1998 Masters Tournament

The 1998 Masters Tournament was the 62nd Masters Tournament, held from April 9–12 at Augusta National Golf Club. Mark O'Meara won his first major championship with a 20-foot (6 m) birdie putt on the final hole to win by one stroke over runners-up David Duval and Fred Couples.^{[1] [2]} He birdied three of the final four holes in a final round 67 (−5).^[3]

1998 Masters Tournament

Front cover of the 1998 Masters Journal
Tournament information
Dates	April 9–12, 1998
Location	Augusta, Georgia 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	6,925 yards (6,332 m)
Field	88 players, 46 after cut
Cut	150 (+6)
Prize fund	US$3.2 million
Winner's share	$576,000
Champion
Mark O'Meara
279 (−9)
Location map
Augusta National Location in the United States Show map of the United States Augusta National Location in Georgia Show map of Georgia
← 1997 1999 →

In one of the most remarkable performances of his career, Jack Nicklaus tied for sixth place at the age of 58. His final round 68 (−4) yielded a 283 (−5), the lowest 72-hole score by a player over age 50 at the Masters until Phil Mickelson shot a score of 280 (−8) in the 2023 tournament. Nicklaus was in contention for the title until well into the back nine holes in the final round. It was his last serious run for a major championship, twelve years after his sixth Masters victory in 1986.^[1]

In his first Masters, David Toms shot a 29 (−7) on the back nine on Sunday, en route to a 64 (−8). He had six consecutive birdies on holes 12–17.^[4]

O'Meara's win came in his 15th attempt at Augusta, setting a record for appearances before a victory. He had previously been considered one of the best players to never win a major. Later in July, he won the Open Championship and earned PGA Tour Player of the Year honors for 1998.

Matt Kuchar, a 19-year-old sophomore at Georgia Tech, was the low amateur at even-par 288 and tied for 21st place. The reigning U.S. Amateur champion, he carded a four-under 68 in the third round.

Field

1. Masters champions

Tommy Aaron, Seve Ballesteros, Gay Brewer, Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Fred Couples (9,12), Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Doug Ford, Bernhard Langer (9), Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, Jack Nicklaus, José María Olazábal (9,10), Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson (9), Tiger Woods (9,12,13), Ian Woosnam, Fuzzy Zoeller

• George Archer, Jack Burke Jr., Bob Goalby, Herman Keiser, Cary Middlecoff, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, and Art Wall Jr. did not play.

2. U.S. Open champions (last five years)

Ernie Els (9,10,12,13), Lee Janzen (11,13), Steve Jones (12,13), Corey Pavin

3. The Open champions (last five years)

John Daly, Tom Lehman (9,10,13), Justin Leonard (9,11,12,13), Greg Norman (12,13), Nick Price (4,9,12,13)

4. PGA champions (last five years)

Paul Azinger, Mark Brooks, Steve Elkington (9,13), Davis Love III (9,10,11,12,13)

5. U.S. Amateur champion and runner-up

Joel Kribel (a), Matt Kuchar (a)

6. The Amateur champion

Craig Watson (a)

7. U.S. Amateur Public Links champion

Tim Clark (a)

8. U.S. Mid-Amateur champion

Ken Bakst (a)

9. Top 24 players and ties from the 1997 Masters

Stuart Appleby (13), Mark Calcavecchia (12,13), Fred Funk, John Huston (12), Per-Ulrik Johansson, Tom Kite (11), Jesper Parnevik (12,13), Costantino Rocca, Vijay Singh (12,13), Jeff Sluman, Paul Stankowski (13), Tommy Tolles (10,13), Lee Westwood, Willie Wood

10. Top 16 players and ties from the 1997 U.S. Open

Billy Andrade, Olin Browne, Stewart Cink (12,13), Jim Furyk (11,13), Jay Haas, Scott Hoch (11,12,13), Bradley Hughes, Jeff Maggert (11,13), Scott McCarron (12,13), Colin Montgomerie, David Ogrin, Bob Tway

• Loren Roberts (12,13) was unable to compete due to a rib injury.^[5]

11. Top eight players and ties from 1997 PGA Championship

Phil Blackmar (12)

