Amateur yet to win green jacket at the Masters

It’s a good thing amateur Billy Joe Patton didn’t win the 1954 Mas­ters.

“If I’d won that tournament, I’d had difficulty handling the money, the liquor would have been a problem, and with the women I didn’t have a chance,” he once said with a laugh.

Patton is among a handful of amateurs who nearly walked off with the green jacket as Masters champion. Nothing would have made Bobby Jones prouder.

Jones is considered the greatest amateur golfer of all time. He retired after winning the Grand Slam in 1930 and soon built his dream course in Augusta and started a tournament for his friends.

Many thought Jones would win his own tournament, but he never fared better than the tie for 13th he produced in the inaugural Augusta National Invitation Tournament.

After World War II, a few amateurs challenged the top pros for one of golf’s ultimate prizes. Ca­reer amateurs were more prevalent because the professional circuit didn’t offer much in the way of prize money.

In 1947, Frank Stranahan closed with 68 to finish two shots behind winner Jimmy Demaret. He tied for second.

In 1954, Patton finished one stroke out of a playoff between Sam Snead and Ben Hogan.

Ken Venturi dominated the 1956 Masters for three rounds. He led after each of the first three rounds, but he soared to an 80 on the final day in gusty conditions. He finished one shot behind Jack Burke Jr.

Charlie Coe, another career amateur, had three top-10 finishes from 1959 to 1962 and tied for second in 1961.

When televised golf arrived in the late 1950s, prize money increased and career amateurs who could compete at the highest level began to dwindle.

After reaching a high of 26 amateurs in the 1966 Masters, the number began to drop. The Masters did away with inviting Walker Cup players by the late 1980s, and in 1989 it revised the standards to include just the U.S. Amateur champion and
runner-up, the British Amateur winner, the U.S. Public Links champion
and the U.S. Mid-Amateur winner.

Since then, two more slots have been added for winners of the Asia-Pacific Amateur and the Latin America Amateur, both of which were created with help from Augusta National and the Masters.

The Public Links tournament is no longer held by the USGA, and its winner made a final appearance in the Masters in 2015.

Thanks to Jones, the amateur spirit remains alive and well at Augusta National. He is the club’s president in perpetuity, and artifacts from his playing days are on permanent display. Jones’ thoughts on etiquette are reprinted each year in the spectator guide for Masters patrons, as well as his tips on how to best view the tournament.