This Masters was the last as competitors for three former champions: Tommy Aaron (1973), Billy Casper (1970), and six-time winner Jack Nicklaus.

Masters champions Tommy Aaron, Billy Casper, Charles Coody, Fred Couples (10,16,17), Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Bernhard Langer (10), Sandy Lyle, Phil Mickelson (10,11,12,14,15,16,17), Larry Mize, Jack Nicklaus, José María Olazábal, Mark O'Meara, Gary Player, Vijay Singh (4,10,13,14,15,16,17), Craig Stadler, Tom Watson, Mike Weir (11,14,16,17), Tiger Woods (2,3,4,14,15,16,17), Ian Woosnam, Fuzzy Zoeller 2.

The Open champions (last five years) Ben Curtis, David Duval, Ernie Els (10,12,13,14,16,17), Todd Hamilton (12,14,16,17) 4.

The Players Championship winners (last three years) Fred Funk (11,14,15,17), Davis Love III (10,14,16,17), Adam Scott (14,15,16,17) 6.

Top eight players and ties from the 2004 U.S. Open Robert Allenby (16,17), Steve Flesch (14,16,17), Jeff Maggert, Shigeki Maruyama (14,16,17) 12.

Top 40 players from the 2004 PGA Tour money list Stephen Ames (16,17), Stuart Appleby (16,17), Chad Campbell (16,17), Stewart Cink (16,17), Darren Clarke (16,17), John Daly (16), Luke Donald (15,16,17), Carlos Franco, Jay Haas (16,17), Mark Hensby (16,17), Tim Herron (17), Zach Johnson (16,17), Jonathan Kaye (16,17), Jerry Kelly (16,17), Ryan Palmer, Rod Pampling (16), Jesper Parnevik, Kenny Perry (16,17), Ted Purdy, Rory Sabbatini (16,17), Bo Van Pelt, Scott Verplank (16,17) 15.

Top 10 players from the 2005 PGA Tour money list on March 28 Tom Lehman (17), Joe Ogilvie 16.

Top 50 players from the final 2004 world ranking Thomas Bjørn (17), Ángel Cabrera (17), Joakim Haeggman, David Howell (17), Trevor Immelman, Freddie Jacobson, Miguel Ángel Jiménez (17), Thomas Levet, Peter Lonard (17), Nick O'Hern (17), Ian Poulter (17) 17.

Top 50 players from world ranking published March 28 Tim Clark, Graeme McDowell, Craig Parry 18.

[3][5] Three-time champion Nick Faldo withdrew while playing the ninth hole due to back spasms.

Tiger Woods resumed play on Sunday morning on the back nine and made four consecutive birdies to card a 7-under 65 and take the 54-hole lead.

Dating back to play on Saturday, Woods birdied seven straight holes in the third round, tying a record by Steve Pate.

Chris DiMarco struggled in with a 41 (+5) back nine for a third round 74 (+2), losing seven shots to Woods in the final nine holes.

After a drop, he chipped onto the green and two-putted for the double bogey, which ended a streak of 44 holes at par or better.

With DiMarco sitting comfortably in the center of the green Woods pulled his tee shot just off the green; with about 50 feet (15 m) between him and the hole, and considering the difficulty of the lie, co-commentator Lanny Wadkins remarked that "this is one of the toughest pitches on the entire place here", and that "there's a good chance he doesn't get this inside DiMarco's ball", who had left himself a good 20 feet (6 m) away.

Aiming at least 20 feet (6 m) to the left of the pin and intending to use the sloping green to run the ball towards the hole, Woods proceeded to play what was voted in 2019 as the greatest shot in Masters history.

DiMarco's chip for birdie hit the pin and rebounded ten feet away when it could easily have jammed in the hole.

- Chris DiMarco "You know I played him as hard as I could down the stretch, birdieing a bunch of holes coming down the back nine and putting it on him really.