The 1978 Masters was the scene of one of the most extraordinary victories of the venerable and venerable tournament, which on that occasion celebrated its 44th anniversary. And it was because Gary Player staged one of the most amazing comebacks ever known in a major. The Gentleman in Black started the last day seven strokes behind the leader -the American Hubert Green-, with nine players ahead on the scoreboard and tied with four other players, among them Seve Ballesteros.
In that golden age of golf, in addition to the South African and the Spaniard, other great legendary figures such as Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer, to name but a few, were playing in the Masters. Between the latter three, they had a total of ten victories in the tournament, with five for the Golden Bear, four for The King and one for Watson, precisely the previous year’s victory, which made him the defending champion.
Player, then 42 years old, had won this major twice, in 1961 and 1974, and arrived at Augusta National in top form. On the first day he signed the par of the course, and shared eighth place tied with Nicklaus, four strokes behind the leader, American John Schlee.
On the second day Player repeated his result and lost a few positions, being five strokes behind co-leaders Lee Trevino and Rod Funseth.
The third round was more favorable to the Black Knight and, with 69 strokes for an overall score of 3 under par, he climbed to tenth place, seven strokes behind the then leader Green and one behind Rod Fuseth and Tom Watson.
And then came the decisive day, the 18 holes that would decide who would win the glory of the Masters and the 45,000 dollars reserved for the champion. After a good but nothing special first round, with three birdies and a bogey, Player displayed the magic of his best game and chained birdies on the 12th and 13th holes, made another on the 15th and 16th and finished the job with another on the 18th. A second round of 30 for a total of 64, 8 under par. He holed seven putts of between 3 and 10 meters, and with his overall -11 he had to wait forty minutes in the clubhouse until the end of the matches in play.
Funseth made five birdies but also two bogeys. He had the last three holes to tie Player but was unable to score a birdie on any of them.
Green started off on the wrong foot, with a bogey on the 1st, although he solved the setback with a birdie afterwards. Another two bogeys and the same number of birdies, left his score at -10 on the 14th hole, and on the following hole he holed a birdie that equaled him with the Knight in Black, expectant in the clubhouse. Another setback due to bogey on the 16th and pars on the remaining two holes. Player got rid of another contender.
Watson had only made one birdie in the first twelve holes, but on the 13th he sharpened his aim and scored an eagle, putting him at 10 under par. He made a bogey on the next hole and recovered with birdies on 15 and 16, tying Player at -11. He made par on the next hole, but missed his chance to play a playoff when he bogeyed the 18th.
The Knight in Black was now free to don his third green jacket.
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