retief Goosen (not ranked high enough). O'Meara had appeared in the previous 27 Masters, Els in the previous 18, and Goosen in the previous 12. (Els would win the Open Championship in July to ensure an invitation to the next five Masters.)

1. Past Masters Champions

• Mark O'Meara withdrew shortly before his tee time due to injury.^[9]
• Past champions not playing: Tommy Aaron, Jack Burke Jr., Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Fuzzy Zoeller. Player joined Nicklaus and Palmer to serve as "honorary starters" and teed off on the first day at the first hole to kick off the tournament.

2. Last five U.S. Open Champions

3. Last five British Open Champions

4. Last five PGA Champions

5. Last three winners of The Players Championship

6. Top two finishers in the 2011 U.S. Amateur

7. Winner of the 2011 Amateur Championship

• Bryden Macpherson (a)

8. Winner of the 2011 Asian Amateur

• Hideki Matsuyama (a)

9. Winner of the 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links

• Corbin Mills (a)

10. Winner of the 2011 U.S. Mid-Amateur

• Randal Lewis (a)

11. The top 16 finishers and ties in the 2011 Masters Tournament

12. Top 8 finishers and ties in the 2011 U.S. Open

13. Top 4 finishers and ties in the 2011 British Open Championship

• Thomas Bjørn (18,19)
• Dustin Johnson (15,16,17,18,19) withdrew with a back injury prior to the start of the tournament.^[10]

14. Top 4 finishers and ties in the 2011 PGA Championship

15. Top 30 leaders on the 2011 PGA Tour official money earnings list

16. Winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, between the 2011 Masters Tournament and the 2012 Masters Tournament

17. All players qualifying for the 2011 edition of The Tour Championship

18. Top 50 on the final 2011 Official World Golf Ranking list

19. Top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking list on March 25, 2012

20. International invitees

• Ryo Ishikawa^[11]

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Lee Westwood	67	−5
T2	Peter Hanson	68	−4
	Louis Oosthuizen
T4	Ben Crane	69	−3
	Jason Dufner
	Miguel Ángel Jiménez
	Paul Lawrie
	Francesco Molinari
	Bubba Watson
T10	Jim Furyk	70	−2
	Zach Johnson
	Vijay Singh
	Scott Stallings

Source:^[12]

Second round

Friday, April 6, 2012

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Fred Couples	72-67=139	−5
	Jason Dufner	69-70=139
T3	Sergio García	72-68=140	−4
	Rory McIlroy	71-69=140
	Louis Oosthuizen	68-72=140
	Bubba Watson	69-71=140
	Lee Westwood	67-73=140
T8	Miguel Ángel Jiménez	69-72=141	−3
	Matt Kuchar	71-70=141
	Paul Lawrie	69-72=141

Source:^[13]

Amateurs: Matsuyama (+1), Cantlay (+5), Kraft (+5), Macpherson (+9), Mills (+11), Lewis (+15).

Third round

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Peter Hanson	68-74-65=207	−9
2	Phil Mickelson	74-68-66=208	−8
3	Louis Oosthuizen	68-72-69=209	−7
4	Bubba Watson	69-71-70=210	−6
5	Matt Kuchar	71-70-70=211	−5
T6	Pádraig Harrington	71-73-68=212	−4
	Hunter Mahan	72-72-68=212
	Henrik Stenson	71-71-70=212
	Lee Westwood	67-73-72=212
10	Paul Lawrie	69-72-72=213	−3

Source:^[14]

Final round

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Summary

External videos
Full final round coverage on CBS on YouTube

For the third time in seven years, the Masters concluded on Easter Sunday. The leaderboard was active, as four players held at least a share of the lead during the final round. Louis Oosthuizen charged into the lead at the second hole with an albatross two on the par-5. It was only the fourth double eagle in Masters history and the first-ever on the second hole. The final pairing faltered: 54-hole leader Peter Hanson never got it going, with three bogeys before he carded his first birdie at the 15th hole. Three holes earlier, Hanson shanked his tee shot on the par-3 12th short of the water, bogeyed, and fell from contention. On the front nine, three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson pushed his tee shot left at the par-3 fourth and it caromed off a greenside grandstand. He made his second triple bogey of the week and came up two shots short of the playoff.^[3]

