Compiled by PHILIP REID
1 Greg Norman 1996
The Great White Shark bit off more than he could chew around the turn in the final round, having started the day with a six-shot lead that seemed certain to pave the way for a victory march. Instead, it turned out to be a funeral procession. In four holes – from the ninth through the 12th – Greg Norman went bogey-bogey-bogey-double bogey as he shot a finishing round 78 that left him high and dry. He finished runner-up, five shots behind Nick Faldo.
2 Scott Hoch 1989
Scott Hoch never won a major, but he should have. After his finish in the 1989 Masters, he would have to live with the moniker “Hoch the Choke” for the rest of his playing days. In that Masters, the American led Nick Faldo by one stroke playing the 17th hole in the final round but missed a relatively straight-forward four-footer for par that left him tied with the Englishman. The two would end up in a play-off, and Hoch had a gilt-edged chance to claim the green jacket on the first sudden-death hole where Faldo ran up a bogey. Hoch had a birdie putt, with two to win the Masters after Faldo’s travails, and seemed set to claim the green jacket when left with a two-footer for his par. But Hoch proceeded to analyse the putt from every conceivable angle for up to two minutes, before knocking it five feet by the hole. Faldo sank a 25-footer to win at the next hole.
3 Ed Sneed 1979
Unfortunately for Ed Sneed, a journeyman pro on the US Tour, his meltdown in the final round of the 1979 Masters is what he is remembered for rather than his four tournament wins on tour. Sneed began the final round with a five-stroke lead and was still three ahead with three holes to play, only to finish with bogey-bogey-bogey – missing makable par putts on each hole, including a six-footer on the 18th which stopped on the edge of the hole – that left him tied with Fuzzy Zoeller and Tom Watson. Sneed would lose out to Zoeller at the second tie hole.
4 Ken Venturi 1956
On the verge of making history in a quest to become the first amateur to win the Masters, Venturi – a 24-year-old car salesman – entered the final round with a four-shot cushion. He was undone by the wind that whipped up on the final day, three-putting no fewer than four times on the back nine en route to a finishing round of 80. To rub salt into his wounds, he was only one shot behind the winner, Jack Burke Jnr.
5 Brandt Snedeker 2008
When Brandt Snedeker eagled the second hole of his final round, he found himself in a tie for the lead with South African Trevor Immelman. Unnerved by reaching such dizzy heights, the young American had a catastrophic run to the turn which saw him make five bogeys – as many as he had managed in his first three rounds combined – and he saw his challenge claim a watery grave when he put his approach shot to the 13th into Rae’s Creek. He finished with a five-over-par 77. “I think I about putting myself in a psychiatric ward,” he said.
