Jon Rahm returns to Augusta aiming to be the first man in more than two decades to retain the Masters.
Tiger Woods was the last to accomplish the feat, winning the tournament in 2001 and 2002. He joined a select club featuring only Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo who have triumphed at the Masters in successive years.
Jack Nicklaus has more Masters titles than anyone with six and when he won the Masters in 1965 and 1966, the American became the tournament’s first back-to-back winner as took the unprecedented step of presenting the Green Jacket to himself.
Nicklaus’ 1965 triumph was memorable as he broke Ben Hogan’s 72-hole scoring record of 274 with a new aggregate of 271. He hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation and triumphed by nine shots over Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.
It was a tournament record that would last for 32 years until Woods won by 12 shots in 1997.
Nicklaus’ performance was topped by a third-round 64 that consisted of eight birdies and no bogeys as Nicklaus admitted: “I had never before and have never since played quite as fine a complete round of golf in a Major championship as I did in the third round of the 1965 Masters.”
Nicklaus won the Masters for the second year running in 1966
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He then, despite Augusta making some modifications to make the course tougher, successfully defended his title when he won in an 18-hole playoff over Gay Brewer and Tommy Jacobs the following year.
Faldo can also boast successive wins at Augusta in 1989 and 1990. He won his second Major at the 1989 Masters after a final round 65 enabled him to get into a Playoff with Scott Hoch.
On the first hole of the ensuing sudden-death playoff, Hoch famously missed a two-foot par putt that would have won him the tournament before Faldo won it with a 25-foot birdie at the next.
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At the 1990 Masters, Faldo successfully defended his title when he came from behind to get into a playoff on -10 with Raymond Floyd , once again winning on the second playoff hole to become the first player to win back-to-back titles since Nicklaus.
Woods later followed in Nicklaus and Faldo’s footsteps when he won the 2001 Masters as part of his ‘Tiger Slam’ with four consecutive Major golf titles before winning the following year at Augusta too by three shots…
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