Six decades of time bears witness to a lot of highs and lows — especially at Augusta National.
When stacking memories over that period of time, one quickly determines there’s not enough room and an edit is necessary. And then another refinement for safe measure.
And what we’ve got now is six time capsules from the Masters that are celebrating a meaningful anniversary this week. Let’s pay the service of looking back...
60 years ago (1966)
Winner: Jack Nicklaus (288)
The Golden Bear defeated Tommy Jacobs and Gay Brewer in an 18-hole Monday playoff for the fifth of his 18 major titles (more on these below!) to become the first back-to-back champion in Masters history. It wound up being Nicklaus’ only successful defense of a major title. Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods would wind up joining Nicklaus in becoming repeat winners at Augusta.
The 26-year-old Nicklaus won under immense emotional pressure that week. A close friend died in a private plane crash that killed three others traveling to Augusta from Columbus, Ohio, a day before the tournament’s opening round. Nicklaus finished at even-par 288 before shooting 70 in the extra round on Monday, April 11, 1966.
Brewer went on to win the next year, snapping Nicklaus’ streak at two and ending his quest for the Masters trifecta.
50 years ago (1976)
Winner: Raymond Floyd (17-under 271)
Floyd is one five wire-to-wire champions at Augusta. On a day where he matched the 72-hole record held by Jack Nicklaus, The Associated Press called Floyd’s march “perhaps the easiest Masters victory of all time.” His 54-hole total of 201 was the lowest ever at the time, and on Sunday he cruised to an eight-stroke victory over Ben Crenshaw.
Tiger Woods would go on to break the 72-hole record by a stroke in 1997. Spieth tied that mark 18 years later in winning his first of three major tournaments.
40 years ago (1986)
Winner: Jack Nicklaus (9-under 279)
The oldest winner in Masters history, Nicklaus claimed that aforementioned 18th and final major at Augusta in dramatic one-shot fashion at age 46.
They seriously don’t make Masters leaderboards like this anymore. Nicklaus won at Augusta for a record sixth time besting runners-up Tom Kite and Greg Norman. Behind them was Seve Ballesteros in solo fourth and Nick Price a shot behind him in fifth. Tom Watson finished T-6 at 5-under 283.
Noteworthy: Nicklaus walked away with $144,000 from the purse, seven times the amount he claimed after winning his first Masters in 1963.
30 years ago (1996)
Winner: Nick Faldo (12-under 276)
The infamous Greg Norman collapse gave Faldo his unexpected third green jacket. He entered the final round six shots back and wound up winning by five over Norman, in what is still the largest swing in Masters history.
Norman did not see it coming either, which makes it all the more painful in retrospect. The three-time Masters runner-up maintained a four-shot lead through seven holes before imploding. On the par-3 12th, he found the water and wound up with double bogey. Four holes later, he was in the water again of the tee — and all hopes of winning dashed. Faldo’s final-round 67 was the best score on Sunday, while Norman’s head-scratching 78 was one of the worst rounds of the day.
Noteworthy: Tiger Woods, 20, did not make the cut in his second Masters. He came back the next year to win by 12 strokes behind a record-low scoring performance (see above).
20 years ago (2006)
Winner: Phil Mickelson (7-under 281)
A two-shot victory over Tim Clark gave Lefty his second green jacket in three years, and immortalized Mickelson in Masters lore forever. It was also his third major win in the last nine tries at the time. Similar to Clark, Fred Couples, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh failed in their respective attempts to catch Mickelson.
“They stumbled along with three-putts and a litany of other mistakes that allowed Mickelson to stroll up the 18th fairway already knowing how this major would end,” The Associated Press wrote.
10 years ago (2016)
Winner: Danny Willett (5-under 283)
Jordan Spieth unraveled with bogeys at Nos. 10 and 11, and twice hit into Rae’s Creek to make a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 12th to deny himself the historic back-to-back win at Augusta.
Willett, who trailed by as many as five shots on Sunday, shot 33 on the second nine with birdies on the 13th, 14th and 16th holes.
“This Masters turned into a shocker Sunday, right down to the green jacket ceremony. Spieth was in Butler Cabin, just like everyone expected when he took a five-shot lead to the [second] nine at Augusta National,” The Associated Press wrote. “Only he was there to present it to Willett, who seized on Spieth’s collapse with a magnificent round that made him a Masters champion.”
Noteworthy: Willett became the first Englishman to win the Masters since the aforementioned Faldo in 1996.