Jack Nicklaus opened with a 68 and led wire-to-wire to win the fourth[2] of his six Masters titles, three strokes ahead of three runners-up.

This Masters was also the debut of twenty-year-old Ben Crenshaw of the University of Texas, a future two-time champion who was low amateur at 295 (T19).

At the end of the 18-hole Monday playoff in 1966, he had referred to the portion of the gallery trailing the players as a "mob.

"[4][5] Nicklaus became the third wire-to-wire winner in Masters history, following Craig Wood in 1941 and Arnold Palmer in 1960.

George Archer (9,11), Billy Casper (8,10,11,12), Charles Coody (8,12), Doug Ford, Bob Goalby (11), Ralph Guldahl, Herman Keiser, Jack Nicklaus (2,3,4,8,9,10,11,12), Arnold Palmer (8,11,12), Gary Player (3,8,10,11), Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Art Wall Jr. Orville Moody (8), Lee Trevino (3,9,11,12) Julius Boros, Raymond Floyd (8,9), Don January (8), Dave Stockton (8,11,12) Rick Bendall (a), Ben Crenshaw (a), Tom Culligan (a), Vinny Giles (7,a), Jim McLean (a), Eddie Pearce (a), Marty West (a) William C. Campbell (a), John Farquhar (a), Jim Gabrielsen (a), Bill Hyndman (a), Tom Kite (a), Jim Simons (9,a) Tommy Aaron, Frank Beard (11,12), Dave Eichelberger (11), Al Geiberger, Bert Greene, Hale Irwin (11), Dick Lotz, Steve Melnyk, Johnny Miller (9,11), Bobby Mitchell (11), Bob Murphy, Ken Still, Tom Weiskopf (11) Jim Colbert, Jerry Heard (11), Larry Hinson, Jerry McGee, Bobby Nichols, Chi-Chi Rodríguez, Bob Rosburg (11), Lanny Wadkins, Bert Yancey Miller Barber (11,12), Tommy Bolt, Gibby Gilbert, Dave Hill, Jim Jamieson Homero Blancas, Gardner Dickinson (12), Hubert Green, Paul Harney, Labron Harris Jr., Grier Jones, DeWitt Weaver Mason Rudolph, J. C. Snead Harry Bannerman, Brian Barnes, Bob Charles (9), Bobby Cole (9), Gary Cowan (5,6,a), Bruce Crampton (8,11), Roberto De Vicenzo (3,8), Bruce Devlin (8), David Graham, Hsieh Yung-yo, Tony Jacklin (2,3,11), Takaaki Kono, Lu Liang-Huan, Peter Oosterhuis, Masashi Ozaki, Ramón Sota Thursday, April 6, 1972 Source[9] Friday, April 7, 1972 Source[10] Saturday, April 8, 1972 Source[11] Sunday, April 9, 1972 Sources:[12][13] Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par