12. Winners of PGA Tour events since the previous Masters

Michael Bradley, Billy Ray Brown, David Duval (13), David Frost, Bill Glasson (13), Tim Herron, Gabriel Hjertstedt, Billy Mayfair, Phil Mickelson (13), Frank Nobilo (13), Scott Simpson, David Toms

13. Top 30 players from the 1997 PGA Tour money list

John Cook, Brad Faxon, Andrew Magee, Mark O'Meara

14. Special foreign invitation

Darren Clarke, Ignacio Garrido, Retief Goosen, Shigeki Maruyama, Masashi Ozaki

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 9, 1998
Friday, April 10, 1998

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Fred Couples	69	−3
T2	Scott Hoch	70	−2
	José María Olazábal
	Paul Stankowski
T5	Paul Azinger	71	−1
	Phil Blackmar
	David Duval
	Colin Montgomerie
	Tiger Woods
	Fuzzy Zoeller

First round suspended by darkness; start was delayed by 90 minutes to get course playable after heavy rains Wednesday night.

Second round

Friday, April 10, 1998

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Fred Couples	69-70=139	−5
	David Duval	71-68=139
3	Scott Hoch	70-71=141	−3
T4	Paul Azinger	71-72=143	−1
	Jay Haas	72-71=143
	Phil Mickelson	74-69=143
	José María Olazábal	70-73=143
	Tiger Woods	71-72=143
T9	Scott McCarron	73-71=144	E
	Mark O'Meara	74-70=144

Source:^[6]

Amateurs: Kuchar (+4), Kribel (+6), Watson (+13), Clark (+14), Bakst (+16).

Third round

Saturday, April 11, 1998

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Fred Couples	69-70-71=210	−6
T2	Paul Azinger	71-72-69=212	−4
	Phil Mickelson	74-69-69=212
	Mark O'Meara	74-70-68=212
T5	David Duval	71-68-74=213	−3
	Jim Furyk	76-70-67=213
T7	Jay Haas	72-71-71=214	−2
	Scott Hoch	70-71-73=214
	José María Olazábal	70-73-71=214
T10	Ernie Els	75-70-70=215	−1
	Colin Montgomerie	71-75-69=215
	Jack Nicklaus	73-72-70=215
	Tiger Woods	71-72-72=215

Final round

Sunday, April 12, 1998

Mark O'Meara won his first Masters title

External videos
Full final round coverage on CBS on YouTube

Final leaderboard

Champion

Silver Cup winner (low amateur)

(a) = amateur

(c) = past champion

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Mark O'Meara	74-70-68-67=279	−9	576,000
T2	Fred Couples (c)	69-70-71-70=280	−8	281,600
	David Duval	71-68-74-67=280
4	Jim Furyk	76-70-67-68=281	−7	153,600
5	Paul Azinger	71-72-69-70=282	−6	128,000
T6	Jack Nicklaus (c)	73-72-70-68=283	−5	111,200
	David Toms	75-72-72-64=283
T8	Darren Clarke	76-73-67-69=285	−3	89,600
	Justin Leonard	74-73-69-69=285
	Colin Montgomerie	71-75-69-70=285
	Tiger Woods (c)	71-72-72-70=285

