Masters 2026 Field and Player Profiles

Masters 2026

Participation in the Masters Tournament is by invitation only and the tournament has the smallest field of the major championships. There are several criteria by which invitations are awarded, including all past winners, recent major champions, leading finishers in the previous year’s majors, leading players on the PGA Tour in the previous season, winners of full-point tournaments on the PGA Tour during the previous 12 months, leading players in the Official World Golf Ranking, and some leading amateurs.

The list below details the qualification criteria for the 2026 Masters Tournament and the players who have qualified under them; any additional criteria under which players qualified are indicated in parentheses.

1. All past winners of the Masters Tournament

Angel Cabrera, Fred Couples, Sergio García, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson (13), Hideki Matsuyama (18,25), Rory McIlroy (5,18,25), José María Olazábal, Jon Rahm (2), Patrick Reed (13,25), Scottie Scheffler (3,4,5,13,17,18,25), Charl Schwartzel, Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Mike Weir, Danny Willett

Past winners not expected to play: Tommy Aaron, Charles Coody, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Trevor Immelman, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Phil Mickelson, Larry Mize, Jack Nicklaus, Mark O’Meara, Gary Player, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Ian Woosnam.

2. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2021–2025)

Wyndham Clark (15,25), Bryson DeChambeau (13.16,25), Matt Fitzpatrick (15.17.25), J.J. Spaun (18,25)

3. Recent winners of The Open Championship (2021-2025)

Brian Harman (18.25), Collin Morikawa (17,18.25), Xander Schauffele (4,13,25), Cameron Smith 

4. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2021–2025)

Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas (17,18,25)

5. Recent winners of The Players Championship (2024-2026)

Cameron Young (14,17,18,25)

6. The winner of the gold medal at the Olympic Games

7. The winner and runner-up in the 2023 U.S. Amateur Championship

Jackson Herrington (a), Mason Howell (a)

8. The winner of the 2023 Amateur Championship

Ethan Fang (a)

9. The winner of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship

Fifa Laopakdee (a)

10. The winner of the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship

Mateo Pulcini (a)

11. The winner of the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur Golf Championship

Brandon Holtz (a)

12. The winner of the 2023 NCAA Division I men’s golf individual championship

Michael La Sasso forfeited his exemption by turning professional.

13. The leading 12 players, and those tying for 12th place, from the 2025 Masters Tournament

Ludvig Åberg (18,25), Corey Conners (18,25), Jason Day, Harris English (15,16,18.25), Max Homa, Sungjae Im (18.25), Justin Rose (17,18,25)

14. The leading four players, and those tying for fourth place, in the 2025 U.S. Open

Tyrrell Hatton (25), Viktor Hovland (18.25), Robert MacIntyre (18.25), Carlos Ortiz

15. The leading four players, and those tying for fourth place, in the 2025 Open Championship

Chris Gotterup (17,18,19,25), Haotong LI

16. The leading four players, and those tying for fourth place, in the 2025 PGA Championship

Davis Riley

17. Winners of tournaments on the PGA Tour between the 2025 Masters Tournament and the 2026 Masters Tournament

Akshay Bhatia (18,25), Keegan Bradley (18,25), Jacob Bridgeman (18), Brian Campbell, Nico Echavarría, Tommy Fleetwood (18,25), Ben Griffin (18, 25), Ryan Fox (25), Kurt Kitayama (25), Aldrich Potgieter, Sepp Straka (18,25)

18. All players who qualified for and are eligible for the 2025 TOUR Championship

Sam Burns (25), Patrick Cantlay (25), Harry Hall, Russell Henley (25), Shane Lowry (25), Maverick McNealy (25), Andrew Novak (25), Nick Taylor

19. The winner of the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open

20. The winner of the 2025 Open de España

Marco Penge (25) 

21. The winner of the 2025 Japan Open Golf Championship

Naoyuki Kataoka

22. The winner of the 2025 Link Hong Kong Open

Tom McKibbin

23. The winner of the 2025 Crown Australian Open

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (25)

24. The winner of the 2026 Investec South African Open Championship

Casey Jarvis

25. The leading 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking as of December 31, 2025

Michael Brennan, Ryan Gerard, Max Greyserman, Rasmus Højgaard, Johnny Keefer, Michael Kim, Si Woo Kim, Min Woo Lee, Alex Norén, Aaron Rai, Kristoffer Reitan, Sam Stevens, Sami Välimäki

26. The leading 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking as of March 30, 2026

27. Special Invitations

Ludvig Åberg 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/2
Best Career Finish: 2nd (2024)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 2
Top 20s: 2

Two years ago, Ludvig Åberg nearly became the first Masters debutant to win the green jacket since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 but settled for runner-up behind Scottie Scheffler. The man from Sweden was the 36 and 54-hole leader at THE PLAYERS Championship last month before going wayward off the tee on the Sunday back nine and finishing T-5. He currently ranks 2nd on the PGA TOUR for Proximity to the Hole and 7th for Proximity from 200+ yards and Augusta National requires several long iron shots. He has proven that he has the game to contend here, finishing 2nd and 7th (was tied for the lead during the final round) in his two career Masters starts. The question remains though is whether he can withstand the pressure and close out on the big stage? With his talent, it seems to only be a matter of time. 

Daniel Berger 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 6/5
Best Career Finish: T-10th (2026)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 1

Daniel Berger is making his seventh Masters appearance. Berger earned his return invitation to the Masters by playing his way into the OWGR top 50 at the end of March. Nevertheless, one could not blame Berger for coming into this event with disappointment, as he nearly went wire-to-wire to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational last month before a late run by Akshay Bhatia eventually got him in the playoff. That would have been the four-time PGA TOUR winner’s first victory in over five years. Berger has made seven of eight cuts this season, and his iron play (6th for both Strokes Gained: Approach and Greens In Regulation) is the best it has been in five years. However, he has never looked to be an ideal fit for Augusta National with a lack of power off the tee. Perhaps he is a good bet to make the cut and maybe finish in the middle placement markets (Top 30). 

Akshay Bhatia 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/2
Best Career Finish: T-35th (2024)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Akshay Bhatia is a three-time PGA TOUR winner at just 24 years old and earned his return appearance to this year’s by winning his biggest event to date in March at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Bhatia also finished T-3 at the WM Phoenix Open and T-6 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he was the 54-hole leader. He ranks 5th on the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green, 8th for Strokes Gained: Approach, and 10th for Strokes Gained: Putting. The one weakness in his game is that he can spray it off the tee a little too much. Bhatia keeps improving in his game and has shown that he can compete in big-game events, so he is probably a solid placement market (Top 10, 20, 30) type of play. 

Keegan Bradley 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 9/7
Best Career Finish: T-22nd (2015, 2024)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Keegan Bradley is back in the Masters field for the tenth time courtesy of his home game (born in Vermont) victory, 8th of his PGA TOUR career, at the Travelers Championship last summer. He has gotten off to a slow start in 2026, with his best finish being a T-29 at Pebble Beach. Perhaps there is still a hangover from his Ryder Cup captaincy, as Team USA was defeated by Team Europe for the ninth time in the last 12 events. He certainly has experience here and has made seven of nine cuts at Augusta, but that looks to be his ceiling as he does not appear to be over his much-maligned captaincy at Bethpage Black last fall. 

Michael Brennan

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Michael Brennan earns his first Masters appearance courtesy of his victory at the Bank of Utah Championship last fall, which he won via a sponsor’s exemption. Brennan won three times last season on PGA TOUR Americas to get promoted to the Korn Ferry Tour. However, he bypassed that and earned a spot on the big tour with the win in Utah. Like a large number of other young players, Brennan is an absolute bomber off the tee (3rd for Driving Distance; 8th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee) but still needs to improve upon course management and putting (143rd on the TOUR). This is just Brennan’s second major of his career (2023 U.S. Open).

Jacob Bridgeman

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Jacob Bridgeman earned his first Masters appearance with a victory this past February at the Genesis Invitational, holding off notables like Rory McIlroy in a “Signature Event”. Bridgeman had a consistent 2025 PGA Tour season with four top 5 finishes, including a runner-up finish at the Cognizant Classic, which got him into the TOUR Championship after finishing 27th in the FedEx Cup standings. He currently ranks 2nd on the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Total and leads for Strokes Gained: Putting. This is only his third career major championship, but he could be a solid placement market (Top 20, 30, 40) play as he has made all eight cuts this season and never finished outside the top 25 in any 2026 event. 

Sam Burns 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 4/2
Best Career Finish: T-29th (2023)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Sam Burns is making his fifth Masters appearance courtesy of finishing in the Top 30 of FedEx Cup points and making the TOUR Championship. Burns is a five-time PGA TOUR winner, but he has not won since March 2023 at the Dell Match Play Championship. 2026 has been an inconsistent season for Burns as he does have solid outings including a T-6 at Pebble Beach, T-13 at THE PLAYERS, and T-21 at Houston, but has also missed three of seven cuts. He can still roll it on the greens with the best of them but is certainly lacking any consistency in his game now. 

