The script for the Masters Tournament has rarely changed in almost 70 years of action at Augusta National Golf Club.

Take the world's best golfers, mix in a long shot or two, and let them fight it out over Augusta National's tempting but dangerous back nine. Sit back and enjoy.

The 1954 Masters followed that recipe to near-perfection, and 50 years later it still ranks as one of the game's most memorable tournaments.

Sam Snead and Ben Hogan, the top two golfers in the world, wound up tied after 72 holes. Snead got the best of Hogan in the 18-hole playoff, nipping his longtime rival by one stroke, 70-71.

But it was a bespectacled, long-hitting amateur named Billy Joe Patton who almost stole the show.

Patton, a lumber salesman from North Carolina, got into the tournament by virtue of being an alternate on the previous year's Walker Cup team. He made his presence felt with an opening round of 70 that was good for a share of the lead with E.J. Harrison.

Hogan, coming off his Triple Crown season of 1953, in which he won the Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open, started with a steady 72. Snead struggled to 74 but was only four shots off the pace.

The amateur held his lead despite slipping to 74 in the second round, but most experts figured Patton was done when he struggled to 75 in the third round. Hogan, who shot 69 in the third round, held a three-stroke lead over Snead after 54 holes.

All eyes were on Snead and Hogan when play began in the final round, but Patton soon diverted their attention. At even par through five holes, he struck the shot of the tournament when he aced the par-3 sixth hole with a 5-iron.

Sam Snead, left, shakes hands with Ben Hogan after winning the Masters in 1954. Snead and Hogan were tied at the end of Sunday's round, but Snead defeated Hogan by one shot in the playoff for his third and final Masters victory. (AP/File)

"Witnesses swore that the first surface it hit was the bottom of the cup," The Augusta Chronicle reported in its account the next day.

Patton added birdies at Nos. 8 and 9, and suddenly he was in the mix again. His gallery swelled as he headed for the back nine.

Snead was playing ahead of Patton, and Hogan was behind both. Snead was on his way to a round of even-par 72, a score few expected to hold up for the win.

But Patton and Hogan still had the back nine - and its water hazards - to negotiate.

Patton was the first to blink. After a bogey at No. 12, he tried to go for the green in two at No. 13. His 4-wood shot came up short, finding the tributary of Rae's Creek that fronts the green. He took a drop, then hit an indifferent pitch that just cleared the water. He chipped on and two-putted for a double-bogey 7.

Even though Patton birdied the next hole, he thought he still had to produce more birdies to win. On the par-5 15th, he went for the green from a poor lie and hit into the water again. It cost him a bogey, which put him one shot behind clubhouse leader Snead.

Hogan found water on the back nine, too, but not on the par-5s. Uncharacteristically, he hit his second shot on No. 11 into the pond guarding the green.

The mistake cost him a 6, and in subsequent years Hogan would advise fellow golfers that if they saw him hit that green in regulation - instead of laying up to the right - they would know he had made a mistake.

Snead and Hogan wound up tied after 72 holes at 1-over-par 289, which remains tied for highest winning score.

In the playoff the next day, the two men played even for nine holes.

Snead holed a chip for birdie on the 10th but gave back the lead with a bogey on the 12th. That set up the 13th hole, which proved to be decisive as Hogan elected to lay up on the short par-5.

Snead went for the green in two and made it, setting up an easy birdie to give him a one-shot lead when Hogan made par.

Hogan had one final shot at catching Snead when he hit his tee shot close at No. 16, but instead he three-putted to give his foe a two-shot lead. Snead played the 18th cautiously and made a bogey to win.

It would be Snead's third and final win at Augusta National. At the time, he joined Jimmy Demaret as the only three-time winner of the Masters.

Hogan, who also had lost an 18-hole Masters playoff to Byron Nelson (Stats | Bio) in 1942, was stoic in defeat.

"He always gives you some good shots and a few chuckles," he said of Snead.

Patton, who stuck around to watch the Monday playoff, didn't regret coming up short in his bid to become the first amateur to win the Masters.

"If I'd won that tournament, I'd had difficulty handling the money, the liquor would have been a problem, and with the women I didn't have a chance," he said.

Reach John Boyette at (706) 823-3337 or john.boyette@augustachronicle.com.