Every Masters Winner: Full Champions List & Records

Updated July 2026

Every Masters winner since the tournament began in 1934 runs from Horton Smith through Rory McIlroy, the reigning champion after his career-Grand-Slam win in 2025. Eighty-nine champions have been crowned across 89 tournaments (the event went dark 1943–1945 for World War II), and the full year-by-year list, plus the records that matter, is below.

Key Takeaways

• Jack Nicklaus has won the most Masters at 6, followed by Tiger Woods with 5.
• Tiger Woods is the youngest champion (21 years, 104 days, 1997) and also owns the largest winning margin ever, 12 strokes, set that same year.
• Jack Nicklaus is the oldest champion, winning at 46 years, 82 days in 1986.
• Dustin Johnson holds the scoring record at 268 (20-under) from 2020, the pandemic-delayed November edition.
• Rory McIlroy is the most recent champion, completing the career Grand Slam with a playoff win over Justin Rose in 2025.

Who Has Won the Most Masters Titles?

Jack Nicklaus, with six: 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, and famously 1986, when he shot a back-nine 30 at age 46 to run down Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros. Tiger Woods sits second with five (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019). Arnold Palmer and Nick Faldo share third place with four titles apiece. Nobody else has more than three. It's a short list at the top, and it hasn't moved much in decades — Scottie Scheffler (2) and Rory McIlroy (1) are the active players closest to threatening it, and both are still a long way off.

Who Is the Youngest and Oldest Masters Champion?

Tiger Woods was 21 years and 104 days old when he lapped the field by 12 in 1997 — still the youngest winner and, separately, the record for the widest margin of victory in tournament history. On the other end, Jack Nicklaus was 46 years, 82 days old in 1986, a win regarded by a lot of golf writers as the single most emotional Sunday Augusta has ever produced. The gap between those two ages is basically the entire competitive prime of a professional golfer, which says something about how differently the Masters can be won.

What's the Biggest Winning Margin in Masters History?

Tiger Woods' 12-stroke win in 1997 is the record and it isn't especially close — nobody since has finished within 8 shots of the field at Augusta. For comparison, Dustin Johnson's record-low 268 in 2020 came in a win of 5 strokes over Sungjae Im and Cameron Smith, not a blowout by Augusta's own history, just a low number produced by soft, rain-softened greens in a November tournament played without patrons.

Full Year-by-Year List of Masters Champions (1934–2025)

The 2026 champion is added once results are confirmed.

What Happened at the Most Recent Masters?

McIlroy won the 2025 Masters — his most recent, and so far only, green jacket — by blowing a four-shot lead over his last six holes, bogeying 18 to fall into a playoff, then beating Justin Rose with a birdie on the first extra hole to complete the career Grand Slam, joining Sarazen, Hogan, Player, Nicklaus, and Woods as the only players to win all four modern majors.

Sources

• List of Masters Tournament champions — Wikipedia
• Masters 2025: McIlroy completes career Grand Slam — Sky Sports
• The Masters Historical Stats — Masters.com

For the terms used throughout this list, see what a birdie is and the full scoring terms breakdown. Curious how these champions' numbers compare to a typical round? Check what counts as a good handicap.