Ángel Cabrera 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 21/13
Best Career Finish: Winner (2009)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 6
Top 20s: 8

Ángel Cabrera returned to the Masters last year for the first time since 2019. Cabrera won the green jacket in 2009 in a playoff over Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry. “El Pato” (Spanish for “The Duck”) missed several trips to Augusta because he was imprisoned for a wide variety of criminal charges in Brazil back in January 2021 before being extradited to his native Argentina, where he served out the rest of his sentence until August 2023. Cabrera now plays primarily on PGA TOUR Champions, where he won three times last year, including major championships in consecutive weeks at the Regions Tradition and Senior PGA Championship. The Argentine ranks No. 2 on the over-50 circuit for Driving Distance, so he can still get it out there. Most likely, he is best played in the Low Senior market. 

Brian Campbell 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: T-32nd (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Journeyman Brian Campbell made the cut on debut at the Masters last year, which was yet another milestone for a player who has struggled to remain on secondary tours for several years. Campbell, who had never won an event on any professional tour, won twice (Mexico Open, John Deere Classic) on the PGA TOUR last season. He accomplished two TOUR victories despite ranking dead last for Driving Distance, where he still resides in 2026. Unfortunately for Campbell, he is not compensating anywhere else for the lack of distance off the tee in the current year, as he has only made two of nine cuts this season, and it would be surprising to see him make the weekend again this time around. 

Patrick Cantlay 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 9/7
Best Career Finish: T-9th (2019)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 3

Patrick Cantlay returns to the Masters having finished in the top 30 FedEx Cup standings and reaching the TOUR Championship. He earned Low Amateur honors in 2012 and has finished inside the Top 20 at Augusta National in three of the past seven years. Cantlay is an eight-time PGA TOUR winner yet has not won anywhere since August 2022. He is still consistently a good player, but it’s fair to ask if he has peaked. Cantlay was ranked top 4 in the world and on the precipice of winning major championships just three years ago. Now he ranks No. 34 in the world and has mustered only four top 10 finishes in his last 23 worldwide events. Perhaps he is an under-the-radar candidate to be a sleeper this week, but he needs to prove it before you can back him at this point in a major championship.

Wyndham Clark 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/1
Best Career Finish: T-46th (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Wyndham Clark is now in the middle of his five-year exemption for winning the 2023 U.S. Open. Since that career milestone, Clark has won once (2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) but has struggled to stay amongst the game’s best as he has fallen from a top 5 ranked player in the world to a current ranking of No. 75. His iron play has been solid (20th Strokes Gained: Approach) and he has improved dramatically there from last season when he ranked 154th, but he has been all over the place off the tee (114th Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee) and a nightmare on the greens (152nd Strokes Gained: Putting) in 2026. Plus, he has just two top 10 finishes within the last year. 

Corey Conners 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 8/6
Best Career Finish: T-6th (2022)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 4
Top 20s: 4

Corey Conners finished T-8 here at the Masters last year. In fact, he has finished inside the Top 10 at Augusta National in four of the past six years with a T-10 in 2020, T-8 in 2021 and T-6 in 2022. The Canadian’s last PGA TOUR victory was three years ago at the Valero Texas Open. He is a terrific approach player who can never seem to make a putt (138th this season on the PGA TOUR). Conners continues to be a consistent, solid player who just does not win a lot. Nevertheless, he has taken a liking to this place with his four top 10 finishes, and he has finished inside the top 10 in three of his last six majors overall. Conners is certainly worth at least a more conservative placement bet (Top 20, Top 30) and is always the favorite in the low Canadian market.

Fred Couples 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 40/31
Best Career Finish: Winner (1992)
Top 5s: 5
Top 10s: 11
Top 20s: 19

Fred Couples is making his 41st Masters appearance. “Boom Boom” won the 1992 Masters as World No. 1 by two strokes over 1976 champion Raymond Floyd. In 2023, he broke a four-year missed cut streak and made more history at Augusta National when he became the oldest to ever make the Tournament cut at 63 years, 6 months, 5 days of age and moved into second place behind Jack Nicklaus in total cuts made with 31. He has 11 top 10 finishes at Augusta National and has completed 72 holes in the Masters in five different decades. Couples also made a record-tying 23 consecutive cuts in the Masters from 1983-2007. At age 66, he is still playing the Masters and a handful of times on PGA TOUR Champions. A bet to make the cut would certainly be a fun one to root for on Thursday and Friday, but eventually Freddy’s love affair with Augusta National will end. 

Jason Day 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 14/11
Best Career Finish: T-2nd (2011)
Top 5s: 3
Top 10s: 5
Top 20s: 7

Jason Day is making his 15th Masters appearance due to his T-8 finish here last year. A 13-time PGA TOUR winner and former PGA Champion, Day’s last TOUR win was almost three years ago at the AT&T Byron Nelson. The Australian has been plagued with injuries and various illnesses over the last several years, but he does show up in contention a handful of times per season. The short game continues to be elite as Day ranks in the top 25 for both Strokes Gained: Putting and Strokes Gained: Around The Green. On the other hand, he ranks No. 128 for Strokes Gained: Approach, which is why he must rely on that short game so much because his irons have been poor. His consistent form at Augusta makes him worth making the cut or a Top 20 bet. 

Bryson DeChambeau 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 9/7
Best Career Finish: T-5th (2025)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 2
Top 20s: 2

Bryson DeChambeau is making his tenth Masters appearance. He finished inside the top 6 each of the last two years and was truly in contention to win the green jacket for the first time last year, being in the final pairing with eventual winner Rory McIlroy and having the lead briefly on Sunday.  DeChambeau once said in 2020 that he felt Par was 67 for him at Augusta National. Despite the lack of success at Augusta, he was the Low Amateur here in 2016 and shared the opening-round lead with Brooks Koepka in 2019 and was first-round leader (also co-leader after 36 holes) here in 2024.  He became a two-time U.S. Open winner in 2024 at Pinehurst No. 2 and has been runner-up the last two years at the PGA. DeChambeau has already won twice in the last month with victories on LIV Golf in Singapore and South Africa. Despite the questionable preparation in playing less golf and versus only a handful of elite players on LIV, DeChambeau is the third choice on the odds board behind Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy and is an absolute contender to win at every major now. 

Nico Echavarría 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: 51st (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Nico Echavarria made the cut on his Masters debut last year. The Colombian returns for his second appearance, having become a three-time PGA TOUR winner with a victory at the Cognizant Classic in March. Despite having good win equity with a TOUR victory in each of the last three seasons, Echavarria has only made four cuts in nine 2026 events. Much like last year, he will likely be right around the cutline to make the weekend. 

Harris English 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 6/5
Best Career Finish: T-12th (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Harris English returns for his seventh Masters appearance, finishing inside the Top 12 last year for his best career finish at Augusta National. The five-time PGA TOUR winner also finished runner-up at both the PGA and Open Championships last year. He has started 2026 making seven of eight cuts and has finished inside the top 25 in five events. English can get hot with the putter and ranks inside the Top 15 for Strokes Gained: Putting, but his ceiling here looks to be the middling placement markets. 

Ethan Fang (a)

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

American Ethan Fang earned his Masters appearance by winning the Amateur (British Amateur) Championship last June at Royal St George’s in England. With his victory, the current No. 7 World Amateur joined former Masters champions Bobby Jones, José María Olazábal and Sergio García as winners of that title. Also last year, the First Team All-American at Oklahoma State helped his team win the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship, finished runner-up in the Western Amateur, competed in The Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland and represented the United States in the Arnold Palmer Cup, Walker Cup and Eisenhower Trophy. Fang should be the favorite in the Low Amateur market. 

Matt Fitzpatrick 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 11/10
Best Career Finish: T-7th (2016)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 2
Top 20s: 3

Matt Fitzpatrick is making his 12th Masters appearance. The Englishman has made ten consecutive cuts here since missing it in 2014 as an amateur. The 2022 U.S. Open champion started to rediscover his game in 2025 and finally capped off a rebound year with a victory in a playoff over Rory McIlroy at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Last month, he earned his first PGA TOUR victory in three years at the Valspar Championship the week after finishing runner-up at THE PLAYERS Championship. The Englishman currently ranks No. 3 for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green, 7th for Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Total, and 19th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee. Historically, Fitzpatrick is an elite putter but ranks No. 96 for Strokes Gained: Putting. However, he started to roll it better once the “West Coast Swing” ended. He finished in the top 10 at the PGA and The Open last year. The consistency at Augusta is there, but he has never really contended here, so a Top 10/Top 20 play could be the best way to go. 

