Only three golfers have ever won the Masters back-to-back – here’s how they did it
The Masters is difficult tournament to win once.
The golf course is a fiendish test. The field is elite. To claim victory requires exceptional golf and a lack of fear when the opportunity to join the greats of the game presents itself.
But to win a Masters back-to-back is REALLY difficult.
And it’s not just because the golf course is still fiendish, the field still elite and the opportunity still mind blowing.
It’s also because the defending champion has plenty on his plate at any normal event – the likes of more sponsor responsibilities and extra media duties.
But at the Masters he has a dinner to prepare, that dinner to host, and he needs to present the Green Jacket, too.
Little wonder it has proved very, very difficult to win back-to-back.
In fact, only three men have achieved that feat.
It’s an elite club and so naturally Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are in it – the two greatest golfers of all time.
The third man is Nick Faldo which speaks to his quality but also his levels of intensity.
How did this trio complete their rare defences of the Green Jacket?
Let’s find out.
Jack Nicklaus – 1965 and 1966
The great Jack Nicklaus opened his Masters win account in 1963 and conceded it to his great rival Arnold Palmer a year later.
Like many multiple Masters winners Nicklaus bounced back quickly, winning again in 1965 by the small matter of nine strokes.
When he grabbed a three-shot first round lead in 1966, a repeat thrashing of the field looked on the cards.
He eventually finished top of the 72-hole scoring alongside Gay Brewer and Tommy Jacobs before he overcame the pair in Monday’s 18-hole play-off.
It was an emotional week for Nicklaus. A close friend of his had died in an air accident on the Wednesday evening as he travelled to Augusta.
Nicklaus’s superb first round was played in a daze, his second round 76 came when reality hit, and then he dug deep to complete a tribute to those who died.
Here’s something else: in winning three Green Jackets in four years Nicklaus produced the greatest concentrated period of Masters golf.
Palmer and Woods won three in five years but Nicklaus is the only man to land three in four.
Nick Faldo – 1989 and 1990
The Englishman’s first win in 1989 was somewhat unexpected. He didn’t have a particularly striking record at Augusta and after a good first round headed backwards through Friday, Saturday and early Sunday (when the third round carried over into the final day).
He was actually T9 heading into that final round and five shots off Ben Crenshaw’s lead, but a sensational 65 on the final lap saw him set a clubhouse target that only Scott Hoch could match and no one beat.
In the play-off Hoch fluffed a two-foot putt for the win at the first hole (the 10th) before Faldo drained a 25-foot birdie putt for the win on the second (the 11th).
A year later Faldo was on the edge of contention through 36 holes before a 66-69 finish saw him catch the pre-final round leader Raymond Floyd.
As a year before, Faldo halved 10 and won 11 to complete his defence.
He would win a third Green Jacket in 1996 in very different style. Trailing Greg Norman by six shots in the final round, he ground down his playing partner and won by five. It needed the Aussie’s collapse, but it also needed Faldo’s assassin-like qualities.
His back-to-back wins were bookended by Sandy Lyle in 1988 and Ian Woosnam in 1991 – so the Green Jacket stayed in Britain for four straight years.
Tiger Woods – 2001 and 2002
Like Nicklaus in ‘65, Woods was sensational in his first ever win in 1997, winning by 12 shots.
He didn’t win again until 2001 when he just about kept David Duval and Phil Mickelson at arm’s length during a tight final round tussle.
Twelve months later history beckoned when a third round of 66 lifted him into a tie for the lead with Retief Goosen.
Unlike in 2001 it was a comfortable final round. Goosen fell four shots behind midway through the front nine and Mickelson was always some way distant in the scoring.
History was made in ruthless style by peak Woods.
“This win was awfully special,” he said. “It seemed a little bit harder than the others – we had to play 27 holes on Saturday because of the weather delays and my legs were tired at the end.”
It was only the 27 holes in one day that made it hard – in truth, it was a stroll
He would win again in 2005 (defeating Chris Dimarco in extra holes) and then, remarkably, for the final time in 2019.
Read next: Augusta agony: The five unluckiest golfers who came closest without winning