The Masters: Five must-see moments from the history of the tournament

Of all the majors, this is the one that golfing fanatics around the globe were most pained to miss out on during the spring of 2020, before November's delayed tournament.

With the Masters again upon us in 2024, the experts at look back at five of the most incredible moments in the history of golf’s most sacred tournament.

But first here's a 2021 entrant from from Jon Rahm!

Watson lost in the woods

During the nail-biting play-off in the 2012 Masters, Bubba Watson’s nerves got the better of him as a rogue drive saw him buried deep in a copse of trees. With what turned out to be the shot of his career, Watson used a gap wedge to send the ball high and winding. Finding an impossible route, his ball curled around a maze of branches and broadcasting towers and landed comfortably just 10ft from the flag.

Tiger’s chip of a lifetime

2005 saw another impossible resurgence on the golfing world’s biggest stage. Tiger Woods looked in trouble as his approach shot missed the 16th green long. Then, Woods’ chip found his desired landing strip, and to the crowd’s delight, began to roll home. Like a clinger from a Carry-On, the ball faltered dramatically just a few cruel millimetres from the hole. Finally, it dropped in and sent Augusta into complete ecstasy. Woods walked away from the tournament victorious, his fourth Masters win.

Oosthuizen’s great deflection

Louis Oosthuizen has played the slopes of Augusta with varying fortunes over the years. This may not have been his most pivotal moment, but without a doubt one of the most astonishing shots the Masters has ever seen. Teeing off into the sunshine on the 16th hole of the 2016 championship, the South African’s ball arrived out of the skies and on the green to a ripple of appreciation from the crowd. The show wasn’t over, as Oosthuizen’s approach kept cascading down the green towards a perfect hole-in-one. The crowd gasped as they realised it was on a heart-breaking collision course; another ball sat idle on the grass, blocking the path to the flag. Sure enough, Oosthuizen’s ball smashed into its obstacle like in a game of billiards – only to send the rogue ball trickling away and finally sink into the hole. An eruption of disbelief from the crowd followed what was perhaps the most unorthodox but thrilling hole-in-one ever seen at the Masters.

Norman’s unforgettable choke

Greg Norman was cruising. The 1996 Masters saw him steaming ahead as Nick Faldo trailed by six shots heading into the tournament’s final day. With the finish line in sight, the Australian’s nightmare started to unfold. A series of impatient and wayward shots by Norman saw a cool and composed Faldo close the gap. Norman’s collapse was confirmed as he missed an unforgivable tap-in at the 11th hole, followed by two trips into the water to seal his fate. Meanwhile, Faldo did not blink, rolling home a perfect final putt, before commiserating his devastated opponent and friend, and pulling on the cherished green jacket for the third time in his career.

Nicklaus makes history

The 1975 Masters is widely considered one of the best golfing spectacles of all time. Three American greats at the peaks of their careers, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller, took it down to the wire on the final Sunday. In the days before the thrilling sudden-death play-off, the prospect of a full 18 holes on Monday loomed over the inseparable trio. Putting paid to this possibility, Nicklaus holed from range at the 16th to the great elation of his flag-wielding caddy. This glorious moment marked Nicklaus’s fifth Masters title, and he went on to claim a record-breaking sixth a decade later. To this day, nobody has won the great major as many times as Niklaus. Ohio’s golden bear remains the undisputed king of Augusta.

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