Tommy Fleetwood 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 9/8
Best Career Finish: T-3rd (2023)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 4

Tommy Fleetwood makes his tenth Masters appearance and his first as a PGA TOUR winner. The eight-time DP World Tour winner, at last, won on American soil last August with a victory at the TOUR Championship, which also earned him the FedEx Cup. Fleetwood has only played four events thus far in this PGA TOUR season but has finished inside the top 10 three times in those four events. He currently leads the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Around The Green and is 5th for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green. Despite the three top 10s, the putter has given Fleetwood some trouble as he ranks 122nd for Strokes Gained: Putting. The Englishman has seven career top 5 finishes in major championships. Now that he finally has the monkey off his back regarding winning in the United States and on the PGA TOUR, it is time for the No. 4-ranked player in the world to get it done in a major. With just one top 5 in nine attempts at Augusta, the U.S. Open and The Open Championship seem to be the venues where Fleetwood nabs his first major title. 

Ryan Fox

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/2
Best Career Finish: T-26th (2023)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Ryan Fox makes his third Masters appearance courtesy of two PGA TOUR victories – OneFlight Myrtle Beach Classic and RBC Canadian Open – within a four-week span last season. The four-time DP World Tour winner from New Zealand. Fox has a solid all-around game, although he can be a little hit or miss on approach (99th). He has made four of five cuts on the PGA TOUR this season but did have to withdraw from THE PLAYERS Championship last month to have kidney stones and missed the cut his first start in Houston post-surgery. Fox has never posted a top 10 finish at a major championship in 24 tries. 

Sergio Garcia 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 26/15
Best Career Finish: Winner (2017)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 4
Top 20s: 6

Sergio Garcia is making his 27th Masters appearance. In 2017, Garcia earned his green jacket, defeating Justin Rose in a playoff to follow Seve Ballesteros and Olazabal as Masters champions representing Spain. Like Jon Rahm in 2023, Garcia won on what would have been Ballesteros’ birthday on April 9. Garcia is one of seven Low Amateurs to go on to win the Masters with Cary Middlecoff, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Hideki Matsuyama. However, Garcia has missed the cut in six of his last seven trips to Augusta. He is not exactly off to a hot start this year on LIV, with just one top 10 finish in five starts and finishing 30th or worse in 54-man fields three times already in 2026 and ranks near dead last for putting on LIV. This looks to be another frustrating visit to Augusta for Garcia.

Ryan Gerard

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Ryan Gerard earned his first Masters appearance primarily due to a December trip to play the Mauritius Open, where he finished runner-up to put himself in the OWGR top 50 rankings at the end of the 2025 calendar year. Gerard had three consecutive worldwide runner-up finishes at Mauritius, the Sony Open in Hawaii, and the American Express. The strength of Gerard’s game is his approach play (9th Greens In Regulation, 13th Strokes Gained: Approach). Gerard won his first PGA TOUR event last summer at the Barracuda Championship but still had to make that overseas trip to earn the Masters invitation. This is only his fifth career major appearance, but he should make the weekend at least on debut.

Chris Gotterup

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Chris Gotterup will make his debut appearance at Augusta National this year. He finished T-3 in his Open Championship debut last summer. However, that was not his highlight of the last several months as Gotterup has now won three times in the last nine months, including last July at the Genesis Scottish Open, and twice in 2026 at the Sony Open in Hawaii and the WM Phoenix Open. The former Haskins and Nicklaus Award winner for being the top college golfer while at Oklahoma, Gotterup is now living up to the pedigree that he showed as an amateur. He is one of the biggest hitters off the tee (5th Driving Distance) and the current No. 9 world-ranked player has the complete game. Gotterup will certainly be one of the short favorites for Masters debutant and is a dark horse for the green jacket despite his lack of major championship experience.

Max Greyserman 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: T-32nd
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Max Greyserman is making his second Masters appearance after making the cut last year on debut. Greyserman ended 2025 in the OWGR top 50 due to a solid 2025 season, which included runner-up finishes at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and Baycurrent Classic. He has not been able to continue his consistent play of both 2024 and 2025, as he has only made four of eight cuts. Greyserman currently ranks 157th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee and 120th for Strokes Gained: Approach. He hasn’t been able to hit fairways (152nd Driving Accuracy) nor greens (136th Greens In Regulation) and that is a bad recipe anywhere, especially at Augusta National. 

Ben Griffin

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Ben Griffin is making his Masters debut this year. Other than Scottie Scheffler and defending Masters champion Rory McIlroy, perhaps no player had a better 2025 season than Griffin, who won three times – Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Charles Schwab Challenge, and the World Wide Technology Championship – to go along with top ten finishes at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open. Griffin has gotten off to a bit of a slow start in 2026. He has made six of nine cuts, but his best finish thus far on the season is T-19. Last year, he was 22nd for Strokes Gained: Approach and 58th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee. This year, he is 102nd and 123rd in those two categories. Those ball-striking numbers will not cut it for this week. 

Harry Hall

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Harry Hall is making his Masters debut this year. Hall earned his invitation with four top 10 finishes and by making 22 of 24 cuts to finish in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings and make the TOUR Championship. Hall won the ISCO Championship two years ago. The Englishman has one of the best short games on the PGA TOUR ranking in the top 10 last season for both Strokes Gained: Around the Green and Strokes Gained: Putting. He has already posted two top 10 finishes this year at the Sony Open in Hawaii and Arnold Palmer Invitational. His ball striking has not been much (122nd Off The Tee, 107th Approach) this season, but his scrambling could see him see the weekend on debut. 

Brian Harman 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 7/3
Best Career Finish: T-12th (2021)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Brian Harman is making his eighth Masters appearance. The 2023 winner of The Open Championship won the 2025 Valero Texas Open in what was his first victory since hoisting the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool. While he has made five of seven cuts in 2026, Harman, already one of the shorter hitters on TOUR, currently ranks 111th for Strokes Gained: Approach, 124th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee, 126th for Strokes Gained: Putting, and 132nd for Strokes Gained: Total. Harman’s ceiling is probably just making the weekend. 

Tyrrell Hatton 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 9/7
Best Career Finish: T-9th (2024)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 3

Tyrrell Hatton is making his tenth Masters appearance courtesy of a top 4 finish at the U.S. Open last year. Hatton has finished inside the top 10 at least once in all four major championships. The Englishman joined LIV Golf in 2024 and has since won three times – once on LIV and twice on the DP World Tour. This year, he has one 3rd-place finish on LIV Golf, but also two finishes in the 40s in 54-man fields, so he is certainly not peaking with his game right now. In addition, his temperament is always very much in question, and it is still uncertain whether he can keep his emotions under control when he gets a bad bounce or catches a bad break at some point at a place like Augusta. 

Russell Henley 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 9/7
Best Career Finish: T-4th (2023)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 3

Russell Henley is making his tenth Masters appearance. Three years ago, at Augusta National, he closed with three under-par rounds to finish T-4 and record his best finish in a major championship. Henley also finished top 10 at both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. The five-time PGA TOUR winner qualified for this year’s invitation by finishing inside the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings and making the TOUR Championship. It has been just over a year since Henley’s 2025 victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. This year, he has made five of six cuts and has not finished worse than 19th in those five tournaments. His game appears in good shape, especially on and around the greens (5th Scrambling, 14th Strokes Gained: Putting). While one of the shorter hitters off the tee, he is a fairway finder (5th Driving Accuracy). He certainly could be a dark horse but is probably best played in a Top 10 or Top 20 market.

Jackson Herrington (a)

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Jackson Herrington is making his first Masters appearance this year. Last August, the University of Tennessee sophomore finished runner-up to Mason Howell in the U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club. In 2024, he earned Tennessee Men’s and Junior Player of the Year honors, finished runner-up with Blades Brown in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in Pennsylvania and reached match play in both the U.S. Amateur and Western Amateur.

Nicolai Højgaard 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/1
Best Career Finish: T-16th (2024)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Nicolai Højgaard is making his third Masters appearance courtesy of ranking in the OWGR top 50 at the conclusion of March. The Dane held the lead here two years ago briefly during Saturday’s third round before falling to a T-16 finish. The three-time DP World Tour winner finished runner-up two weeks ago at the Texas Children’s Houston Open for his best career PGA TOUR finish. Nicolai has four worldwide top 6 finishes already in 2026. The Dane currently ranks 9th for Driving Distance and Strokes Gained: Total plus 13th for Strokes Gained: Approach. If there is a weakness in his game, it is not hitting fairways consistently since he ranks 143rd for Driving Accuracy (52.6%). He certainly has the talent and the game to compete here and will be a popular dark horse, but he can be a bit all over the place with the driver and might be better used in a Top 20 placement market. 

