2026 MASTERS: Analysis of All 91 Players
A detailed breakdown of every player in the 2026 Masters field.
The 2026 Masters tees off Thursday and I’ve once again subjected myself to the task of breaking down every player in the field.
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Enjoy!
Augusta National: Quick Course Overview
There are plenty of great resources for a deeper look at Augusta National, so I’ll just give a quick note on what it takes to succeed here, mostly to provide some context for the player breakdowns below.
Distance: The course is long, but the main reason distance factors is that Augusta’s greens are firm, fast, and elevated, best attacked with high-lofted clubs. An extra 30 yards off the tee is the difference between a 6-iron and an 8-iron, and that gap matters enormously when it comes to holding these greens.
Iron play: The margins at Augusta are razor thin. These greens are so fast and so severely contoured that the difference between a good miss and a bad one is often just a yard or two. Miss your target by a few feet in the wrong direction and you are making bogey. It is the biggest differentiator at this course, and why Augusta is so often called a second-shot golf course.
Creativity: Augusta dares players to hit shots they don’t necessarily want to hit, often from perfect lies in the middle of the fairway. Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, and Jordan Spieth all won by inventing shots others couldn’t or wouldn’t attempt. Last year we saw Rory sweeping massive draws around trees into par 5s. One thing that often goes unappreciated: virtually every shot here is played from an uneven lie. The fairways are generous but rarely flat, and players who can manufacture shots from sideslopes and awkward stances have a genuine edge all week.
Short game: The greens at Augusta are among the fastest and most severely contoured putting surfaces in professional golf. Three-putts are a fact of life here even for the best players in the world. The challenge extends well beyond the putting surface. Most green complexes are surrounded by tightly mown runoff areas that almost never present straightforward up-and-down situations. Soft hands, touch, and creativity around the greens are essential. It is no coincidence that feel players like Seve Ballesteros, Patrick Reed, and Jordan Spieth have had sustained success here.
Experience: Augusta reveals itself slowly, and that knowledge is hard-earned. Every green has a correct miss and a wrong miss. Every pin has positions you can attack and positions you play away from. Knowing the difference takes multiple visits to figure out, which is why the last first-time winner here was 1979. The best players don’t just execute shots. They know which shots not to attempt. Course history is a surprisingly reliable predictor of success at Augusta, and it shows up in the results every year.
Field List:
Use the alphabetical list navigate to a player. Click "Return to Field List” to return here.
Åberg, Ludvig | Berger, Daniel | Bhatia, Akshay | Bradley, Keegan |
Brennan, Michael | Bridgeman, Jacob | Burns, Sam | Cabrera, Angel |
Campbell, Brian | Cantlay, Patrick | Clark, Wyndham | Conners, Corey |
Couples, Fred | Day, Jason | DeChambeau, Bryson | Echavarria, Nicolas |
English, Harris | Fang, Ethan (a) | Fitzpatrick, Matt | Fleetwood, Tommy |
Fox, Ryan Garcia, Sergio | Gerard, Ryan | Gotterup, Chris | Greyserman, Max | Griffin, Ben | Hall, Harry | Harman, Brian | Hatton, Tyrrell | Henley, Russell | Herrington, Jackson (a) | Hojgaard, Nicolai | Hojgaard, Rasmus | Holtz, Brandon (a) | Homa, Max | Hovland, Viktor | Howell, Mason (a) | Im, Sungjae | Jarvis, Casey Johnson, Dustin | Johnson, Zach | Kataoka, Naoyuki | Keefer, Johnny | Kim, Michael Kim, Si Woo | Kitayama, Kurt | Knapp, Jake | Koepka, Brooks | Laopakdee, Fifa (a) Lee, Min Woo | Li, Haotong | Lowry, Shane | MacIntyre, Robert | Matsuyama, Hideki McCarty, Matt | McIlroy, Rory | McKibbin, Tom | McNealy, Maverick |
Mickelson, Phil | Morikawa, Collin | Neergaard-Petersen, Rasmus | Noren, Alex Novak, Andrew | Olazabal, Jose Maria | Ortiz, Carlos | Penge, Marco |
Potgieter, Aldrich | Pulcini, Mateo (a) | Rahm, Jon | Rai, Aaron | Reed, Patrick | Reitan, Kristoffer | Riley, Davis | Rose, Justin | Schauffele, Xander | Scheffler, Scottie Schwartzel, Charl | Scott, Adam | Singh, Vijay | Smith, Cameron | Spaun, JJ |
Spieth, Jordan | Stevens, Sam | Straka, Sepp | Taylor, Nick | Thomas, Justin | Valimaki, Sami | Watson, Bubba | Weir, Mike | Willett, Danny | Woodland, Gary | Young, Cameron
Stats powered by BetSpertsGolf.com via The Rabbit Hole and Datagolf.com
Fantasy golf interest inspired by The Pat Mayo Experience
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Glossary of Terms:
Strokes Gained (SG) - A shot-by-shot measure of how a player performs relative to the field. Positive means they outperformed, negative means they fell behind.