In the end, it came down to a three player race between Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson, and Matt Kuchar. Kuchar hit his approach at the 15th hole to three feet (0.9 m) and eagled to temporarily tie Oosthuizen at −9, but followed it with a bogey at the par-3 16th hole and finished two strokes back, in the four-way tie for third. After Watson made a two at the 16th for his fourth consecutive birdie, he was tied at the top with Oosthuizen at −10. Playing together in the penultimate pairing, both parred the 17th hole and were on the green in regulation at the uphill 18th. Oosthuizen missed a 35-foot (11 m) birdie putt from the back shelf and Watson had 25 feet (8 m) for his first major, but he missed the putt on the high side. After Watson tapped in, Oosthuizen holed his four-footer (1.2 m) to force a sudden death playoff.^[15]

Final leaderboard

Champion

Silver Cup winner (low amateur)

(a) = amateur

(c) = past champion

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
T1	Louis Oosthuizen	68-72-69-69=278	−10	Playoff
	Bubba Watson	69-71-70-68=278
T3	Peter Hanson	68-74-65-73=280	−8	384,000
	Matt Kuchar	71-70-70-69=280
	Phil Mickelson (c)	74-68-66-72=280
	Lee Westwood	67-73-72-68=280
7	Ian Poulter	72-72-70-69=283	−5	268,000
T8	Pádraig Harrington	71-73-68-72=284	−4	232,000
	Justin Rose	72-72-72-68=284
	Adam Scott	75-70-73-66=284

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
11	Jim Furyk	70-73-72-70=285	−3	200,000
T12	Fred Couples (c)	72-67-75-72=286	−2	156,800
	Sergio García	72-68-75-71=286
	Hunter Mahan	72-72-68-74=286
	Graeme McDowell	75-72-71-68=286
	Kevin Na	71-75-72-68=286
T17	Ben Crane	69-73-72-73=287	−1	124,000
	Bo Van Pelt	73-75-75-64=287
T19	Charles Howell III	72-70-74-72=288	E	96,960
	Freddie Jacobson	76-68-70-74=288
	Francesco Molinari	69-75-70-74=288
	Geoff Ogilvy	74-72-71-71=288
	Brandt Snedeker	72-75-68-73=288
T24	Jason Dufner	69-70-75-75=289	+1	70,400
	Anders Hansen	76-72-73-68=289
	Paul Lawrie	69-72-72-76=289
T27	Keegan Bradley	71-77-73-69=290	+2	56,800
	Jonathan Byrd	72-71-72-75=290
	Rickie Fowler	74-74-72-70=290
	Vijay Singh (c)	70-72-76-72=290
	Scott Stallings	70-77-70-73=290
T32	Ángel Cabrera (c)	71-78-71-71=291	+3	45,280
	Luke Donald	75-73-75-68=291
	Zach Johnson (c)	70-74-75-72=291
	Sean O'Hair	73-70-71-77=291
	Nick Watney	71-71-72-77=291
T37	Bae Sang-moon	75-71-69-77=292	+4	37,600
	Thomas Bjørn	73-76-74-69=292
	Bill Haas	72-74-76-70=292
T40	Aaron Baddeley	71-71-77-74=293	+5	32,000
	Rory McIlroy	71-69-77-76=293
	Henrik Stenson	71-71-70-81=293
	Tiger Woods (c)	72-75-72-74=293
T44	Kevin Chappell	71-76-71-76=294	+6	26,400
	Martin Kaymer	72-75-75-72=294
	Webb Simpson	72-74-70-78=294
T47	Patrick Cantlay (a)	71-78-74-72=295	+7	0
	Ross Fisher	71-77-73-74=295		22,560
	Steve Stricker	71-77-72-75=295
T50	Stewart Cink	71-75-81-69=296	+8	19,960
	Robert Karlsson	74-74-77-71=296
	Charl Schwartzel (c)	72-75-75-74=296
	David Toms	73-73-75-75=296
T54	Hideki Matsuyama (a)	71-74-72-80=297	+9	0
	Scott Verplank	73-75-75-74=297		18,880
56	Miguel Ángel Jiménez	69-72-76-81=298	+10	18,560
T57	Martin Laird	76-72-74-77=299	+11	18,240
	Edoardo Molinari	75-74-76-74=299
	Yang Yong-eun	73-70-75-81=299
60	Trevor Immelman (c)	78-71-76-76=301	+13	17,920
61	Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño	74-75-76-77=302	+14	17,760
62	Kelly Kraft (a)	74-75-77-80=306	+18	0
CUT	Kim Kyung-tae	74-76=150	+6
	John Senden	74-76=150
	Paul Casey	76-75=151	+7
	Harrison Frazar	73-78=151
	Larry Mize (c)	76-75=151
	José María Olazábal (c)	75-76=151
	Kyle Stanley	75-76=151
	Tom Watson (c)	77-74=151
	Mike Weir (c)	72-79=151
	Robert Garrigus	77-75=152	+8
	Bernhard Langer (c)	72-80=152
	Ryan Palmer	75-77=152
	Rory Sabbatini	72-80=152
	K. J. Choi	77-76=153	+9
	Ryo Ishikawa	76-77=153
	Bryden Macpherson (a)	77-76=153
	Chez Reavie	79-74=153
	Johnson Wagner	79-74=153
	Tim Clark	73-81=154	+10
	Darren Clarke	73-81=154
	Lucas Glover	75-79=154
	Mark Wilson	76-78=154
	Ian Woosnam (c)	77-77=154
	Simon Dyson	78-77=155	+11
	Corbin Mills (a)	74-81=155
	Álvaro Quirós	78-77=155
	Brendan Steele	76-80=156	+12
	Ben Crenshaw (c)	76-83=159	+15
	Randal Lewis (a)	81-78=159
	Craig Stadler (c)	81-82=163	+19
	Sandy Lyle (c)	86-78=164	+20
WD	Gary Woodland	73-70-85=228	+12
	Jason Day	76	+4