Rasmus Højgaard 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: T-32nd (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Rasmus Højgaard is making his second Masters appearance after finishing T-32 on debut here last year. Unlike twin brother Nicolai, Rasmus finished 2025 inside the OWGR top 50 to secure his second Masters invitation. Rasmus is a five-time DP World Tour winner who is chasing his first win on American soil just like his brother. Nicolai has been in the better form of the two Højgaards, as Rasmus has made six of eight cuts but has yet to contend anywhere in 2026. Rasmus is a long hitter off the tee like Nicolai and is also a good putter, as both rate inside the top 25 for putting. However, he also struggles with accuracy off the tee (163rd at 47.14%). Same outlook here as Nicolai, but Rasmus is in the worse form of the two. 

Brandon Holtz (a)

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Brandon Holtz is making his first Masters and first major championship start. Last September, while competing in his first USGA championship, he won the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Troon Country Club in Arizona. With his victory, he received the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy and earned places in the fields for both the Masters and the U.S. Open in 2026. A native of Bloomington, IL, Holtz did not play college golf but did play four years of college basketball at Illinois State.

Max Homa 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 6/4
Best Career Finish: T-3rd (2024)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 2

Max Homa is making his seventh Masters appearance and earned the return invitation by finishing in the top 12 here at Augusta National last year. That finish came after missing five straight cuts leading into the event. This year, he is in a bit better form and has made five of seven cuts and 12 of his last 15, dating back to last summer. Last year, he was near dead last on the TOUR for Strokes Gained: Approach coming to Augusta, and now he is a respectable 43rd. The six-time PGA TOUR winner has not won anywhere since January 2023 and has fallen to No. 156 in the OWGR. While he has made improvements from where his game seemed to bottom out in 2024 to early 2025, Homa has not really been a regular contender on TOUR of late. Perhaps worth a flier as a mid-range placement bet, but that would be about it. 

Viktor Hovland 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 6/5
Best Career Finish: T-7th (2023)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 1

Viktor Hovland is making his seventh Masters appearance. He earned Low Amateur honors in 2019 as Norway’s first Masters participant. Hovland returns via finishing 3rd at the U.S. Open last summer. The Norwegian remains one of the game’s most talented players who cannot seem to stay out of his own way, as Hovland constantly tinkers with his swing and makes regular equipment changes and even more regular coaching changes with several different coaches over the last two years. Nothing has seemed to materialize in that regard as Hovland rates No. 127 for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee. Hovland’s last victory was a little over one year ago at the Valspar Championship. The seven-time PGA TOUR winner is always capable of greatness anytime and anywhere, but he is always a speculative play until he figures out a process and sticks to it instead of the mercurial way he has gone about it over the last few years.

Mason Howell (a) 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Mason Howell is making his first Masters start in 2026. Last August, he defeated Jackson Herrington in the final, 7&6, to win the U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club in California as its third-youngest champion. The 18-year-old University of Georgia commit and 2026 United States National Junior Team member also competed in the U.S. Open and represented his country in both the Walker Cup and Eisenhower Trophy in 2025. In 2024, he earned junior All-America honors after finishing fifth in both the Western Junior and Junior Players Championship and reached the round of 64 in the U.S. Junior Amateur. With his amateur pedigree, he will likely be one of the short prices for Low Amateur. 

Sungjae Im 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 6/4
Best Career Finish: T-2nd (2020)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 3
Top 20s: 4

Sungjae Im is making his seventh Masters appearance courtesy of finishing T-5 here last year. Im started the season late and has only made four starts in 2026 due to having wrist surgery. He missed his first two cuts but did finish T-4 at the Valspar Championship, where he led the first three rounds of the tournament. His last victory was in his native South Korea two years ago on the Korean Tour. He has finished inside the top 10 here three times in six appearances, so this has historically been his best major championship. With the potential of some rust to still remove, Im is probably best played for a Top 20 or Top 30 placement market or could be a decent price as likely the third or fourth choice behind Hideki Matsuyama and Si Woo Kim in the Low Asian market. 

Casey Jarvis

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Casey Jarvis is making his first Masters appearance. Perhaps no player in the game has won more frequently over the last few months than the 22-year-old South African. Jarvis has four victories, including three in his home country. His win at the Investec South African Open Championship last month locked up his invitation to Augusta National. The strength of Jarvis’s game is his approach play, ranking 7th on the DP World Tour. He can be a little all over the place off the tee. This is just Jarvis’s second major championship appearance, so he is unproven at this level, but the talent is certainly there to open some eyes this week.

Dustin Johnson 

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Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 15/11
Best Career Finish: Winner (2020)
Top 5s: 3
Top 10s: 5
Top 20s: 7

Dustin Johnson is making his 16th Masters appearance. In 2020, he set a new Masters Tournament record with his 20-under-par score of 268 to win by five strokes over Sungjae Im and Cameron Smith. The performance secured him his second major title to go with his victory in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. He was the pre-tournament favorite at the 2017 Masters before having to withdraw from the event due to a mysterious back injury. When he won here in 2020, he was the clear best player in the world. Since he has gone off to play LIV Golf, it is fair to ask if he has any greatness left anymore? He does not seem to be driven to become one of the all-time greats (24 career PGA TOUR wins, two majors) and seems happy with his LIV Golf fortune and being married to Paulina Gretzky. He has not even won on LIV since February 2024 and has missed the cut in five of his last eight majors without any top 20 finishes. 

Zach Johnson 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 21/12
Best Career Finish: Winner (2007)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 3
Top 20s: 4

Zach Johnson is making his 22nd Masters appearance. In 2007, he won in challenging weather at Augusta National with a score of one-over-par 289 that tied the Tournament record for highest winning total set by Sam Snead in 1954 and matched by Jack Burke Jr. in 1956. He played the par-five holes in 11 under and never attempted to reach the greens at hole Nos. 2, 8, 13 and 15 in two strokes that week. The 2015 Open champion is one of six to win majors at Augusta National and St Andrews, with Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods. The 2023 Ryder Cup captain finished a surprising T-8 here last year. He is still an accurate but short hitter and an above-average putter. Last year in this piece, I said, “Look out PGA TOUR Champions in 2026”. Well, he has finished 1st, T-3, and T-2 in his first three events on the over-50 circuit. He can potentially make the cut again and certainly has the confidence now, competing on the elder circuit and dominating. 

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Naoyuki Kataoka

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Naoyuki Kataoka is making his first Masters and first-ever major championship start. Last October, he came from seven strokes back in the final round and won the Japan Open in a playoff to earn his second career Japan Golf Tour win, his first since the 2021 Japan Players Championship, and an invite to Augusta National. He has only played two events thus far in the 2026 calendar year, and this will be a big step up in class for the Japan Golf Tour regular. 

John Keefer

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

John Keefer is making his debut Masters appearance this year. He earned both Rookie and Player of the Year honors on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour after leading the season-long points list with nine top 10 performances, including two victories. The year prior, he won the season-long points race on PGA TOUR Americas with nine top 10 finishes in 10 starts and a victory. Keefer has shown flashes during his rookie season on the PGA TOUR with a T-3 in Houston two weeks ago and a T-7 in the season finale last fall at the RSM Classic. He is a big hitter off the tee (7th Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee, 11th Driving Distance) and leads the PGA TOUR for Greens In Regulation. On the other hand, like many other young players, he struggles with the putter (144th Strokes Gained: Putting). This will be only his third major championship. The talent and pedigree are there, but this might be too much and too soon for him. 

Michael Kim 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/1
Best Career Finish: T-27th (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Michael Kim is making his third Masters appearance. After finishing T-27 last year, he returns off a career season with three top 6 finishes on the PGA TOUR and a victory on the DP World Tour at the Open de France. That victory propelled Kim into the OWGR top 50 at the end of 2025. Thus far, he has not been able to keep the 2025 play going in 2026. Kim has made five of eight cuts, and while he is never going to gain much off the tee being a shorter hitter, his approach play has plummeted to 122nd. With his current ball-striking numbers, it is hard to see Michael Kim playing on the weekend. 

Si Woo Kim 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 8/7
Best Career Finish: T-12th (2021)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Si Woo Kim is making his ninth Masters appearance. The South Korean finished 2025 on hot form, finishing T-4 at the RSM Classic and 3rd at the Crown Australian Open to vault into the OWGR top 50 and earn a Masters invitation. He continued that sizzling play to start 2026 by finishing T-11 (Sony Open), T-6 (The American Express), T-2 (Farmers Insurance Open), and T-3 (WM Phoenix Open) in his first four events. That run has cooled slightly, but Si Woo has made all eight cuts thus far this season. The stats back it up as he is 2nd on the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green. What has kept him out of the winner’s circle in 2026 is what typically keeps him out: putting. Si Woo ranks 139th on the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Putting. He is a four-time PGA TOUR winner, but the flat stick prevents him from winning more and prevents him from contending in majors. Si Woo has one top 10 in 34 career major championship appearances. The statistics say that he could be a sneaky dark horse, but the long-term form says otherwise.

