This week, for the second straight year, no players with strong Colorado connections will compete in the Masters.
If you don’t think that’s unusual, think again.
Prior to this current “drought”, you have to go back more than a half-century to find a Masters without at least one competitor with major Colorado ties.
With that in mind, we decided to dig into the records and highlight the Colorado “locals” who have shined at Augusta National Golf Club over the history of the Masters, which debuted in 1934.
Almost 25 players with significant connections to the Centennial State — either before, during or after their Masters heydays — have competed in what is now the first major of the season. A couple others have more tenuous ties to Colorado, but are interesting to note.
Here’s the rundown:
— Craig Stadler (current Evergreen resident): The Walrus, of course, didn’t move to Colorado until the 1990s, but he’s the one person to win the Masters who’s long resided in the state. In 1982, Stadler scored the biggest victory of his career. After posting rounds of 75-69-67-73–284, he defeated Dan Pohl in a playoff and slipped on a green jacket (pictured with ’81 champ Tom Watson). Stadler’s 75 remains the highest opening round by a champion.
He led by six with nine holes left in regulation, but lost ground with a 40 on the back nine on Sunday. A par on the first hole of sudden-death yielded the win.
“Walking down the fairway on No. 11, I said to myself, ‘This is easy,'” Stadler said at the time. “It looked like they all were playing for second and the only thing in doubt was by how much was I going to win. The National proved itself on Sunday again. I’ll take ’em any way I can.”
The victory was one of five top-seven finishes by Stadler at the Masters, including a third-place showing in 1988, when he ended up two back of champion Sandy Lyle. Stadler competed in 36 consecutive Masters, ending his run after playing in the 2014 event with son Kevin.
— Hale Irwin (Boulder High School and University of Colorado graduate): The World Golf Hall of Famer is best known for his three U.S. Open victories, but he was on the Sunday leaderboard numerous times at the Masters.
Overall, Irwin notched seven top-eight showings at Augusta National. He had an especially strong run from 1974-78, finishing fourth, fourth, fifth, fifth and eighth.
Of players with at least 50 rounds in the Masters, Irwin owns the seventh-best stroke average in history (72.18).
— Dow Finsterwald (director of golf at The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs from 1963-93): Finsterwald didn’t take his job at The Broadmoor until 1963, but he was regularly in the hunt at the Masters from 1957 through ’64.
The 1958 PGA Championship winner recorded five top-10 finishes at Augusta National during that eight-year stretch, including placing second and third.
Two years particular stood out for “Finsty”. In 1960, he finished third, two strokes behind winner — and good friend — Arnold Palmer. Coincidentally, two strokes is what Finsterwald was penalized — retroactively — for taking a practice putt on the fifth green during the first round, “not realizing he had violated rules” according to a newspaper account at the time.
Two years later, Finsterwald watched Palmer beat him again, this time in an 18-hole playoff, with Dow and Gary Player tying for second place. All three players finished at 8-under-par 280. The next day in the playoff, Palmer shot 68, Player 71 and Finsterwald 77.
Finsty would end up with 11 PGA Tour victories.
— David Duval (Cherry Hills Village resident): Duval moved to Colorado after the last of his 13 PGA Tour wins, which includes the 2001 British Open. There was certainly a reason he once was the top-ranked player in the world, and his record in the Masters shows that.
In the four Masters beginning in 1998, Duval finished second, sixth, third and second. In 1998, a closing 67 left him one back of winner Mark O’Meara. And in 2001, Duval made 23 birdies and also closed with a 67, leaving him two back of champion Tiger Woods.
— Ed Dudley (director of golf at The Broadmoor Golf Club from 1941 to ’63): Before the Masters took a three-year hiatus in the final years of World War II, Dudley was one of the top performers at Augusta National, where he served as the first head professional. From 1934 (the first year of what was then known as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament) through ’41, he notched seven top-10 finishes. His best showing was a third place in 1937, when he ended up three strokes behind champion Byron Nelson.
