Winning the Masters Tournament is a crowning achievement for any professional golfer. Winning it two years in a row? Nearly impossible.
But not entirely so.
Since the first Masters in 1934, only an exclusive club has achieved the feat — a club that grew in size from three to four on Sunday when Rory McIlroy became the first golfer to go back-to-back at Augusta National since 2002.
Unsurprisingly, the list of repeat champions is made up of some of the game’s legends, putting McIlroy in some seriously strong company. Here are the only other golfers to have won the Masters in consecutive years.
Woods’ win at the 2001 Masters capped off a feat that only he has accomplished. The victory gave him his fourth consecutive major title, and the term for winning four straight majors outside of one calendar year bears his name: a “Tiger Slam.”
The achievement was secured in appropriately spectacular form, as Woods finished 16-under par, the second-lowest finishing score at the Masters in a quarter century. Second-place finisher David Duval carded a 14 under, which would have been good enough to at least force a playoff in any other edition of the tournament in that quarter-century span … except for 1997, when Woods had finished 18 under.
The repeat victory didn’t come in quite as dominant of a fashion for Woods in 2002. He finished 12-under par to beat out second-place finisher Retief Goosen by three strokes — but he still became the first person to defend their title at Augusta in over a decade.
It took some serious drama for Faldo to earn his first Masters win in 1989. Not only was a playoff required, but Faldo and his playoff foe Scott Hoch remained even after the first hole of the tiebreaker. So a second hole of sudden-death golf was required, with Faldo sinking a 25-foot birdie putt to clinch victory.
Faldo’s flair for the dramatic continued with his 1990 win. Once again, a playoff was needed to determine that year’s champion, as he and 47-year-old Raymond Floyd both finished the final round 10 strokes under par. And also like the previous year, more than one playoff hole was required, as Faldo and Floyd both completed Hole 10 in four strokes. And the second playoff round once again proved the difference for Faldo, who captured his second consecutive green jacket at Hole 11.
The record holder for most majors and Masters won, it seems fitting that Nicklaus would be the first golfer to win the event in consecutive years. The gap in drama between his back-to-back victories was quite significant, though.
Nicklaus torched the field in 1965, carding a 17-under par for a score that has only been topped by three other winners in the event’s history. He finished the final round nine strokes ahead of Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, who tied for second.
The 1966 Masters was a different story. Nicklaus finished the final round at even, with a playoff required to separate him, Tommy Jacobs and Gay Brewer. With the sudden-death playoff format used today not yet implemented, the trio played another 18 holes on Monday to determine the winner. Nicklaus finished 2-under par for the round, becoming the Masters’ first repeat champion.