Major four SG categories - Off-the-Tee (OTT), Approach (APP), Around-the-Green (ARG), Putting (PUTT)
SG: Tee-to-Green (T2G) - Combination of OTT, APP, and ARG
Past Results - Most recent starts are listed first.
* indicates an elevated field (Signature Event, The Players or a Major)
DataGolf Ranking: A world ranking system built on strokes gained data, widely considered the most accurate measure of current player form and ability.
MC - Missed Cut
WD - Withdraw
THE 2026 MASTERS FIELD
There are so many players with a legitimate chance this week. Last year we entered with Scottie and Rory as heavy favorites and almost every other big name searching for form. This year feels like the opposite. A dozen players have a real case for the green jacket, and a handful of others could get there if everything goes right.
Ludvig Åberg
Age: 26 | DataGolf Ranking: 10
Past Masters Results: 7 - 2
2026 PGA Tour Results: 5 - 5* - 3* - 20* - 37* - MC
Best Major Finish: 2nd (2024 Masters)
Ludvig’s late collapse at the Players Championship will garner a lot of attention this week, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that he has as good a chance as anyone to win the Masters. For starters, he loves this course. He was runner-up in his debut in 2024, and 7th last year in the middle of what was the worst two-month stretch of his young career.
The 26-year-old also appears to be a much more complete player. In three straight starts against elevated competition at the Genesis, API, and the Players, Ludvig gained strokes in all four categories, while his approach and driving statistics during that stretch are as good as they have ever been.
As a ball striker, he has always had all the shots to excel at Augusta National, and he has handled these greens well in two starts. He enters this year’s tournament with a fuller arsenal than he has ever brought here, and has shown no evidence of emotional hangover from the Players this week in Texas. Augusta has brought out his best golf twice running, and his best golf right now is good enough to win a green jacket.
Daniel Berger
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 54
Past Masters Results: 21 - 50 - MC - 32 - 27 - 10
2026 PGA Tour Results: 66* - 2* - 32 - MC* - 75* - 16 - 56 - 6
Best Major Finish: T6 (2018 U.S. Open)
After a several-year bout with back injuries, Daniel Berger is once again one of the premier ball strikers on the PGA Tour. He is inside the top 10 in SG: Approach, accurate as anyone off the tee, and has even added significant distance with the driver.
The big concern will be whether his short game can hold up to the Augusta National greens. Once a steady, complete player from tee to cup, the former Ryder Cupper has seemingly lost the ability to chip and putt. He is outside the top 150 on the PGA Tour in SG: Around-the-Green and sits around 100th in SG: Putting. He nearly won the Arnold Palmer Invitational the one week it clicked, but Augusta has a way of finding exactly the part of your game that’s struggling. That laser-low ball flight will always be an issue here.
Akshay Bhatia
Age: 24 | DataGolf Ranking: 19
Past Masters Results: 42 - 35
2026 PGA Tour Results: 12* - 1* - 16* - 6* - 3 - MC - MC
2026 DP World Tour Results: MC
Best Major Finish: T16 (2024 U.S. Open)
Four cuts missed in eight major starts. One top-20 to his name. Not exactly the profile of someone you’d expect to break through at Augusta National. And yet...
