Every Double Eagle in Masters Tournament History

A grand total of four double eagles (albatrosses) have been recorded in the entire history of The Masters Tournament, which dates to 1934. And those four double eagles have each happened on a different hole — no one hole at Augusta National Golf Club has yet seen a second albatross.

The List of Masters Double Eagles

Gene Sarazen, 15th hole, 1935
The shot so celebrated at the time it happened that it was dubbed "The Shot Heard 'Round the World." It was the first of the Masters' double eagles, and also the most important to the tournament's outcome.

Final-round leader Craig Wood was in the clubhouse, three strokes in front of Sarazen when "The Squire" reached the 15th hole. Following a good drive on the par-5, Sarazen was left with 235 yards to a green fronted by water. He went for it with a 4-wood. The ball hit the front of the green, bounced up to the hole and fell into the cup. Sarazen made up that entire 3-stroke deficit with one swing of the club.

Sarazen and Wood finished 72 holes tied, then played a 36-hole playoff that Sarazen easily won. Sarazen's double eagle is the only one by a winner of the tournament.

(This is also the shot the cemented the Americanism "double eagle" — elsewhere around the world, a score of 3-under-par on a hole is more likely to be called an albatross.)

No film footage or even still photos exist of Sarazen's shot. But this is a good, short recap of the event that includes some interesting photos of newspaper front pages recounting the event:

Bruce Devlin, 8th hole, 1967
It took 32 years from Sarazen's shot until the next Masters double eagle. Devlin holed a 4-wood (same club that Sarazen used) from 248 yards on the par-5 hole during the first round. Despite the albatross, Devlin only managed a score for the round of 74, and, ultimately, finished 10th in the tournament.

Jeff Maggert, 13th hole, 1994
Twenty-seven years after Devlin's albatross, Maggert provided the next. It happened in the final round, also on a par-5 hole. Maggert played a 3-iron from 222 yards into the cup. But Maggert still finished last in the tournament among golfers who made the cut.

Louis Oosthuizen, 2nd hole, 2012
Another final-round albatross, this one happened 18 years after Maggert's. Oosthuizen's is also the only par-4 double eagle yet at The Masters. He used a 4-iron from 253 yards. The ball bounced onto the front part of the very deep green, rolling forward until it caught the slope. From there the ball took the slope and rolled right into the cup.

Oosthuizen almost joined Sarazen as a double-eagle winner of The Masters. He shot 69 for the round and tied Bubba Watson atop the leaderboard. But Watson won the playoff.

In 2016, Oosthuizen scored a hole-in-one during The Masters, becoming the only golfer with both an ace and a double eagle in the tournament.

Related article: All the double eagles in U.S. Open history