1946 Masters Tournament

The 1946 Masters Tournament was the tenth Masters Tournament, held April 4–7 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. It was the first in four years, because of World War II. The purse was $10,000, double that of the previous Masters in 1942, with a winner's share of $2,500.

Herman Keiser won his only major title, one stroke ahead of runner-up Ben Hogan, the tour's money leader.^[2] Keiser and Hogan both three-putted the slick 18th green on Sunday;^[3] Keiser from 20 feet (6 m), and a half-hour later Hogan from 15 feet (4.6 m).^[4][5]

Hogan won the PGA Championship four months later in August for his first major title at age 34. He later won the Masters in 1951 and 1953 and finished his career with nine wins in majors.

Field

With only one major championship played in 1945, the invitation criteria were modified. Eight amateurs and eight professionals were selected by a committee in February and four further professionals were invited just before the event.

1. Masters champions

Jimmy Demaret (7), Ralph Guldahl (2,7), Byron Nelson (2,6,7,8), Henry Picard (6,7), Horton Smith (7), Craig Wood (2,7)

• Gene Sarazen (2,4,6,7) did not play.

2. U.S. Open champions

Billy Burke (7), Bobby Jones (3,4,5,7), Lawson Little (3,5,7)

3. U.S. Amateur champions

Dick Chapman (a)

4. British Open champions

Denny Shute (6,8)

5. British Amateur champions

Charlie Yates (7,a)

6. PGA champions

Vic Ghezzi (8), Bob Hamilton, Sam Snead (7)

7. Top 30 players and ties from the 1942 Masters Tournament

Sammy Byrd (8), Jim Ferrier, Jim Foulis, Chick Harbert, Chandler Harper, Dutch Harrison, Ben Hogan, Herman Keiser, Gene Kunes, Jug McSpaden, Johnny Palmer, Toney Penna, Felix Serafin, Jimmy Thomson

• Tommy Armour (2,4,6), Harry Cooper, Bobby Cruickshank, Willie Goggin, Paul Runyan (6) and Bud Ward (3,a) did not play.

8. 1945 PGA Championship quarter-finalists

Claude Harmon, Ralph Hutchison, Ky Laffoon

• Clarence Doser did not play.

9. Selected amateurs, not already qualified

Bob Cochran (a), Fred Haas, Cary Middlecoff (a), Frank Stranahan (a)

• Ray Billows (a), Harry Givan (a), Chuck Kocsis (a), Jim McHale Jr. (a) did not play. Haas turned professional before the event.

10. Selected professionals, not already qualified

Herman Barron, Johnny Bulla, Ed Dudley, Jimmy Hines, Lloyd Mangrum, Dick Metz, Ed Oliver, Jim Turnesa

11. One amateur, not already qualified, selected by a ballot of ex-U.S. Amateur champions

• Tommy Suffern Tailer (a) did not play

12. One professional, not already qualified, selected by a ballot of ex-U.S. Open champions

Al Watrous

13. Two players, not already qualified, with the best scoring average in the winter part of the 1946 PGA Tour

Leland Gibson, George Schneiter

14. Additional invitations

Clayton Heafner, Rod Munday, Buck White, Al Zimmerman

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, April 4, 1946

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Chick Harbert	69	−3
	Herman Keiser
T3	Vic Ghezzi	71	−1
	Fred Haas
	Toney Penna
T6	Johnny Bulla	72	E
	Cary Middlecoff
	Byron Nelson
	Jimmy Thomson
T10	George Schneiter	73	+1
	Clayton Heafner

Source:^[6]

Second round

Friday, April 5, 1946

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Herman Keiser	69-68=137	−7
2	Jimmy Thomson	72-70=142	−2
3	Clayton Heafner	74-69=143	−1
T4	Bob Hamilton	75-69=144	E
	Chick Harbert	69-75=144
	Ben Hogan	74-70=144
	Toney Penna	71-73=144
T8	Jimmy Demaret	75-70=145	+1
	Jim Foulis	70-75=145
	Byron Nelson	72-73=145

Source:^[7]

