The first sudden-death playoff at the Masters took place in 1979. Fuzzy Zoeller defeated Ed Sneed and Tom Watson in a three-player playoff at Augusta National.
The playoff began on the par-four 10th hole, where all three players made par. On the par-four 11th, Zoeller holed a birdie putt from about six feet to win the championship. His victory came in his first Masters appearance, a rare achievement.
Before 1979, Masters playoffs used a scheduled 18-hole format, usually played on Monday. The previous Masters playoff, in 1970, was won by Billy Casper over Gene Littler after a full extra round. The sudden-death system had been adopted by the Masters in 1976, but no playoff occurred under the new format until 1979.
A common mix-up is confusing the year the format was adopted with the year it was first used. The format was introduced in 1976; 1979 was the first actual sudden-death playoff.