Kurt Kitayama

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/1
Best Career Finish: T-35th (2024)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Kurt Kitayama is making his third appearance at the Masters. The two-time PGA TOUR winner (also a two-time DP World Tour winner) was victorious at the 3M Open last summer to earn a return trip to Augusta National. Kitayama has made six of eight cuts this season and was runner-up at the Genesis Invitational back in February. His iron play has been elite this season (7th Strokes Gained: Approach, 11th Greens In Regulation), but his putting struggles continue (117th Strokes Gained: Putting). Kitayama’s ball striking is plenty good enough to play well here, but his short game has never been great. He could be worth a Top 20 or Top 30 placement bet. 

Jake Knapp

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: T-55th (2024)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Jake Knapp is making his second Masters appearance. Due to this stellar play thus far in 2026, Knapp climbed up the OWGR and finished inside the top 50 at the end of March to earn another invitation. He has made six of seven cuts, but his form line is one of the best of any players coming into this week: T-11 (Sony Open in Hawaii), T-5 (Farmers Insurance Open), 8th (WM Phoenix Open), T-8 (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am), 6th (Genesis Invitational), T-6 (Texas Children’s Houston Open). Knapp leads the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Total, is 2nd for Strokes Gained: Putting, and rates 4th in Scrambling. He is also one of the longer hitters on the TOUR. Knapp has certainly been playing with a heavy heart as his girlfriend Makenna White passed away last September at the young age of 28. Knapp, along with Chris Gotterup, are likely to have shorter prices in the Low Debutant market. It is difficult to bet on someone who has only played four majors and made just one cut, but Knapp’s form is hard to ignore, and he is an absolute dark horse contender here. 

Brooks Koepka 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 10/7
Best Career Finish: T-2nd (2019 & 2023)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 3
Top 20s: 4

Brooks Koepka is making his 11th Masters appearance. He led for most of the 2023 Masters before finishing runner-up at Augusta National for the second time. The 2023 PGA Champion is also back on the PGA TOUR for the first time since 2022. He has had mixed results in making four of six cuts but has shown some signs of getting closer to where he should be with his game. Koepka has three top 18 finishes in his six events, and his iron play (3rd for Strokes Gained: Approach) is as good as anyone’s right now. Unfortunately, he has been fighting the putter for the last two years and currently rates 140th for Strokes Gained: Putting. Brooks is also struggling to find fairways (50.73% – 151st on TOUR). The five-time major champion gets up for majors, and this week could kick-start his season. Because it’s “Brooks at the majors,” he will get plenty of support in the market, but a terrific approach game will not be enough to get him back into major championship contention for the first time in three years. He is going to have to show some improvement off the tee and on the greens.

Fifa Laopakdee (a)

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Fifa Laopakdee is making his first Masters and first major championship appearance. He won the Asia-Pacific Amateur in Dubai in October to become Thailand’s first champion. Entering the final round six strokes off the lead, he closed with birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 and then birdied all three playoff holes to secure places in this year’s Masters Tournament and Open Championship. He is the first amateur representing Thailand to compete in the Masters. The Arizona State University junior also won the individual gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand by 11 strokes in 2025. Laopakdee also won the Desimone Invitational last month at Lake Merced GC. He has represented his country in both the Eisenhower Trophy and Junior Presidents Cup.

Min Woo Lee 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 4/3
Best Career Finish: T-14th (2022)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Min Woo Lee is making his fifth Masters appearance. He finished T-14 in his debut at Augusta National in 2022, and his final-round 70 included a Tournament record-tying 30 on the first nine. Min Woo finished 2025 in the OWGR top 50 to earn another Masters invitation. He has gone 7-for-7 in making cuts and has a runner-up finish at Pebble Beach and a T-3 in Houston (in defense of his 2025 title) already to his credit this season. Min Woo currently ranks 5th for Strokes Gained: Total, 6th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee, and 10th for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green. Although T-14 in his best finish in the Masters, Min Woo is a different and more mature player with very few weaknesses in his game. He has the power, the shot-making, and the touch on and around the greens. Min Woo is nicknamed “The Chef,” and he can certainly cook at Augusta this week. He is a legitimate dark horse. 

Haotong Li

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/2
Best Career Finish: T-32nd (2018)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Haotong Li is making his third Masters appearance, but just his first since 2019. The man from China earned a return to the Masters by finishing in the top 4 of the Open Championship last summer. The four-time DP World Tour winner earned his PGA TOUR card last fall, and in his rookie season on the TOUR, even though he has been a worldwide touring professional since 2011 at age 16. He already has a couple notable finishes in his inaugural PGA TOUR season with a T-8 at the American Express and a T-11 at the Farmers Insurance Open. The weakness in his game typically comes from the putter as he ranks No. 113 for Strokes Gained: Putting. He has made the cut here both times in his career and should be able to do so for a third time after a seven-year respite. 

Shane Lowry 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 10/7
Best Career Finish: T-3rd (2022)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 2

Shane Lowry is making his 11th Masters appearance. He earned another Masters invitation by finishing in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings and making the TOUR Championship. The Irishman also has Top 4 finishes in all four majors and won the Claret Jug for The Open Championship in 2019 at Royal Portrush. The three-time PGA TOUR winner nearly became a four-time winner last month at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches but blew a late lead on Sunday and ended up finishing as the runner-up. Lowry is one of those players who are a bit good at everything but not great in one statistical area. After a four-year run of top-25 finishes here from 2020-2023, he has finished 43rd and 42nd in the last two years. Nevertheless, he is a proven player in majors and likely sees the weekend and is somewhere in the middle when it is all said and done. 

Robert MacIntyre 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 3/2
Best Career Finish: T-12th (2021)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Robert MacIntyre is making his fourth Masters appearance. He earned a return trip to Augusta, finishing runner-up in the U.S. Open at Oakmont last summer. The Scotsman has a pair of 4th-place finishes (Sony Open in Hawaii and THE PLAYERS Championship) in a 2026 season in which he is 6-for-6 making cuts. “Bobby Mac” currently ranks 6th on the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Putting and 11th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee. It is between the tee and green that has been a bit of a problem for MacIntyre, as he ranks just 139th for Strokes Gained: Approach. He has proven to be a contender in majors of late, with three finishes of 8th or better in his last seven. Nevertheless, the irons will need to be in better shape to consider MacIntyre a legitimate contender here.

Hideki Matsuyama 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 14/13
Best Career Finish: Winner (2021)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 3
Top 20s: 8

Hideki Matsuyama is making his 15th Masters appearance. He has Top 20s in eight of the past 11 years at Augusta National and has not missed the cut here since 2014. When he won his Green Jacket in 2021, he became Japan’s first male major champion and strengthened a connection to the Masters that already included two Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship victories in 2010 and 2011 and the Silver Cup as Low Amateur at Augusta National in 2011. He is one of seven Low Amateurs to go on to win the Masters with Cary Middlecoff, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia. Matsuyama has made all seven cuts this season and nearly earned his 12th PGA TOUR victory back in February at the WM Phoenix Open but lost in a playoff to Chris Gotterup. He leads the PGA TOUR for Scrambling and is 5th for Strokes Gained: Around The Green, plus he has even improved his putting substantially (43rd this season). It has been off the tee (121st) where he has struggled lately. The face of Japanese golf must always be considered a threat here. 

Matt McCarty

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: T-14th (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Matt McCarty is making his second Masters appearance after finishing a respectable T-14 on debut last year. McCarty earned a return appearance playing his way into the OWGR top 50 at the end of March, which was largely on the back of a T-2 finish at the American Express in January. In 2024, McCarty earned the ‘battlefield promotion’ to the PGA TOUR by earning three Korn Ferry Tour wins in one season and then won the Black Desert Championship that same year in just his second event as a PGA TOUR member. He has made six of nine cuts this season. Not much has stood out statistically with him this season, but putting is his strength (17th Strokes Gained: Putting in 2025, 40th this season). 

Rory McIlroy 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 17/14
Best Career Finish: Winner and Defending Champion (2025)
Top 5s: 5
Top 10s: 8
Top 20s: 10

Rory McIlroy is making his 18th Masters appearance, but this time he will be hosting the Champions Dinner as he finally captured the elusive green jacket and the Career Grand Slam last year. However, it was not easy, and of course, it was not going to be. That’s what makes Rory who he is. He has a flair for the dramatic. At one point, he had a five-stroke lead on Sunday and had vanquished his final pairing competitor, Bryson DeChambeau (perhaps some revenge for the 2024 U.S. Open). Nevertheless, he was caught by Justin Rose and had to win in a playoff. McIlroy became the first player to win the Masters and make four double bogeys in a tournament. McIlroy has now joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods as winners of the career Grand Slam. So, complacency must set in, right? While not maintaining that early 2025 run culminating with the green jacket, he did win his home open in Ireland and led the European team to another Ryder Cup victory. This year though, he is not playing poorly, but he is not exactly peaking either. McIlroy leads the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green, and his ball striking might be the best in the world still, but he did pull out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational a few weeks ago with a back injury, and he was never a factor the following week at THE PLAYERS. Is he being precautionary, or is this injury more serious than he is indicating? Regardless, he is still a better bet to be in the mix than not on Sunday at Augusta.

