The Masters Runner-Up Club, 1960 to 1969

It is a small, exclusive club. One whose members have finished second in the Masters and never won a green jacket.

It’s late in the afternoon of Sunday, April 10, 1960, and Ken Venturi had just completed his fourth round in the Masters shooting a 70 for a total of 283. It was believed that this score would win the championship for Venturi and the fact that Arnold Palmer, still out on the course with an outside chance of winning, had failed to birdie the 13th and 15th holes, the easiest birdies on Augusta’s back nine, made it look more and more like Venturi would capture the green jacket. He accepted congratulations for over an hour as he waited in the clubhouse for Palmer to finish.

Palmer needed a birdie on one of the three finishing holes at Augusta to tie Venturi. Two birdies would win it for Palmer, but that was a huge ask considering the difficulties that lie ahead on the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes at Augusta. On the 16th hole, Palmer’s 35-foot putt was struck too firmly and looked like it was going to run well past the hole. The ball struck the pin (rules at the time allowed players to keep t…