AUGUSTA, Ga. — Fifty years ago at the Masters, a longtime bridesmaid finally tied the knot at Augusta National.
Georgia native Tommy Aaron overcame the stigma of 14 runner-up finishes in 12 years on the PGA Tour to win the biggest tournament of his career.
“It has bothered me for a long time to be reminded of all the tournaments I failed to win,” Aaron, who had won only one official Tour title, the 1970 AT&T Classic, told the Minneapolis Tribune at the time. “I think that reputation was greatly overplayed. It’s no crime to finish second, after all.”
Aaron, who is now 86 and deals with early stages Parkinson’s disease, returned to the site of his greatest victory Saturday and then attended the Champions Dinner on Tuesday evening. The Georgia native grew up dreaming of winning the Masters.
“My dad played and I remember, I would listen to him and his friends talk about the Masters and I’d sit there and think wouldn’t it be great someday to play in that Masters tournament?” Aaron said during a phone interview with Golfweek.
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Aaron had four top-10 finishes in his previous six starts at the Masters, but few were expecting Aaron to rally from four strokes back going into the final round in 1973 and be the golfer slipping into the green jacket in Butler Cabin.
Aaron opened in 68, but dropped back during the middle rounds with scores of 73 and 74. The final round was played on Monday due to bad weather on Saturday. Aaron began the day four strokes behind Peter Oosterhuis, but came out charging with birdies on the first three holes and tacked on another at the par-5 eighth for good measure to shoot 4-under 32 on the first nine.
“My attitude was I just need to make birdies if I’m going to win,” Aaron recalled.
The moment of truth for Aaron came at the par-5 15th after he hit a poor drive leaving more than 230 yards to the green. It was a risky shot but he decided the reward was worth it.
“As I pulled out the 3-wood, I heard this collective groan from the gallery saying, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe he’s going for the green,’ because they knew how far back I was,” Aaron recalled. “And I hit a beautiful shot that landed just on the right side of the green and went over by about 10 yards. And now I was faced with this real delicate pitch back to the flag stick and if I play that shot a little too hard, it’s going to go down the slope in the water.”
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