Tom McKibbin

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 0/0
Best Career Finish: Debutant
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Tom McKibbin is making his first Masters appearance. He certainly aspires to follow Rory McIlroy and make it back-to-back Masters winners from Northern Ireland. McKibbin earned his Masters invitation by winning the Hong Kong Open on the Asian Tour last November by seven strokes. McKibbin joined LIV Golf last year and is still seeking his first victory on that circuit and has basically been slightly above mid-pack for the most part since joining in the spring of 2025. He is only 23, so his best golf is likely ahead of him. However, he is still a bit inexperienced at the top level. 

Maverick McNealy 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: T-32nd (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Maverick McNealy is making his second Masters appearance. McNealy earned his invitation by finishing in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings and making the TOUR Championship. He has made six of seven cuts this season with three top 5 finishes. The 2024 RSM Classic winner is still looking for his second victory on TOUR, but he has become a more consistent player competing week in and week out against the top players in the game. McNealy is a solid player everywhere, but his putting has always been his strength. Nevertheless, he typically rates top 20 or top 30 on the TOUR and only rates 66th thus far this season. McNealy made the cut in all four majors in or around the top 30 range, and that looks likely to be a finishing point for him here. 

Collin Morikawa 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 6/6
Best Career Finish: T-3rd (2024)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 3
Top 20s: 5

Collin Morikawa is making his seventh Masters appearance. He has made the cut in each of his six appearances at Augusta National, including a T-3 in 2024.  The 2020 PGA Champion and 2021 Open champion had gone over two years without winning anywhere until this past February at Pebble Beach. Morikawa followed that victory up with a T-7 at the Genesis Invitational and 5th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. So, it was only natural that he would be widely tipped to win THE PLAYERS Championship last month. Then, he withdrew from the event after one hole when he suffered a back injury on the practice tee. Morikawa also withdrew from the Valero Texas Open. The statistics and the course form indicate that he can absolutely compete and even win here. He is ranked No. 1 on the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Approach, 2nd for Greens In Regulation, and 4th for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green. However, he has drifted up to a price in the mid-30s because of the injury. Morikawa is the ultimate risk/reward player in the top tier on the odds board this week.

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen is making his first Masters appearance. The Dane earned his invitation by winning the Crown Australian Open last December in a co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia. He finished runner-up at the Puerto Rico Open and Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and secured his PGA TOUR card by making birdie on three of his last four holes at the DP World Tour Championship. Neergaard-Petersen has made five of six cuts in his rookie season on the PGA TOUR, but he has not reached his hot form of 2025 which included a victory, two runners-up, a 3rd, and five other top 10 finishes predominantly on the DP World Tour. He finished T-12 last summer at the U.S. Open in only his second career major. 

Alex Noren

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 4/1
Best Career Finish: T-62nd (2019)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Alex Noren is making his fifth Masters appearance and his first since 2023. Noren earned his return invitation by finishing 2025 in the OWGR top 50 largely due to winning the Betfred British Masters and the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour, where he has won 12 times in his career. The Swede has never won on the PGA TOUR, and at age 43, the opportunities will get scarcer. Nevertheless, he is still playing good, solid golf and has made four of six cuts this year. Noren is a fairway finder but one of the shorter drivers on TOUR. He has only made the cut here once and T-62 is his best career finish at Augusta National, so it is difficult to project much more than that.

Andrew Novak

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Andrew Novak is making his first Masters appearance. He earned the invitation by finishing in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings and making the TOUR Championship. Novak earned his first PGA TOUR victory last April, winning the team event at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (no Masters invite for winning that event) with partner Ben Griffin. This year, he has made five of eight cuts, highlighted by a T-7 at the Farmers Insurance Open. Novak was playing much better last year with six top 10 finishes and 12 top 25s. It would not be a shock to see him make the cut on debut, but he ranks 100th or worse in all the strokes gained categories. 

José María Olazábal 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 36/20
Best Career Finish: Winner (1994, 1999)
Top 5s: 5
Top 10s: 8
Top 20s: 13

Carlos Ortiz

José María Olazábal is making his 37th Masters appearance. The 1994 and 1999 Masters champion and World Golf Hall of Famer made the cut two years ago. At age 60, the Spaniard only plays a handful of times a year, mostly on PGA TOUR Champions, where he has made the cut in both 2026 events. 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/0
Best Career Finish: MC (2021)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Carlos Ortiz is making his second Masters appearance and his first since 2021. Ortiz returns to Augusta National off finishing T-4 in the U.S. Open last summer at Oakmont. The man from Mexico has been playing LIV Golf since 2022 and has earned one win on that circuit (2024 Houston). He has also won twice in the International Series on the Asian Tour. Ortiz has two top 10 finishes on LIV here in 2026. He has only made the cut three times in 11 career majors and while the elite LIV players can still compete at major championships, Ortiz is a mid-pack player on that tour, so he is unlikely to do much here. 

Marco Penge

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Marco Penge is making his first Masters appearance. Penge earned his invitation by winning the Open de España last October, which was one of his three DP World Tour victories in 2025. The Englishman’s stellar season earned him a PGA TOUR card. Thus far, the results have been mixed, with Penge only making three of seven cuts. Penge finished T-4 last month at the Valspar Championship and T-16 at the Genesis Championship in February. He currently leads the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee and is also No. 8 for Driving Distance but ranks just 150th for Driving Accuracy and 148th for Strokes Gained: Approach. Bombers can and have certainly won at Augusta National, but the iron play certainly gives some pause here with a player who has only made one cut in four career major championships. 

Aldrich Potgieter

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/0
Best Career Finish: MC (2023)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Aldrich Potgieter is making his first Masters appearance. The South African missed out on the Masters last year as he blew a late lead and eventually lost in a playoff to Brian Campbell at the Mexico Open. A few months later, Potgieter secured his first Masters invitation with a playoff win over Max Greyserman and Chris Kirk at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He has shown potential for stardom at a very young age, when at the age of 17, he won the 2022 Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes and then became the youngest player to ever win an event on the Korn Ferry Tour just two years later. Potgieter ranks No. 1 on the PGA TOUR for Driving Distance and No. 4 for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee. However, like many of the young players of today, he is still learning to manage his overall game and has been poor both on approach and for putting. The talent is there, but the maturity in his game is not yet. 

Mateo Pulcini (a)

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Mateo Pulcini is making his first Masters appearance and first major championship start. He won the Latin America Amateur in Peru in January to become Argentina’s third champion. Pulcini had to thread a shot through a tree to stay alive on the first playoff hole and then won on the second extra hole. In 2025, he won World Amateur Golf Ranking events in Argentina and Brazil, finished fifth in the Mexican Amateur and represented his country in the Eisenhower Trophy in Singapore. He was a three-time NCAA Division II All-American with Oklahoma Christian University and played his final collegiate season at the University of Arkansas.

Jon Rahm 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 9/9
Best Career Finish: Winner (2023)
Top 5s: 3
Top 10s: 5
Top 20s: 6

Jon Rahm is making his tenth Masters appearance. The 2023 Masters winner has never missed a cut at Augusta National. In 2023, “Rahmbo” joined Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia as Spaniards to win the Green Jacket. Rahm was also the first Masters champion since Sam Snead in 1952 to start his first round with a double bogey and then go on to win. While Rahm has not dominated on LIV Golf like many thought he would, with only three wins in two-and-a-quarter seasons (including one this year in Hong Kong), he has been the most consistent player on that tour. In 30 career LIV events, he has only finished outside the top 10 once. Consider his five starts this year include a form line of 2-2-1-5-2. Rahm’s average finish this season has been 2.4. He currently leads LIV for Total Birdies and Greens In Regulation, plus ranks 4th in Scrambling and Driving Distance. When Rahm first joined LIV in 2024 and came back to Augusta National for the first time as defending champion, he was likely having second thoughts about the move and dealing with the pressure of being defending champion. Last year, he was winless on the season. This year, he comes in with a victory and just might relish being back on the big stage, considering he has been playing all over the world in the middle of the night with not many eyeballs watching him. Rahm should have a chip on his shoulder to ask the golf world, “Hey, remember me?” He has a great chance at his second green jacket.

Aaron Rai 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: T-27th (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Aaron Rai is making his second Masters appearance. The Englishman earned a return appearance by finishing the end of 2025 ranked in the OWGR top 50. Rai has won once on the PGA TOUR and three times on the DP World Tour, including last November, beating Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Rai also beat Fleetwood in a playoff to win the 2020 Scottish Open. He made four of six cuts to start 2026, but his game has been off. Rai is always accurate off the tee but is one of the shorter hitters in the game. It has been his usually solid iron play that has seen the biggest decline (77th for Strokes Gained: Approach). He arrived in much better form here last year with four Top 15 finishes. This year, he has not finished better than 23rd. 

