T5
T5
3
2
ie and made the turn at 3 under for the
day, leaving him tied with Aaron. Snead
held a two-stroke lead through 11 holes,
but a double bogey on the difficult par-3
12th dropped him into a three-way tie for
the lead. He recovered with a birdie on
No. 13, but he never led again, finishing
with five straight pars. Aaron’s birdie on
the par-5 15th proved to be the difference.
3
CURTIS STRANGE
Appearances: 20 | Top 10s: 5
Best finish: T2 (1985)
Strange was the Masters’ low amateur in
1976, just a year removed from his second
straight VSGA Amateur Championship
victory. Though he made nine straight
Masters cuts at one point and racked up
five top-10 finishes, his most impressive
showing was in 1985, when he opened
with an 80 but rallied for rounds of 65 and
68 to enter Sunday a stroke off the lead.
vsga.org
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Strange shot a respectable 71 on Sunday,
but it wasn’t enough to hold off German
Bernhard Langer, who posted a 68 to win
by two strokes. It should be noted that
Strange was the last to ace the daunting
par-3 12th, using a 7-iron in 1988.
2
LANNY WADKINS
Appearances: 23 | Top 10s: 5
Best finish: T3 (three times)
Wadkins’ Augusta consistency was admira-
ble. At one point, he made 10 straight cuts
and finished tied for third three times in a
four-year span, all in the final decade of his
PGA Tour career. Wadkins closed with a 68
in 1990 to move from outside the top 10
into a tie for third. In 1991, he opened with
a 67 but couldn’t sustain that momentum,
finishing 71-70-71 to close two shots off the
lead. In 1993, Wadkins hung around the
top 10 for the entirety of the tournament,
closing with a 71 to tie for third.
1
SAM SNEAD
Appearances: 44 | Wins: 3
Top 10s: 14
It’s no surprise that Slammin’ Sammy
tops this list, as he’s the only Virginian
to ever don the green jacket. Three of
Snead’s seven major championships
came at Augusta National, the most
memorable in 1954 when Snead over-
came a three-shot 54-hole deficit to
catch Ben Hogan. The next day, he post-
ed a 70 to win an 18-hole playoff by one
shot. Snead’s Masters career began in
1937 with an 18th-place finish and ended
in 1983 when he withdrew from the com-
petition. The only thing preventing him
from competing in 47 straight Masters
was World War II, as no Masters were
held from 1943-45. He tied for 20th in
1974 at age 61 and was 70 when he teed
it up competitively in Augusta for the
last time.
M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 2 0 | V I R G I N I A G O L F E R
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