The Masters winners: full list with scores
The Masters is one of the most prestigious tournaments in professional golf. It is played at Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club every April, when it kicks off the PGA majors season. The other majors are the PGA Championship in May, the U.S. Open in June and the British Open in July.
The legend of Bobby Jones winning the Grand Slam and co-founding Augusta
The Masters tournament was founded, like the Augusta course he co-designed, by golf legend Bobby Jones, who remains the only golfer to win the Grand Slam. That is when an individual wins all four major tournaments in a calendar year. Jones accomplished the still-singular feat in 1930 by winning the four majors of his day: the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the British Open and the British Amateur.
Critics of the Grand Slam as the pinnacle of all-time golf performance have contended in recent years that there’s no comparing Bobby Jones triumph over two fields of amateurs and two professional tournaments in 1930 to achieving what seems like the mission impossible of golf: topping a packed field of seasoned PGA pros in all four calendar year tournaments today. That said, every superlative athlete is a product of their era. The first Masters was played with Bobby Jones as the player-host in 1934—when the U.S. was in the depths of the Great Depression and an eight-day pass to watch every round would cost a spectator $5.50. Jones had retired from competitive golf in 1928 to practice law as a corporate attorney for Coca Cola but came out of retirement in part to promote the tournament in the middle of the Depression.
What are the cash, perks and prizes that come with winning the Masters?
The Masters, like its Augusta setting, is steeped in tradition. Winners of the tournament get to wear the famous dark green jacket (known as “Masters Green”). This coveted attire is theirs to keep until returning it the following year. However, if they are skilled and fortunate enough to win an additional Masters tournament, they join the rare company of those who keep the jacket for life.
Tournament champions also receive the Masters trophy depicting the famous clubhouse at Augusta that was part of an indigo plantation built in 1854, and the right to choose the menu and host the Masters dinner as a defending champion the following year. Winners also become honorary tournament invitees and members of the Augusta National Golf Club for life, with special access to the clubhouse locker room set aside for the Masters champions.
In addition to the trophy and clubhouse memberships, the gold medal and money winnings are also nice: The 2023 Masters champion Jon Rahm (who like two-time champion Jose Olazabal, hails from Spain) took home a record $3.24 million as part of the $18 million purse awarded to the field.
The list of Masters winners for the past 30 years
As mentioned above, Jon Rahm emerged victorious at the 2023 Masters, besting his friend Phil Mickelson to claim the green jacket and the winner’s gold medal prize at the Masters. The following is a list of Masters winners over the last 30 years, including winning scores and the top prize payouts. Highlighted in bold are the two youngest winners at Augusta, 21-year-old Jordan Spieth, who won the tournament in 2015, and 5-time winner Tiger Woods, who in 1997 set the record for the youngest Masters champion, a record that still stands as we enter the 2024 season:
2023
- Champion: Jon Rahm
- Score (To Par): 276 (-12)
- Winner’s Prize: $3.24 million
2022
- Champion: Scottie Scheffler
- Score (To Par): 278 (-10)
- Winner’s Prize: $2.7 million
2021
- Champion: Hideki Matsuyama
- Score (To Par): 278 (-10)
- Winner’s Prize: $2.07 million
2020
- Champion: Dustin Johnson
- Score (To Par): 268 (-20)
- Winner’s Prize: $2.07 million
2019
- Champion: Tiger Woods
- Score (To Par): 275 (-13)
- Winner’s Prize: $2.07 million
2018
- Champion: Patrick Reed
- Score (To Par): 273 (-15)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.98 million
2017
- Champion: Sergio Garcia
- Score (To Par): 279 (-9)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.98 million
2016
- Champion: Danny Willett
- Score (To Par): 283 (-5)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.80 million
2015
- Champion: Jordan Spieth (age 21)
- Score (To Par): 270 (-18)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.80 million
2014
- Champion: Bubba Watson
- Score (To Par): 280 (-8)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.62 million
2013
- Champion: Adam Scott
- Score (To Par): 279 (-9)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.44 million
2012
- Champion: Bubba Watson
- Score (To Par): 278 (-10)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.44 million
2011
- Champion: Charl Schwartzel
- Score (To Par): 274 (-14)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.440 million