Patrick Reed 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 12/10
Best Career Finish: Winner (2018)
Top 5s: 3
Top 10s: 5
Top 20s: 6

Patrick Reed is making his 13th Masters appearance. Reed won the 2018 Masters by one stroke over Rickie Fowler and by two over Jordan Spieth. He was one of the original expatriates to LIV Golf in 2022. This offseason, he left LIV and will be rejoining the PGA TOUR in 2027 and begin to play select events after August 2026. In the meantime, Reed is a lifetime member of the DP World Tour and is certainly taking advantage of it. He has already won twice this season at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and the Qatar Masters, plus has a runner-up in Bahrain and another top 10 in Johannesburg. Reed ranks No. 1 on the DP World Tour for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green, 2nd for Strokes Gained: Approach, 4th for Scrambling, and 5th for Greens In Regulation. Even when his game is not in the best of form, he always seems to be right there at the end, like last year when he finished 3rd. This year, he must be entering Masters week with more confidence, and he should find a way to be in contention yet again.

Kristoffer Reitan

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Kristoffer Reitan is making his first Masters appearance. The Norwegian finished inside the OWGR top 50 at the end of 2025 largely due to two wins on the DP World Tour at the Soudal Open in Belgium and Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa held in late December, which got him just outside the top 30 in the world. The Norwegian had eight top 10s on the DPWT last year and has made four of seven cuts in his rookie PGA TOUR season but has struggled a bit with the step up in class and competition. Reitan currently ranks No. 156 for Strokes Gained: Approach and No. 111 for Strokes Gained: Putting. He is a solid driver off the tee, but after that, Reitan has been a bit of a mess to start 2026.

Davis Riley 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 1/1
Best Career Finish: T-21st (2025)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Davis Riley is making his second Masters appearance after finishing T-21 on debut last year. Riley earned the return invitation by finishing T-2 in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow last May. He is a two-time PGA TOUR winner and opened the season finishing T-6 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. However, not much has gone right after that, as Riley has missed six of his last nine cuts. Even with a solid putting (30th Strokes Gained: Putting) start, his ball striking is all over the place, ranking 165th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee and 137th for Strokes Gained: Approach. That is a recipe to miss the cut here. 

Justin Rose 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 20/17
Best Career Finish: 2nd (2017 & 2025), T-2nd (2015)
Top 5s: 4
Top 10s: 7
Top 20s: 12

Justin Rose is making his 21st Masters appearance. He is now a three-time runner-up here and has Top 25 finishes in 15 of his 20 starts at Augusta National, including 12 of the past 15 years. Rose has the unfortunate distinction of being the only player in history to lose two sudden-death playoffs at the Masters – 2017 vs. Sergio Garcia and last year vs. Rory McIlroy. He made up seven shots on the leader with a final-round 66 to get into the playoff, only to see McIlroy stiff his approach to 4 feet and make birdie on the first playoff hole. Rose did not wallow in his defeat, though winning the FedEx St. Jude Championship in a playoff over U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun last August. In February, he matched the all-time scoring record (-23/265) at the Farmers Insurance Open and became the first wire-to-wire winner of that tournament since 1954. Putting that victory aside, Rose has been erratic off the tee (126th Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee) but has been terrific with his irons (5th Greens In Regulation, 9th Strokes Gained: Approach). Last year, Rose was the first-round leader, and that marked the fifth time in his career that he was either the outright or co-leader after the first round of the Masters. His record is stellar here, so it is wise to have some sort of action on him, even if it is just a Top 20 placement market.

Xander Schauffele 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 8/7
Best Career Finish: T-2nd (2019)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 5
Top 20s: 6

Xander Schauffele is making his ninth Masters appearance. The 2024 PGA and Open Champion has finished inside the top 10 at Augusta National in four of the last five years, including runner-up and one back of Tiger Woods in 2019 and T-3 and three back of Hideki Matsuyama in 2021. After winning two majors in 2024, it was only natural that Schauffele would have a down year as his 2025 campaign started with an intercostal strain and a small cartilage tear in his ribcage that he sustained in the offseason. With missing the first two months of the season, he was behind all year and failed to make the TOUR Championship for the first time since 2017. Nevertheless, he did get a win, his tenth career PGA TOUR victory, on the board in October at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan. Xander started off slow in 2026 but now has three top 10 finishes in his last four starts, including a 3rd at THE PLAYERS Championship. It seems like he is starting to peak at the right time and that he is going to win another big one very soon, and it could be this week. 

Scottie Scheffler 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 6/6
Best Career Finish: Winner (2022; 2024)
Top 5s: 3
Top 10s: 4
Top 20s: 6

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is making his seventh Masters appearance and has won here at Augusta in two of the last four years. It is an even-numbered year, so perhaps he gets his third green jacket. 2025 was such a historic year as Scheffler picked up his third and fourth major championships at the PGA and The Open and is now just one away from completing the Career Grand Slam, which he will have an opportunity to accomplish later this summer in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. Scottie has already picked up a victory (the American Express) in 2026, has made every cut and has not finished worse than 24th in any event thus far. However, something seems off with Scottie. He withdrew from Houston last week as he and his wife are about to welcome their second child. Do not worry about his preparation for the Masters, though as his first child was about to be due, and he went on to win that Masters in 2024. What is off is his iron play of late. Keep in mind, this is the same Scottie Scheffler who led the planet and the PGA TOUR for Strokes Gained: Approach each of the last three seasons. This year, he is 80th on approach. Everything else in his game seems to be in good shape, but he has been getting off to slow starts all season. Last year, he led for Round 1, 2, 3, and 4 Scoring Average. In the latter three rounds, he ranks 7th (Round 2), 10th (Round 3), and 3rd (Round 4), but he ranks 96th for Round 1 Scoring Average, which is over three strokes worse than last year. Scheffler has built enough win equity to be the justifiable favorite, even if he is not playing “Scottie-style” golf of late. 

Charl Schwartzel 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 16/11
Best Career Finish: Winner (2011)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 3
Top 20s: 3

Charl Schwartzel is making his 17th Masters appearance. In 2011 at Augusta National, he was four strokes off the lead entering the final round and closed with back-nine birdies at holes No. 15, 16, 17 and 18 to win by two over Jason Day and Adam Scott. He won the 75th Masters Tournament 50 years after fellow South African Gary Player became the first international champion in 1961. He is one of three South Africans to win the Green Jacket, with three-time champion Player and 2008 champion Trevor Immelman. Schwartzel gets on the first page of the leaderboard in a couple of LIV Golf events each year, but that’s about it, as he has not won since the inaugural LIV event in London back in June 2022. 

Adam Scott 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 24/21
Best Career Finish: Winner (2013)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 5
Top 20s: 8

Adam Scott is celebrating his Silver anniversary by making his 25th Masters appearance. In 2013, he made birdie on the second playoff hole at No. 10 in the late-afternoon rain at Augusta National to defeat Angel Cabrera and earn Australia’s first Green Jacket. Scott has made the cut in 21 of his 24 Masters starts but had a 15-year cut streak snapped last year. Scott has just one Top 10 at Augusta since his 2013 victory. While the 14-time PGA TOUR winner has not had a major tour victory since 2020, Scott continues to play good golf at age 45. He is 7-for-7 making cuts this season, including finishing 4th at the Genesis Invitational. Scott currently ranks No. 4 on Strokes Gained: Approach, and that is his best iron play in the last few years. Although he has not been a factor here for several years, it would not shock at all to see Scott be a sneaky contender here. 

Vijay Singh 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 31/20
Best Career Finish: Winner (2000)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 6
Top 20s: 10

Vijay Singh is making his 32nd Masters appearance and made the cut here in 2024 for the first time since 2018. He won the 2000 Masters by three strokes over Ernie Els for the first of his six top-eight finishes in a seven-year stretch at Augusta National. The World Golf Hall of Fame member won 34 times in his career on the PGA TOUR, including the 1998 and 2004 PGA Championships. At age 63, Singh still plays a few times a year on PGA TOUR Champions but has not played anywhere since January.

Cameron Smith 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 9/8
Best Career Finish: T-2nd (2020)
Top 5s: 3
Top 10s: 5
Top 20s: 5

Cameron Smith is making his tenth Masters appearance. The Australian has Top 10s in five of the past eight years at Augusta National, including a runner-up finish in 2020 when he became the first in Masters history to record four rounds in the 60s in a single Tournament. The 2022 Open Champion missed the cut last year for the first time. He has not won anywhere since August 2023. Smith has two top-10 finishes in five LIV starts this season, where he still leads that circuit for putting and is 13th for Scrambling. His short game has always been elite, but his ball striking has been poor (43rd of 57 for Driving Accuracy, 53rd for Greens In Regulation). Perhaps he is worth a flier down the board to be an under-the-radar surprise here, but you must at least hit some fairways and greens at Augusta National. 