Scorecard

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	5	4	3	4	3	4	5	4	4	4	3	5	4	5	3	4	4
Watson	−5	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6	−7	−8	−9	−10	−10	−10
Oosthuizen	−7	−10	−10	−9	−9	−9	−9	−9	−9	−8	−8	−8	−9	−9	−10	−10	−10	−10
Hanson	−8	−8	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−8
Kuchar	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−5	−5	−5	−6	−7	−7	−9	−8	−8	−8
Mickelson	−8	−8	−8	−5	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−8	−8	−8	−8
Westwood	−3	−4	−3	−3	−3	−4	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−6	−7	−7	−7	−8

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Double Eagle/Albatross

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey

Triple bogey +

Source:^[16]

Playoff

The sudden death playoff started at the par-4 18th hole, where both players hit the fairway and green, and similar to the final round, Bubba Watson was closer to the pin than Louis Oosthuizen. Oosthuizen narrowly missed his 18-foot (5.5 m) birdie effort which gave Watson another opportunity to secure the title. Watson's putt from 16 feet (5 m) was low the entire way, and after both players tapped in to tie they headed to the next tee at the downhill par-4 10th hole.

Both players hit poor drives to the right, and Oosthuizen's second shot ended up short of the green. The left-handed Watson, playing from the pine straw deep in the woods, hooked his approach shot nearly 90 degrees to within 10 feet (3 m) of the hole. Oosthuizen chipped to the back of the green and narrowly missed his par putt to give Watson two putts to win. He lagged his first to a foot (0.3 m) and tapped in to become the Masters champion.^[17][18]

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	Bubba Watson	4-4=8	E	1,440,000
2	Louis Oosthuizen	4-5=9	+1	864,000

Scorecard

Hole	18	10
Par	4	4
Watson	E	E
Oosthuizen	E	+1

Cumulative playoff scores, relative to par

References

External links

• Official website
• Coverage from the PGA of America
• Coverage on the European Tour's official site