2010
- Champion: Phil Mickelson
- Score (To Par): 272 (-16)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.350 million
2009
- Champion: Angel Cabrera
- Score (To Par): 276 (-12)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.350 million
2008
- Champion: Trevor Immelman
- Score (To Par): 280 (-8)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.350 million
2007
- Champion: Zach Johnson
- Score (To Par): 289 (+1)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.305 million
2006
- Champion: Phil Mickelson
- Score (To Par): 281 (-7)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.260 million
2005
- Champion: Tiger Woods
- Score (To Par): 276 (-12)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.260 million
2004
- Champion: Phil Mickelson
- Score (To Par): 279 (-9)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.117 million
2003
- Champion: Mike Weir
- Score (To Par): 276 (-12)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.080 million
2002
- Champion: Tiger Woods
- Score (To Par): 281 (-7)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.008 million
2001
- Champion: Tiger Woods
- Score (To Par): 272 (-16)
- Winner’s Prize: $1.008 million
2000
- Champion: Vijay Singh
- Score (To Par): 278 (-10)
- Winner’s Prize: $828k
1999
- Champion: Jose M. Olazabal
- Score (To Par): 280 (-8)
- Winner’s Prize: $720k
1998
- Champion: Mark O'Meara
- Score (To Par): 279 (-9)
- Winner’s Prize: $576k
1997
- Champion: Tiger Woods (age 21)
- Score (To Par): 270 (-18)
- Winner’s Prize: $486k
1996
- Champion: Nick Faldo
- Score (To Par): 276 (-12)
- Winner’s Prize: $450k
1995
- Champion: Ben Crenshaw
- Score (To Par): 274 (-14)
- Winner’s Prize: $396k
1994
- Champion: Jose M. Olazabal
- Score (To Par): 279 (-9)
- Winner’s Prize: $360k
Source: Golf Link
Who has the most all time Masters wins?
Jack Nicklaus, nicknamed the Golden Bear, leads the all-time Masters championship category with six titles. Right behind him is Tiger Woods who has five. Arnold Palmer won four and there are five other golfers who have won three: Phil Mickelson, Gary Player, Jimmy Demaret, Sam Snead and Nick Faldo.
From this short list of golfers with the most all-time wins, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are the only two pro golfers who remain active on the PGA Tour. But unlike the older Mickelson, the 47-year-old Woods did not make the cut for the 2023 Masters. At age 53, Mickelson remains the only three-time Masters winner still on the tour as of mid-autumn 2023.
What are the historic winning scores for the Masters?
While Tiger Woods’ tournament-record low score from 1997 was bested by Dustin Johnson in 2020, his record for margin of victory that year (12 strokes over Tom Kite) has yet to be surpassed.
The closest a previous Masters winner came to Tiger’s 1997 dominating performance was Jack Nicklaus, who won the championship by nine strokes in 1965.
Although Phil Mickelson has won three Masters, no one has dominated the tournament more over the last three decades than Tiger Woods, who won four Masters in the 2000s and another at the age of 43 in 2019. In doing so, Tiger became the fifth golfer to win the Masters after a decade between titles.
In the last 25 years, no one has won more Masters titles than Tiger Woods
The “Tiger Slam” is named for Woods, who won three of the four majors in 2000 and the Masters in 2001. A Tiger Slam means winning all four majors consecutively, but not all within the same calendar year.
What is the best-ever score at the Masters?
Dustin Johnson set the Masters record for the lowest 72-hole score in 2020, with a 20-under-par score of 268. That broke Tiger Woods (1997) and Jordan Spieth’s (2015) records for the 72-hole course. Johnson, who is also known for being hockey legend Wayne Gretzky’s son-in-law, took home the Mark H. McCormack Award as the top pro golfer for the most weeks of 2017.
Who has the lowest score for a round at the Masters?
The lowest 18-hole round of nine under par or 63 at the Masters was shot by Nick Price in 1986, when the championship was won by the legendary Jack Nicklaus. Nick Price’s record low score was matched by Greg Norman in 1996, but Norman was also beat out by the eventual champion that year, Nick Faldo. Which goes to show that a single round of historic domination doesn’t necessarily lead to claiming the tournament trophy.
Conclusion: The Masters is where golf legends are made
From Jack Nicklaus the Golden Bear to Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the Masters is where several legends of the game have experienced their greatest rivalries, while enjoying their largest margins of victory.
Looking ahead to the 2024 and 2025 Masters, younger winners from recent years like Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm will doubtlessly come to Augusta with great expectations, as they set their sights on another green jacket title.