J.J. Spaun 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 2/2
Best Career Finish: T-23rd (2022)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

J.J. Spaun is making his third Masters appearance. Coming into last year, Spaun finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy in a playoff at THE PLAYERS Championship, and it was fair to wonder if he would get another opportunity to win a big one. He got that opportunity and took advantage of it three months later, winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Spaun has not played all that well to start 2026, as he has only made three of seven cuts and has only finished inside the top 25 once. The putter has been the main culprit with Spaun ranking No. 159 in Strokes Gained: Putting. At his peak, he is a terrific iron player, and he has made the cut here twice and could certainly make it again, but he has not really been a factor anywhere since late last summer. 

Jordan Spieth 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 12/10
Best Career Finish: Winner (2015)
Top 5s: 6
Top 10s: 6
Top 20s: 8

Jordan Spieth is making his 13th Masters appearance. He has Top 4 finishes in six of his 12 starts at Augusta National. In 2015, he won the Masters by four strokes over Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose in wire-to-wire fashion with a then-record-tying score of 18-under-par 270. Spieth joined Tiger Woods as the only champions to win their Green Jacket at 21. He would go on to win the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in 2015 and The Open at Royal Birkdale in 2017. Spieth has not won anywhere in four years and has only two victories since that Open Championship almost nine years ago. The approach play is starting to come back around and looks its best in close to five years (32nd Strokes Gained: Approach), and the same thing can be said for his putting (22nd Strokes Gained: Putting). While he is certainly not the player that he was a decade ago, Spieth is showing some signs of putting it all back together and could be a sneaky midrange play.

Sam Stevens

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Sam Stevens is making his first Masters appearance. He earned his Masters invitation by finishing 2025 ranked inside the OWGR top 50, which was largely on the back of runner-up finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open and 3M Open. Stevens has been out on the PGA TOUR for four years and still seeks his first victory, but it feels like he is getting closer. He has made eight of nine cuts this season, including a 5th in Houston and a 6th at the American Express. Stevens ranks 11th on the PGA TOUR for Greens In Regulation and 20th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee. The putting has been an issue (114th Strokes Gained: Putting), but his all-around play makes him potentially worth a flier in the Low Debutant market. 

Sepp Straka 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 4/3
Best Career Finish: T-16th (2024)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Sepp Straka is making his fifth Masters appearance. He qualified for the return invitation, winning the Truist Championship last May for his fourth career PGA TOUR win. The Austrian has made five of six cuts in 2026, including a T-2 at Pebble Beach and a T-8 at THE PLAYERS Championship. His irons have been sharp to start the season, ranking 12th on TOUR for Strokes Gained: Approach. Despite having two wins in 2025, Straka did miss three of four cuts in the major championships and still has much to prove that he can compete on the biggest stages against the game’s elite players. While he has made three of four cuts at Augusta National, Straka has yet to shoot a round in the 60s here. 

Nick Taylor 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 3/2
Best Career Finish: T-29th (2020)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Nick Taylor is making his fourth Masters appearance. The Canadian earned his return invitation by finishing in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings and making the TOUR Championship. The five-time PGA TOUR winner has made seven of eight cuts this season. He is not the biggest hitter off the tee, but his iron play and his short game, especially around the greens (6th Strokes Gained: Around The Green), mitigate his length disadvantage. Recall that he made a 72-foot putt to beat Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open and chipped in for eagle to force a playoff and eventually win the 2025 Sony Open in Hawaii. He likely makes the cut here but finishes somewhere mid-pack.

Justin Thomas 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 10/8
Best Career Finish: 4th (2020)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 2
Top 20s: 4

Justin Thomas is making his 11th Masters appearance. He has Top 25s in six of the past nine years at Augusta, finishing fourth in 2020 and T-8 in 2022. However, he has not finished better than 36th in the last three years. Thomas is a two-time PGA champion, winning in 2017 at Quail Hollow in North Carolina and in 2022 at Southern Hills in Oklahoma. The 16-time PGA TOUR winner got off to a late start for the 2026 season due to having back surgery in November. He missed the cut badly at the Arnold Palmer Invitational upon his return in March and then was right in the mix at THE PLAYERS Championship the following week before finishing T-8. With only three events back from surgery, it is hard to really gauge where JT’s game is now. This week could be a bit too much and too soon, but with more reps, he could be peaking later in the spring or summer. 

Sami Valimaki

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: Debutant
Best Career Finish: N/A
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 0

Sami Valimaki is making his first Masters appearance. The man from Finland finished inside the OWGR top 50 at the end of 2025 to earn his first invitation. The two-time DP World Tour winner became a first-time PGA TOUR winner last November, winning the season finale at the RSM Classic. Valimaki has made three of seven cuts in 2026 and has struggled with his ball striking (152nd Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee, 109th Strokes Gained: Approach), which is certainly concerning here.

Bubba Watson 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 17/14
Best Career Finish: Winner (2012, 2014)
Top 5s: 3
Top 10s: 3
Top 20s: 6

Bubba Watson is making his 18th Masters appearance. He is one of just 17 to have won the Masters more than once. In 2012, he defeated Louis Oosthuizen with the help of a spectacular 52-degree wedge shot from the trees on the second playoff hole on No. 10. Two years later, in 2014, he won his second Masters by three strokes over Tournament rookies Jonas Blixt and Jordan Spieth. He is one of five left-handed major champions, with Bob Charles, Mike Weir, Phil Mickelson, and Brian Harman. The 12-time PGA TOUR winner joined LIV Golf in 2022 and has posted five top 10 finishes in 43 events. With no victories since 2018, the 47-year-old Watson is scooping up all the money he can on LIV, and his next likely victory might be on PGA TOUR Champions in three years. Hard to expect much here. 

Mike Weir 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 27/12
Best Career Finish: Winner (2003)
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 2
Top 20s: 5

Mike Weir is making his 27th Masters appearance. In 2003, he defeated Len Mattiace in a playoff to become Canada’s first male major champion. Weir still plays a semi-regular PGA TOUR Champions schedule but has just one victory there in five seasons on the over-50 circuit. He has only made the cut here one time (2020) in the last 11 trips here. 

Danny Willett

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 11/6
Best Career Finish: Winner (2016)
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
Top 20s: 2

Danny Willett is making his 12th Masters appearance. In 2016, he shot a final-round 67 at Augusta National to turn a three-stroke deficit into a three-stroke victory over defending champion Jordan Spieth and Lee Westwood. He became England’s first Masters champion since Nick Faldo won his third Green Jacket in 1996. Willett has made three cuts playing both PGA and DP World Tours, but his game has not been much to write home about for a while now. He has made the weekend each of the last two years (T-45, T-42), and that is likely to be his ceiling again this year.

Gary Woodland

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 12/6
Best Career Finish: T-14th (2023)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 0
Top 20s: 1

Gary Woodland is making his 13th Masters appearance. He earned his invitation this year by running away and hiding from the field to win the Texas Children’s Houston Open, his first victory in almost seven years since the 2019 U.S. Open, by five strokes. This victory came just two weeks after revealing his PTSD struggles from having a brain tumor removed in late 2023. Not only is his comeback remarkable, but it is also extraordinary that the 41-year-old Woodland is still one of the longer drivers in the game (2nd on the PGA TOUR for Driving Distance) and still getting out there off the tee with the multitude of big-hitting youngsters in the game today. Woodland’s record here has not been all that stellar with zero top 10s in 12 trips to Augusta National, but he must be in as good of a frame of mind as he has been in a long time, so perhaps he surprises with a good run this week.

Cameron Young 

Total Appearances/Cuts Made: 4/2
Best Career Finish: T-7th (2023)
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 2
Top 20s: 2

Cameron Young is making his fifth Masters appearance. He has finished in the Top 10 here in two of the last three years. Young waited a long time to get his maiden PGA TOUR victory last summer at the Wyndham Championship. He had finished runner-up seven times on TOUR before finally breaking through. After that victory and being the best player on the American team last fall at the Ryder Cup, it was anticipated that Young would win a big-time event at some point in 2026, and he did just that, winning THE PLAYERS Championship last month courtesy of the longest measured drive at the 18th in the long, storied history of the event. Young comes in with great form, with not only the PLAYERS win but also a T-3 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a T-7 at the Genesis Invitational, both in “Signature events”. Now ranked at No. 3 in the OWGR, Young must be considered a big-time player in the game. The next step is to win a major championship. He has six major championship top 10s in the last four years. The last two PLAYERS winners (Scheffler and McIlroy) went on to win the Masters that same year, so why not three-for-three with Young?

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