Dudley, winner of 15 PGA Tour events, held jobs at The Broadmoor and Augusta National simultaneously from 1941-57 as the Augusta venue is typically open only from autumn to May.
— Paul Runyan (director of golf at Green Gables CC from 1972 to the early ’80s): The winner of two PGA Championships and 29 PGA Tour events overall, Runyan recorded four top-10 performances in the first decade of the Masters. His best showings were third place in the first Masters (1934) and in 1942, and a fourth-place in 1936.
Runyan ended up two behind winner Horton Smith in the first Masters — then known as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament.
— Lawson Little: Little wasn’t a resident of Colorado, but it’s worth noting that in the summer of 1933 he made himself at home in the Centennial State. That year, the golfer from Stanford won the CGA Match Play (9 and 7 over Frank English in the final) and The Broadmoor Invitation, and finished runner-up in the Trans-Miss that The Broadmoor also hosted.
At the Masters, Little notched six top-10 showings from 1935 through ’51. His best finish was third place in 1939, when he ended up three back of winner Ralph Guldahl.
— Charlie Coe (a member at Castle Pines Golf Club late in his life): Coe, a two-time U.S. Amateur champion, posted three top-10 finishes in the Masters as an amateur. In 1961, he tied for second with Palmer, one behind winner Gary Player. Coe’s 7-under-par 281 total remains a Masters record for an amateur.
— Dave Hill (a longtime Colorado resident starting in the 1960s): At the same general time period Hill was winning a record four Colorado Opens, he posted a couple of top-10 showings at Augusta National. In 1970, he was a career-best fifth, ending up four shots behind winner Billy Casper, and five years later he placed seventh.
— Gary Hallberg (Colorado resident): Hallberg notched a top-10 in 1985 as his 2-under-par 286 total left him in sixth place, four back of winner Bernhard Langer.
— Mike Reid (attended Cherry Creek High School for one year): Like Hallberg, Reid’s best performance at Augusta National left him in sixth place at 286, in his case three behind champion Nick Faldo in 1989.
— Justin Leonard (Aspen resident): Long before moving to Aspen, Leonard notched back-to-back top-10s at the Masters, placing seventh in 1997 and eighth in ’98.
— Kevin Stadler (part-time Denver resident): Stadler posted a top-10 finish in his Masters debut in 2014, placing eighth as his dad, Craig, played in his final Masters. It’s one of two times Kevin has competed at Augusta National.
— Dale Douglass (former longtime Colorado resident and former CU golfer): The three-time PGA Tour winner had a best Masters finish of 19th in 1969.
— Steve Jones (grew up in Colorado and former CU golfer): The best Masters showing by the 1996 U.S. Open champion was 20th in 1990.
— Brandt Jobe (Colorado resident from 1970 to ’99): Among his appearances at Augusta National, the Colorado Golf Hall of Famer had a best finish of 14th in 1999.
Other players with strong Colorado connections who have made the cut at the Masters are one-time Fitzsimons resident Orville Moody (best: 18th place), former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird (best: 20th), former Boulder resident Bob Byman (best: 34th), Colorado resident Mark Wiebe (best: 35th), and Denver native and former CU golfer Jonathan Kaye (best: 43rd). There was no cut at the Masters in 1947, but Denver’s Babe Lind, who was inducted into the first class of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 1973, finished 46th as the first Colorado native to compete in the tournament. Davis Love Jr., winner of the CGA Junior Match Play in 1953 and ’54 (and the father of Davis Love III), earned a 34th-place finish at Augusta National in 1964.
Another Colorado resident who competed in the Masters — but in his case failed to make the cut — was 1986 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Bill Loeffler in 1988. Denver native Tommy Armour III also missed a cut in the Masters, in 1990.
While no “locals” will compete in this year’s Masters, at least a couple of Coloradans will play a role at Augusta National Golf Club. On Wednesday, Craig Stadler is expected to compete in the Par-3 Contest a year after tying for second in that event. And CGA executive director Ed Mate, who serves on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee, will be a rules official at the Masters for the second consecutive year.