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
T12	Jay Haas	72-71-71-72=286	−2	64,800
	Per-Ulrik Johansson	74-75-67-70=286
	Phil Mickelson	74-69-69-74=286
	José María Olazábal (c)	70-73-71-72=286
T16	Mark Calcavecchia	74-74-69-70=287	−1	48,000
	Ernie Els	75-70-70-72=287
	Scott Hoch	70-71-73-73=287
	Scott McCarron	73-71-72-71=287
	Ian Woosnam (c)	74-71-72-70=287
T21	Matt Kuchar (a)	72-76-68-72=288	E	0
	Willie Wood	74-74-70-70=288		38,400
T23	Stewart Cink	74-76-69-70=289	+1	33,280
	John Huston	77-71-70-71=289
	Jeff Maggert	72-73-72-72=289
T26	Brad Faxon	73-74-71-72=290	+2	26,133
	David Frost	72-73-74-71=290
	Steve Jones	75-70-75-70=290
29	Michael Bradley	73-74-72-72=291	+3	23,680
30	Steve Elkington	75-75-71-71=292	+4	22,720
T31	Andrew Magee	74-72-74-73=293	+5	21,280
	Jesper Parnevik	75-73-73-72=293
T33	Phil Blackmar	71-78-75-70=294	+6	18,112
	John Daly	77-71-71-75=294
	Lee Janzen	76-74-72-72=294
	Davis Love III	74-75-67-78=294
	Fuzzy Zoeller (c)	71-74-75-74=294
38	Tom Kite	73-74-74-74=295	+7	15,680
T39	Bernhard Langer (c)	75-73-74-74=296	+8	14,720
	Paul Stankowski	70-80-72-74=296
T41	Corey Pavin	73-77-72-75=297	+9	13,440
	Craig Stadler (c)	79-68-73-77=297
43	John Cook	75-73-74-76=298	+10	12,480
44	Lee Westwood	74-76-72-78=300	+12	11,840
45	Joel Kribel (a)	74-76-76-75=301	+13	0
46	Gary Player (c)	77-72-78-75=302	+14	11,200
CUT	Billy Ray Brown	76-75=151	+7
	Nick Faldo (c)	72-79=151
	Raymond Floyd (c)	74-77=151
	Retief Goosen	74-77=151
	Tim Herron	76-75=151
	Sandy Lyle (c)	74-77=151
	Billy Mayfair	76-75=151
	Nick Price	75-76=151
	Tommy Tolles	75-76=151
	Tom Watson (c)	78-73=151
	Olin Browne	72-80=152	+8
	Larry Mize (c)	73-79=152
	Masashi Ozaki	75-77=152
	Bob Tway	74-78=152
	Billy Andrade	75-78=153	+9
	Bradley Hughes	75-78=153
	Frank Nobilo	77-76=153
	Costantino Rocca	81-72=153
	Stuart Appleby	77-77=154	+10
	Shigeki Maruyama	74-80=154
	Greg Norman	76-78=154
	Jeff Sluman	78-76=154
	Ben Crenshaw (c)	83-72=155	+11
	David Ogrin	77-78=155
	Mark Brooks	80-76=156	+12
	Tom Lehman	80-76=156
	Vijay Singh	76-80=156
	Seve Ballesteros (c)	78-79=157	+13
	Fred Funk	79-78=157
	Ignacio Garrido	85-72=157
	Gabriel Hjertstedt	79-78=157
	Scott Simpson	79-78=157
	Craig Watson (a)	79-78=157
	Gay Brewer (c)	72-86=158	+14
	Tim Clark (a)	80-78=158
	Tommy Aaron (c)	81-79=160	+16
	Ken Bakst (a)	82-78=160
	Bill Glasson	82-79=161	+17
	Charles Coody (c)	79-85=164	+20
	Arnold Palmer (c)	79-87=166	+22
	Billy Casper (c)	81-86=167	+23
WD	Doug Ford (c)	86	+14

Sources:^[7][8]

Scorecard

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	5	4	3	4	3	4	5	4	4	4	3	5	4	5	3	4	4
O'Meara	−4	−5	−6	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−7	−8	−9
Couples	−5	−6	−6	−7	−7	−7	−8	−9	−8	−8	−8	−8	−6	−6	−8	−8	−8	−8
Duval	−2	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4	−4	−5	−6	−7	−7	−8	−8	−9	−8	−8	−8
Furyk	−3	−4	−4	−3	−2	−2	−2	−3	−4	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6	−5	−6	−7	−7
Azinger	−4	−5	−5	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6
Nicklaus	−1	−2	−3	−2	−2	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−3	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5
Toms	+3	+2	+2	+3	+3	+3	+2	+2	+2	+1	+1	E	−1	−2	−3	−4	−5	−5
Mickelson	−4	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−2	−2	−1	−2	−3	−1	−2

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey

Source:^[9]

Quotes

• "Good-looking putt...Mark O'Meara has won the Masters!" – Jim Nantz's (CBS Sports) call as O'Meara sunk his birdie putt on the 18th hole to defeat Fred Couples and David Duval and win the tournament