Third round

Saturday, April 6, 1946

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Herman Keiser	69-68-71=208	−8
2	Ben Hogan	74-70-69=213	−3
T3	Jim Ferrier	74-72-68=214	−2
	Fred Haas	71-75-68=214
	Clayton Heafner	74-69-71=214
6	Bob Hamilton	75-69-71=215	−1
T7	Jimmy Demaret	75-70-71=216	E
	Byron Nelson	72-73-71=216
T9	Jim Foulis	75-70-72=217	+1
	Vic Ghezzi	71-79-67=217
	Ky Laffoon	74-73-70=217

Source:^[8]

Final round

Sunday, April 7, 1946

Final leaderboard

Champion

Silver Cup winner (low amateur)

(a) = amateur

(c) = past champion

Top 10

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (US$)
1	Herman Keiser	69-68-71-74=282	−6	2,500
2	Ben Hogan	74-70-69-70=283	−5	1,500
3	Bob Hamilton	75-69-71-72=287	−1	1,000
T4	Jimmy Demaret (c)	75-70-71-73=289	+1	683
	Jim Ferrier	74-72-68-75=289
	Ky Laffoon	74-73-70-72=289
T7	Chick Harbert	69-75-76-70=290	+2	356
	Clayton Heafner	74-69-71-76=290
	Byron Nelson (c)	72-73-71-74=290
	Sam Snead	74-75-70-71=290

Leaderboard below the top 10
Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
11	Jim Foulis	75-70-72-74=291	+3	250
T12	Vic Ghezzi	71-79-67-76=293	+5	213
	Cary Middlecoff (a)	72-76-71-74=293		0
	George Schneiter	73-73-72-75=293		213
15	Fred Haas	71-75-68-80=294	+6	175
T16	Johnny Bulla	72-76-73-74=295	+7	138
	Lloyd Mangrum	76-75-72-72=295
18	Claude Harmon	76-75-74-71=296	+8	100
19	Chandler Harper	74-76-73-74=297	+9	100
20	Frank Stranahan (a)	76-74-73-75=298	+10	0
T21	Lawson Little	74-74-78-73=299	+11	50
	Toney Penna	71-73-80-75=299
	Felix Serafin	76-75-79-69=299
	Horton Smith (c)	78-77-75-69=299
T25	Herman Barron	74-73-74-79=300	+12
	Henry Picard (c)	79-73-71-77=300
	Denny Shute	79-77-71-73=300
	Jimmy Thomson	72-70-79-79=300
T29	Gene Kunes	76-72-77-76=301	+13
	Jug McSpaden	75-74-75-77=301
	Al Zimmerman	76-76-74-75=301
T32	Ed Dudley	76-76-76-74=302	+14
	Bobby Jones	75-72-77-78=302
	Dick Metz	77-75-71-79=302
	Johnny Palmer	76-75-77-74=302
	Al Watrous	80-76-72-74=302
T37	Dutch Harrison	75-77-75-76=303	+15
	Ed Oliver	79-73-71-80=303
	Jim Turnesa	73-78-71-81=303
40	Sammy Byrd	75-79-71-79=304	+16
T41	Dick Chapman (a)	77-77-73-79=306	+18
	Ralph Hutchison	79-78-75-74=306
43	Leland Gibson	78-80-75-75=308	+20
44	Rod Munday	78-77-76-78=309	+21
45	Buck White	77-82-76-75=310	+22
46	Billy Burke	80-80-77-75=312	+24
47	Bob Cochran (a)	81-76-76-80=313	+25
48	Ralph Guldahl (c)	85-76-78-76=315	+27
49	Jimmy Hines	79-80-77-80=316	+28
50	Charlie Yates (a)	78-79-78-86=321	+33
WD	Craig Wood (c)	83	+11

Sources:^[9][10]

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
Keiser	−7	−8	−8	−8	−7	−8	−7	−8	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6
Hogan	−2	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−6	−5	−6	−6	−6	−5

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

References

External links

• Masters.com – past winners and results
• GolfCompendium.com – 1946 Masters
• Augusta.com – 1946 Masters leaderboard and scorecards