The 24-year-old lefty appears to have taken significant strides forward this year. His results since February have been phenomenal, highlighted by a signature win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Equally important, he seems to have addressed the glaring weakness in his game. Akshay had been hemorrhaging strokes around the greens for three seasons, finishing 162nd in SG: Around-the-Green in 2025. This year he has flipped that entirely, sitting positive in that category and inside the top 40 in scrambling percentage. Throw in top-10 marks in putting and approach, and the full picture of his game is starting to look well-suited for major championship golf.
The Masters could be a particularly nice fit. There is the obvious lefty thing, but Akshay also loves to shape and flight the ball, and can manufacture shots off uneven lies with the kind of touch that Augusta has always rewarded. It’s hard to back him to win given the major record, but he certainly looks ready to put himself in contention.
Return to Field List
Keegan Bradley
Age: 39 | DataGolf Ranking: 45
Past Masters Results: MC - 22 - 23 - 43 - 52 - 22 - MC - 54 - 27
2026 PGA Tour Results: 55 - 50* - MC* - MC* - 29* - 43 - MC
Best Major Finish: 1st (2011 PGA Championship)
Nearly two decades of historically bad putting and Keegan Bradley has still managed to carve out a borderline Hall of Fame career, consistently finishing inside the top 30 in end-of-season tee-to-green rankings and adding a PGA Championship to his résumé along the way. He was particularly good last year, finishing ninth in SG: Tee-to-Green, winning at the Travelers, while nearly playing himself into a playing captain role on the Ryder Cup team.
Maybe losing a home Ryder Cup has taken a toll, because Captain Keegan has fallen off considerably in 2026. Through seven starts he sits at a career-worst 88th in tee-to-green, uncharacteristically losing strokes with his irons. He has missed cuts and finished well out of contention when he has made the weekend. Keegan has never broken the top 20 at the Masters, and his tenth trip to Augusta looks like it will mostly be a battle with the cutline.
Michael Brennan
Age: 24 | DataGolf Ranking: 114
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 28 - MC - 69* - 26 - 52 - 48 - DQ - 56 - MC
Best Major Finish: Missed cut (2023 U.S. Open)
At the start of August 2025, Michael Brennan was the 430th ranked golfer in the world, playing on PGA Tour Americas. Eleven weeks later, he was ranked 42nd and was a PGA Tour winner. Quite the autumn.
In a six-week span on PGA Tour Americas, he won three times to earn a Korn Ferry Tour card for the following season. Before he even made a Korn Ferry start, he received a sponsor exemption to the Bank of Utah Championship, which he won by four strokes in his first PGA Tour start as a professional. With that, he earned a two-year exemption and an invite to Augusta National.
Since then, the results have leveled off, which forces us to also level off expectations this week. Brennan is one of the longest drivers in professional golf, but has been one of the worst players on and around the greens this season, which will make keeping bogeys off the card a real challenge in his first trip to Augusta National. Will likely be battling with the cutline on Friday.
Jacob Bridgeman
Age: 26 | DataGolf Ranking: 17
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 14 - 5* - 18* - 1* - 8* - 18 - 13 - 4
Best Major Finish: Missed cut (2025 U.S. Open & PGA Championship)
Bridgeman flashed genuine upside in 2025 with five top-five finishes, but 2026 has been a true breakout. He grabbed his first PGA Tour win at the Genesis and has put himself in contention nearly every week, racking up eight top-20s in eight starts, including a T8 at Pebble Beach and a T5 at the Players. He has been the best putter on Tour by a comfortable margin, and the 26-year-old has made a massive leap as a ball-striker too, leading the Genesis field in SG: Approach and finishing fifth in that category the week prior at Pebble Beach against another elite field.
