The best players who never slipped on the Green Jacket at the Masters

14 Apr 1996: Greg Norman of Australia feels the pressure after hitting the first ball of the final round off the fairway and in to the crowd during the final round of the 1996 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Mandatory Credit:Stephen Munday/ALLSPORT /

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AUGUSTA, GA – APRIL 1989: Lee Trevino watches his shot out of a bunker during the 1989 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in April 1989 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Augusta National/Getty Images) /

3. Lee Trevino

At first glance, Lee Trevino’s record at Augusta National is puzzling. The Mexican-American won the other three major championships twice each to go along with 29 career PGA Tour titles. In the Masters, though, he never even came close to matching that success.

Trevino played at Augusta National 20 times, but never finished higher than a tie for 10th. He even skipped the tournament altogether four times when he was in his prime during the 1970s. Why did one of the game’s best players, one with an outstanding record elsewhere, choose not even to compete for the Green Jacket? At the time, Trevino said it was because his game simply didn’t fit Augusta National.

Years later, however, Trevino revealed the real reason. He admits his decision to skip the Masters had everything to do with his relationship with tournament co-founder Clifford Roberts.

“Clifford Roberts and I locked horns the first time I was there. I took a disliking to the man and he took a disliking to me,” he said in 2015. “I stayed away from there because I didn’t want to have anything to do with him.”

The next year Trevino even called his fellow players “gutless” for going along with Augusta’s stringent rules. To be sure, Trevino never loved the Masters and the tournament returned that sentiment to him.

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