Gay Brewer deserves a little more good ink here. He had a pretty good career—11 wins, one less than Furyk, Toms and Azinger, for example.
He was a quintessential late bloomer. Ten of his eleven wins came in six years. His Masters was his next to last win and came at age 35. (In the prior 11 years at Augusta, he had failed to qualify six times, and been cut twice.)
In 1966, the year before his win, he had bogeyed 18 with a three putt to drop back to a playoff with Nicklaus. He shot 78 in the playoff and lost. But in the last round of 1967, when the tournament was on the line, he birdied 13, 14 and 15. He then pared in for a 67 to win by one stroke. That took some guts, after the previous year.
In the 1967 tournament, he had beaten Palmer, Player, Casper and defending champ Nicklaus, who missed the cut. (1967 was the year Hogan shot 66 in the third round, only to tire to a 77 on the last day. Hogan tied for 10th that year, with Sam Snead. They were both 54 years old at the time.)
Brewer’s second biggest achievement was to win the par 3 contest in 1973, with a 20, the lowest score ever. (He might have also mentioned the USGA Junior Amateur, which he won in 1949 over Mason Rudolph.)
Gay Brewer made his last cut in the Masters in 1983, at the age of 52. His career was pretty much long gone then.
Brewer was one of three recipients of “the letter” in 2002, taking back certain former champions’ previous exemption into the field. Billy Casper and Doug Ford took it more or less kindly, attending the tournament and the Champions Dinner.
Gay Brewer didn’t see it quite that way. He knew he couldn’t play anymore but he didn’t like the letter.
"I don't think it's right. I'd gotten to where I couldn't walk the course. Knees couldn't take it. But that's not the point. I don't go where I don't feel I belong, and that's why I didn't go there for anything last year. The dinner, the Par-3, nothing."
A curmudgeon. The denizens of this site would have liked him.