A Masters debut complicates this pretty picture. This course finds weaknesses, and Bridgeman brings a significant one with him this week having lost over 1.7 strokes around the green in four of his last six starts. His typical advantage with the putter might also be somewhat neutralized on greens where experience can matter almost as much as skill. He has made a legitimate leap and will be a contender throughout the season, but this week I’m keeping expectations in check.
Sam Burns
Age: 29 | DataGolf Ranking: 21
Past Masters Results: 46 - MC - 29 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 21 - 13* - MC* - MC* - 6* - MC - 27
Best Major Finish: T7 (2025 U.S. Open)
Big hitter. Elite putter. But not great at the stuff in between. Sam's skillset works fine on a lot of PGA Tour courses, but infrequently holds up under more difficult major conditions. Sam has just four top-20s in 21 major appearances, and a very pedestrian track record at Augusta National. He occasionally has stretches of decent iron play, and good results typically follow (see T7 at the 2025 US Open), but we are not currently in one of those stretches. He has lost strokes on approach in four of his last six starts, while also losing around the greens in five of six. He has been leaning heavily on the putter to stay relevant this season, but Augusta is going to ask for more than that.
Angel Cabrera
Age: 56 | DataGolf Ranking: 441
Past Masters Results: MC - MC (2019) - MC - MC - 24 - 22 - MC - 2 - 32 - 7 - 18 - 1 - 25 - 37 - 8 - MC - 15
Recent Champions Tour Results: 57 - 35 - 7 - 2
Best Major Finish: 1st (2009 Masters)
After spending some time in a couple of South American prisons, the 2009 Masters champion returned to Augusta National last year for the first time since 2019. He missed the cut with rounds of 75-80, but then went on to win two senior major championships the following month, which should help you recalibrate any expectations for Champions Tour players at the Masters.
Brian Campbell
Age: 33 | DataGolf Ranking: 371
Past Masters Results: 32
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - WD - MC* - MC* - MC* - 78* - 54 - MC - MC
Best Major Finish: 27th (2015 U.S. Open)
A two-time winner in 2025 that will likely remain the most shocking two-time winner until the end of days. Brian won the Mexico Open and the John Deere Classic last season, but otherwise had a completely forgettable season, missing more cuts than he made and failing to finish inside the top 30 in any other full-field event.
Even on his best day, it is hard to see him doing much damage at Augusta as one of the shortest hitters on Tour, and he hasn’t had many decent days over the past nine months. Even replicating the T32 from his Masters debut feels like a tall order.
Patrick Cantlay
Age: 34 | DataGolf Ranking: 18
Past Masters Results: 36 - 22 - 14 - 39 - MC - 17 - 9 - MC - 47
2026 PGA Tour Results: 7 - 32* - MC* - 37* - 14* - MC - 13
Best Major Finish: T3 (2024 U.S. Open & 2019 PGA Championship)
One of my least favorite pastimes is trying to write about Patrick Cantlay. Thankfully, there’s not much to see here. Patrick has had a very forgettable start to 2026 after a below-standard 2025 season that included a missed cut in the final three majors of the year. A slight reason for optimism comes in that his best result of the year came in his latest start (T7 at the Valspar), but he hasn’t fared well in elevated events, which raises further concern about his ability to contend this week against this competition.
Hasn’t cracked the top 10 at Augusta since before COVID, but name value and past pedigree will likely have him priced alongside some elite players, which makes him someone to avoid this week.
Wyndham Clark
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 98
Past Masters Results: 46 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - MC - 42* - 41* - 58* - 35 - 65 - 13
Best Major Finish: 1st (2023 U.S. Open)
If I heard that Wyndham Clark was gaining over a stroke a round on approach, I would confidently assume he was consistently threatening to win golf tournaments. He is elite off the tee, has been one of the best putters in the world over the last few years, and has now added genuine iron play to his arsenal over the past two months. The problem is his putter is broken. The 2023 US Open champion has lost strokes putting in five straight starts and is currently floating around 150th in SG: Putting. He enters the Masters off back-to-back missed cuts in non-elevated fields. Even if he magically finds a putting stroke, his track record at Augusta doesn't inspire much confidence.
