Every Masters Champion Since 1934, and Who Has Won the Most

Who has won the most Masters

Nicklaus won his six over 23 years, the last at 46 in 1986, and Woods won five between 1997 and 2019. Palmer won four in the even years from 1958 to 1964, and five players have three: Jimmy Demaret, Sam Snead, Gary Player, Nick Faldo and Phil Mickelson.

Nineteen players have won more than once, 52 of the 90 green jackets between them, and the other 38 champions won once. Eleven have two, most recently Scheffler (2022 and 2024) and McIlroy.

Masters winners list: every champion since 1934

Augusta National Golf Club has staged every Masters since 1934, all in April except the first, in March, and 2020's, in November; none was played from 1943 to 1945, during World War II.

Masters winners by country and by decade

Americans won the first 24 Masters, until Player, a South African, in 1961, and have won 64 of the 90. Since 1980 the green jacket has been shared almost evenly: players from other countries won 23 of the 47, and more than Americans in the 1990s (six of 10) and so far in the 2020s (four of seven).

Thirteen countries have a champion. Spain has six (two each for Seve Ballesteros and José María Olazábal, one each for Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm), South Africa five, England four, and Germany and Northern Ireland two each, Bernhard Langer's (the first for West Germany, in 1985) and McIlroy's; Scotland, Wales, Fiji, Canada, Argentina, Australia and Japan have one.

Back-to-back Masters winners and the longest waits

Four players have won the Masters two years running, and no one has won three in a row:

• Jack Nicklaus, 1965 and 1966
• Nick Faldo, 1989 and 1990
• Tiger Woods, 2001 and 2002
• Rory McIlroy, 2025 and 2026

Woods went 14 years between his fourth Masters, in 2005, and his fifth, in 2019, the longest wait between two wins by one player; Player waited 13, from 1961 to 1974, and Nicklaus (1975 to 1986) and Ben Crenshaw (1984 to 1995) 11.

Youngest and oldest Masters winners

Woods is the youngest champion, 21 years and 104 days old in 1997, and Jordan Spieth the only other winner under 23, at 21 years and 259 days in 2015. Nicklaus is the oldest, at 46 years and 82 days in 1986, ahead of Woods (43, in 2019) and Crenshaw (43, in 1995); seven champions were 40 or older, and the median winner was 32.

Lowest winning scores and biggest margins at the Masters

Dustin Johnson's 268, 20 under par, in November 2020 is the lowest winning score, two better than Woods in 1997 and Spieth in 2015. The highest, 289 or 1 over, belongs to Snead (1954), Jack Burke Jr. (1956) and Zach Johnson (2007); with Nicklaus's even par in 1966, those are the only four Masters not won under par.

Scores have come down, from an average of 4.9 under par in the 1950s to 12.3 under in the 2020s, and every Masters since 2018 has been won at 10 under or better, as our study of major winning scores details.

Woods also won by the widest margin, 12 shots in 1997, ahead of Nicklaus's nine in 1965, Raymond Floyd's eight in 1976 and Cary Middlecoff's seven in 1955. Yet 26 Masters were won by one shot and 18 went to a playoff: 44 of the 90, 49 percent, were decided by a stroke or less.

54-hole leaders, comebacks and playoffs at the Masters

The leader after three rounds, alone or tied, won 52 of the 90 Masters, 58 percent, and outright leaders 40 of 72. Since 2000 they have won 18 of 27, the highest rate of the four majors, as our analysis of 54-hole leaders shows.

The biggest comeback was Burke's in 1956, from eight shots behind Ken Venturi, an amateur who closed with an 80. Player came from seven back in 1978 with a 64, and Faldo from six in 1996, when Greg Norman lost a six-shot lead. Our history of major playoffs covers all 18 at Augusta, from Gene Sarazen's 36-hole win over Craig Wood in 1935 to McIlroy's over Justin Rose in 2025.

First-time major winners and career Grand Slams at Augusta

Thirty-eight Masters went to a first-time major winner, 25 of 63 before 2000 and 13 of 27 since, by our count of first-time major winners; the latest was Scheffler in 2022. Nicklaus's 1986 win was the 18th and last of his majors.

Two players completed the career Grand Slam at Augusta, Wikipedia's list of major champions shows: Sarazen in 1935, at the second Masters, and McIlroy in 2025, having won the other three majors by 2014. The other four, Ben Hogan, Player, Nicklaus and Woods, completed theirs at the U.S. Open or The Open.

The 2026 Masters winner and the 2027 dates

McIlroy shared the 54-hole lead with Cameron Young at 11 under, closed with a 71 and won at 276, one shot ahead of Scheffler, the PGA Tour's results show. It was his sixth major, and the first repeat since Woods in 2001 and 2002.

The 2027 Masters is scheduled for the week of April 5 to 11, according to the PGA Tour. Until then, our golf schedule has the rest of the 2026 season and the golf leaderboard the tournament in play, round by round.

Masters winners: frequently asked questions

Who has won the most Masters? Jack Nicklaus, six, from 1963 to 1986. Tiger Woods has five and Arnold Palmer four.

Who won the 2026 Masters? Rory McIlroy, at 12 under par (276), one stroke ahead of Scottie Scheffler, for his second Masters in a row.

Who is the youngest Masters champion? Tiger Woods, 21 years and 104 days old in 1997. The oldest is Jack Nicklaus, 46 years and 82 days in 1986.

Has anyone won the Masters three years in a row? No. Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Woods and McIlroy have won it twice in a row.

What is the lowest winning score at the Masters? 268, 20 under par, by Dustin Johnson in 2020.

How this was built: the champion, 72-hole total, margin and 54-hole standings of all 90 Masters, 1934 to 2026, come from the round-by-round scores in the PGA Tour's past results: the margin is the gap to the runner-up, a tie after 72 holes a playoff, and 54-hole standings add each player's first three rounds. Champions, countries, scores, margins and runners-up were checked against Wikipedia's Masters article, and the 54-hole and final leaders against each tournament's Wikipedia article; the one difference, a two-stroke margin for 1934 in that winners table, is one stroke in the 1934 article and in the PGA Tour's scores. Ages are on the final day, from Wikipedia biographies (20 matching PGA Tour profiles); first majors and Grand Slams come from Wikipedia's chronological list. Data collected October 21, 2026.