2012 Masters Tournament

2012 Masters Tournament

Front cover of the 2012 Masters Journal
Tournament information
Dates	April 5–8, 2012
Location	Augusta, Georgia, U.S. 33°30′11″N 82°01′12″W / 33.503°N 82.020°W / 33.503; -82.020
Course(s)	Augusta National Golf Club
Organized by	Augusta National Golf Club
Tour(s)	PGA Tour European Tour Japan Golf Tour
Statistics
Par	72
Length	7,435 yards (6,799 m)[1]
Field	95 players, 63 after cut
Cut	149 (+5)
Prize fund	US$8,000,000
Winner's share	$1,440,000
Champion
Bubba Watson
278 (−10), playoff
Location map
Augusta National Location in the United States Show map of the United States Augusta National Location in Georgia Show map of Georgia

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.

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]

Thursday, April 5, 2012