Corey Conners
Age: 34 | DataGolf Ranking: 38
Past Masters Results: 8 - 38 - MC - 6 - 8 - 10 - 46 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 14 - 13* - 33* - 37* - 70* - MC - 24
Best Major Finish: T6 (2022 Masters)
Same story we’ve seen for years. The Canadian has been excellent tee-to-green but brutal on the greens. His irons have been particularly sharp recently, ranking third on the PGA Tour in SG: Approach during March, but he sits 138th in SG: Putting on the season, which has kept him out of the top 10. His ability to hit fairways and greens is always an asset on difficult courses, and it has contributed to four top 10s at Augusta over the last six years. He is striking it well enough to do that again, but unlikely to hole enough putts to truly contend.
Fred Couples
Age: 66 | DataGolf Ranking: Unranked
Past Masters Results: MC - MC - 50 - MC - MC - MC - MC - 38 - 18 - MC - 20 - 13 - 12 - 15 - 6 - MC - MC- MC - 30 - 3 - 39 - 6 - 28 - 36 - 26 - 11 - 27 - 2 - 7 - 15 - 10 - 21- 1 - 35 - 5 - 11 - 5 - 31 - 10 - 10 - 32
Recent PGA Tour Champions Results: 32 - 7 - 5
Best Major Finish: 1st (1992 Masters)
Showed some vintage form last year with an opening round 71, a stroke better than eventual champion Rory McIlroy. A 77 on Friday dropped him two shots off the cutline, and at 66 years old, he is likely running out of time to break the tie with Gary Player for 2nd most cuts made at the Masters (31). It will be a joy to see that silky swing at Augusta, and I’ll be hoping against the odds that we get to see it on the weekend.
Jason Day
Age: 38 | DataGolf Ranking: 37
Past Masters Results: 8 - 30 - 39 - MC - MC - 5 - 20 - 22 - 10 - 28 - 20 - 3 - 2
2026 PGA Tour Results: 6 - 59* - MC* - MC* - 24* - 38 - 2
Best Major Finish: 1st (2015 PGA Championship)
Lone bright spots this season came in his first start of 2026 (T2 at the American Express) and his latest (T6 at the Houston Open), which was a welcome result after a rough stretch in between. He isn’t reliable week to week anymore, but still shows up on leaderboards now and then, and was in contention late Sunday at two elevated events last season. His T8 at last year’s Masters was his best finish here since 2019, and he gained strokes in all four categories and putted the lights out in Houston. He would need to be at his absolute best, but at a course he probably should have won at before, I’m not going to rule him out.
Bryson DeChambeau
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 11
Past Masters Results: 5 - 6 - MC - MC - 46 - 34 - 29 - 38 - 21
2026 LIV Golf Results: 1 - 1 - 24 - 3 - 17
Best Major Finish: 1st (2020 & 2024 U.S. Open)
Some things you’ll hear this week about Augusta National:
This is a second shot golf course.
Augusta demands feel and creativity.
You can’t be robotic around these greens
None of that says Bryson DeChambeau, and yet the YouTube golfer has been in contention the last two years. I’m a Bryson critic. It would be fair to call me a hater. But the man deserves credit. In 2024, he opened with a 65 in soft conditions before a disastrous short game performance saw him shoot over par the final three rounds. He went back to the lab, as he does, and came back in 2025 having fixed exactly that, leading the entire field in SG: Around-the-Green. The data will tell you that he hadn’t transformed himself into a short game wizard, but he figured out how to make his unique style of play work on these Augusta greens.
The trouble last year was his iron play, third worst in SG: Approach among players who made the cut. But if there is one thing we know about Bryson, he will find a way to fix a weakness. He has spent the offseason rebuilding his wedge game specifically with Augusta in mind, saying before LIV South Africa: “I took that last Masters as an opportunity to learn how to become a better iron player and a better wedger. If I’m five percent more consistent, I have a better chance than what I did last year at the Masters.” He now has back-to-back wins with his new setup, and although I think his robotic style will always leave him vulnerable to Augusta’s uneven lies and shot-shaping demands, I also believe he will find a way to make it work.
