Best finish by an amateur at The Masters

Bobby Jones's role in founding The Masters is something still felt today at Augusta National Golf Club every April. Yes, we see it in the design of the course and the Georgia that is evident with every azalea, blade of grass and so on at the course, but one of the biggest ways is the emphasis that the Masters Tournament puts on amateur golfers every year.

That starts with the winner and the runner-up from the previous year's U.S. Amateur tournament gaining entry into The Masters but it goes beyond that. Winners from the U.S. Mid-Amateur championship, British Amateur, Asia-Pacific Amateur, Latin American Amateur and even the NCAA champion from the year prior are all invited to play at Augusta in April for their victories. That's truly special in the world of golf. But it's even better when an amateur becomes part of the storyline at The Masters.

In recent years, we've seen amateurs make some noise at Augusta National during The Masters, which begs the question after some 90 years at this tournament: Has an amateur ever won and what are the best finishes by amateurs at the Masters Tournament?

Has an amateur ever won The Masters?

No, an amateur has never won The Masters. However, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been close calls. The closest came back in 1956 when 24-year-old Ken Venturi held the 54-hole lead at Augusta National and was four strokes clear of the field. However, Venturi’s win wasn’t meant to be as grueling conditions for the final round on Sunday saw him shoot 80 over the final 18 holes, which allowed Jack Burke Jr. to come from behind and win the Green Jacket.

Best finish by an amateur at The Masters

Venturi’s finish in outright second place is the best by an amateur at Augusta, but he’s not alone as a handful of others have finished tied for second at The Masters as well. So let’s take a look at the best finishes by an amateur at Augusta National in the history of the tournament.

Those six players, one of which is probably quite familiar, are the only amateurs to ever finish inside the Top 10. Meanwhile, Venturi set the record with his first round of the lowest Masters round by an amateur, shooting a 66. And overall, Coe’s T2 in 1961 saw him shoot 7-under for the week, the 281 total score being the lowest 72-hole total for an amateur. Perhaps the wildest part of Coe's runner-up finish (beyond finishing Top 10 the next year as well), is that he wasn't the only amateur in 1961 to finish Top 10 as some guy Jack Nicklaus was also there at T7. Wonder how his career turned out...

Low amateur at the last 5 Masters Tournaments

We haven't had a historically low amateur finish in some time but there have been some memorable performances by amateurs in recent iterations of The Masters. Over the last five years, here's where the low amateur has finished.

Sam Bennett certainly captured the imagination of golf fans in the 2023 Masters Tournament. He put himself among the leaders after the first round by shooting 4-under and sitting tied for sixth. Rather than fade, though, he was behind only Brooks Koepka and eventual champion Jon Rahm going into the weekend after another 4-under showing in the second round. Amid sloppy conditions, though, he then started to fade, shooting 4-over 76 in the third round to drop to tied for seventh and then losing two more strokes to the field in the final round for the T16 finish. Still, it was a helluva ride.

Looking back a bit further but in this century, we saw Casey Wittenburg in 2004 finish T13, the best finish by an amateur in more than four decades. That was immediately matched the next year by Ryan Moore with a T13 finish in the 2025 Masters Tournament. And while just outside the Top 20, it's worth noting that Bryson DeChambeau also gave a nice run in a highly difficult setup in 2016 when he finished T21, undone only by a 5-over third round.