Past champions were noticeably absent from the leaderboard this year, as Burke tied for the best finish with three-time winner Jack Nicklaus.

It was Archer's third Masters and his only top ten finish at Augusta; his next best result was tied for eleventh in 1981.

Gay Brewer (9,11), Jack Burke Jr., Doug Ford, Bob Goalby (8,10), Ralph Guldahl, Claude Harmon, Herman Keiser, Cary Middlecoff, Jack Nicklaus (2,3,8,9), Arnold Palmer (10,11), Henry Picard, Gary Player (2,3,8,9), Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead (9), Art Wall Jr. (8) Billy Casper (8,9,10,11), Lee Trevino (9), Ken Venturi Julius Boros (8,9,10,11), Al Geiberger (9,10,11), Don January (8), Dave Marr (8), Bobby Nichols (9,11) Bob Barbarossa (a), John Bohmann (a), Bruce Fleisher (6,7,a), Vinny Giles (7,8,a), Hubert Green (a), Jack Lewis Jr. (7,a), Rik Massengale (a), Allen Miller (a)[7] Dick Siderowf (a) Tommy Aaron, George Archer (9,10), Miller Barber (10), Frank Beard (10), Gardner Dickinson (11), Raymond Floyd, Lionel Hebert, Jerry Pittman (9), Mason Rudolph, Doug Sanders (10,11), Tom Weiskopf, Bert Yancey (9), Kermit Zarley (10) Don Bies, Rod Funseth, Dave Hill, Steve Spray, Dave Stockton Frank Boynton, Charles Coody, Marty Fleckman, Lou Graham, Dan Sikes Gene Littler, Johnny Pott Bob Murphy Deane Beman, Dale Douglass, Bob Lunn, Mac McLendon, R. H. Sikes, Ken Still Roberto Bernardini, Michael Bonallack (6,a), Peter Butler, Joe Carr (a), Bob Charles (8,9,10), Bruce Crampton, Roberto De Vicenzo (3,8), Bruce Devlin (8,9), Harold Henning (8), Tommy Horton, Brian Huggett, Tony Jacklin (8), George Knudson, Takaaki Kono, Lu Liang-Huan, Ramón Sota, Peter Thomson (3), Peter Townsend, Raul Travieso Thursday, April 10, 1969 Source:[9] Friday, April 11, 1969 Source:[10][11][12] Saturday, April 12, 1969 Despite being 2-over-par for his round Bruce Devlin was still in the thick of the chase at 5-under on Saturday until the Par-3 16th Hole where he rinsed his tee shot leading to a double-bogey 5 and leaving him five strokes behind starting the Final Round (where he further faded with a front nine of 6-over par 42 leading to a tie for 19th).

As the back nine unfolded there was a lot of movement on the leaderboard and standing on the 18th tee, five of the last 6 players on the course had a chance to win the tournament outright or force a Monday playoff.

The final three groups ended up on the 18th hole at the same time: Casper (−6) and Barber (-3) waiting on the tee with Archer (−7) and Weiskopf (−6) looking on from the fairway while Coody (−6) was left of the green needing to chip in for a birdie to tie and Knudson (−6) on the green some 26 feet away also needing a tying birdie.