I’d only pick him to win if the conditions were soft, but given the progress he’s made on this course the last two years, I can no longer rule out the painful idea that we might see this YouTube golfer doing a Break-50 in a green jacket. Don’t forget to like and subscribe.
Nicolas Echavarria
Age: 31 | DataGolf Ranking: 87
Past Masters Results: 51
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 66* - 44* - 1 - MC - 8* - MC - MC - MC
Best Major Finish: 41st (2025 PGA Championship)
Three wins in four years is an impressive rate for a player who, by most metrics, isn’t exactly a world beater. The 31-year-old Colombian earned this Masters invitation by winning the Cognizant Classic in March, capitalizing on a couple of hot iron weeks early in the season. He has cooled off considerably since, missing the cut last time we saw him in Houston.
This will be Nico’s 8th major appearance. He has missed the cut in four previous and has a career best of T41 at last year’s PGA. He doesn’t have length and very rarely strings together the tee-to-green game necessary to contend on demanding major setups. Despite the win just a month ago, that major record is probably the best indication of what we can expect this week.
Harris English
Age: 36 | DataGolf Ranking: 27
Past Masters Results: 12 - 22 - 43 - 21 - 42 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 21 - MC* - 24* - 22* - 24* - 28* - 22* - 27*
Best Major Finish: 2nd (2025 Open Championship & 2025 PGA Championship)
One of the most interesting names in the field any major week. Week-to-week on the PGA Tour, Harris feels like a very good, not spectacular golfer. His results this season capture that feeling: eight starts with seven finishes in the 20s.
But there are some golfers that can elevate their games for the majors, and Harris is clearly one of them. Just last year, he finished runner-up at both the PGA Championship and The Open Championship. If not for Scottie Scheffler, he might have won two majors in 2025. In the five years prior, he also has third, fourth and T8 finishes at the US Open.
Looking into the data from last year, Harris is actually elevating his ball striking at these events. He gained over five strokes on approach three times in 2025. Those three tournaments: the Masters, the PGA Championship, and the Open Championship. He was 119th in SG: Approach on the PGA Tour last season, but at those majors, he transformed into one of the best iron players in the world.
He has been one of the best putters on Tour this season and has been serviceable tee-to-green. Given the pattern from this season, he likely has a very safe floor with another finish in the 20s, but he is capable of finding another gear and doing something much, much better.
Ethan Fang (Amateur)
Age: 20
World Amateur Golf Rank: 8th
The Oklahoma State junior won The Amateur Championship at Royal St. George's last summer, becoming the first American winner since 2007. He also helped Oklahoma State win the NCAA Championship and finished runner-up at the Western Amateur. He is the highest-ranked amateur in this year's field, and has more professional experience than any amateur here, having shared low-amateur honors at the 2025 Open Championship (75-70, missed cut). He will be the favorite for that honor again this week.
Matt Fitzpatrick
Age: 31 | DataGolf Ranking: 6
Past Masters Results: 40 - 22 - 10 - 14 - 34 - 46 - 21 - 38 - 32 - 7 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 1 - 2* - 41* - 24* - 14* - 9 - 63
Best Major Finish: 1st (2022 U.S. Open)
Fitz is making his 12th trip to Augusta in perhaps the best form of his career. After shooting 70-69-69-68 to finish runner-up at the Players, Matt shot four more rounds in the 60s the following week to win the Valspar. The key has been a massive uptick in iron play. “Approach play always felt like it was the missing link,” he said after the Valspar. “So far this year it’s been really good.” The numbers back that up. Prior to last week’s tournament in Texas, he was seventh on the PGA Tour in SG: Approach. Add elite fairway finding and outstanding around the green play, and Fitzy is also third on Tour in SG: Tee-to-Green.
He doesn’t have any flashy finishes at Augusta, but has shown real comfort here by making ten consecutive cuts even in years where his lead-in form was poor. This year he seems poised to do better though. He’s arriving without a weakness and with hotter irons than he’s had at any point in his career. That should be useful at this second shot golf course, and hard to imagine a scenario where Fitzpatrick isn’t relevant on the weekend.
Tommy Fleetwood
Age: 35 | DataGolf Ranking: 5
Past Masters Results: 21 - 3 - 33 - 14 - 46 - 19 - 36 - 17 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 10 - 8* - 49* - 7 - 4*
2026 DP World Tour Results: 41 - 25
Best Major Finish: 2nd (2018 U.S. Open & 2019 Open Championship)
For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention, Tommy Fleetwood has become one of the best players in professional golf. The headline is the Tour Championship, where he got his long-awaited and over-discussed first PGA Tour win, but over the past nine months he also had a DP World Tour playoff win, plus eight additional top-5s and three top-10s. When you add seven career major top-5s to the résumé, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before Tommy wins one of these.
Whether it can happen this week will hinge on the flat stick. Tommy goes through stretches of elite putting, but the putter also goes ice cold, and the two Florida starts this season were firmly in that category. A hot Thursday this week offered some hope, but he ultimately putted below the field average. A slight step in the right direction, and the rest of the game is absolutely there. He led the Players field tee-to-green and is leading the PGA Tour in SG: Around-the-Green. I’m enough of a Tommy Fleetwood homer to bet that he can find the putting stroke again this week, it' is rarely down for long. He will be a core part of my lineups and Masters pools.
Ryan Fox
Age: 39 | DataGolf Ranking: 63
Past Masters Results: 38 - 26
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 24* - 7* - 24* - 24
2026 DP World Tour Results: 45 - 27
Best Major Finish: T16 (2019 Open Championship)
At 39 years old, the Kiwi is playing the best golf of his career. He picked up his first PGA Tour win last season at Myrtle Beach, then grabbed a second less than a month later at the Canadian Open. This season started well with a top-10 and a couple of T24s against top competition, but it took a turn when kidney stones forced him out of the Players. The only competitive golf we’ve seen since was an ugly missed cut in Houston, so there is some concern about his health heading into the Masters.
If he is good to go, Fox is a proven and consistent cut maker at the majors. He was one of only six players to make the cut in all four majors in 2023 and 2024, and had respectable T28 and T19 finishes at the PGA Championship and US Open last season. The ceiling is modest though. A career best T16 and just two top-20s in 25 major starts suggests he’ll likely find a home on the second or third page of the leaderboard.
Sergio Garcia
Age: 46 | DataGolf Ranking: 131
Past Masters Results: MC - MC - MC - 23 - MC - MC - MC - 1 - 34 - 17 - MC - 8 - 12 - 35 - 45 - 38 - MC - MC - 46 - MC - 4 - 28 - 8 - MC - 40 - 38
2026 LIV Golf Results: 17 - 35 - 8 - 37 - 30
Best Major Finish: 1st (2017 Masters)
A year ago, we were told to watch out for Sergio at the Masters after a strong run on LIV. He missed the cut for the sixth time in seven years and made headlines only by using the Masters as an opportunity for Ronald McDonald cosplay. The 2017 Masters champion enters this year's event without any encouraging LIV form, and a recent track record at Augusta National that is begging you to look elsewhere. Keep him out of your pools.
Ryan Gerard
Age: 26 | DataGolf Ranking: 36
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 27* - MC* - 23 - 28* - 45* - 11 - 2 - 2
Best Major Finish: T8 (2025 PGA Championship)
An exceptional iron player who opened 2026 with consecutive runner-up finishes at the Sony Open and American Express. The results (and the putter) cooled against better competition in elevated events though, and he arrives at Augusta with little of that early season momentum after two missed cuts in March.
He has enough ability with his irons to compete in big events, as he showed with a T8 at last year's PGA Championship, but on current form he would need to catch a lucky week both chipping and putting. Not likely to happen in his first encounter with Augusta's greens.
Chris Gotterup
Age: 26 | DataGolf Ranking: 26
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 6 - 56* - 18* - MC* - 37* - 1 - 18 - 1
Best Major Finish: 3rd (2025 Open Championship)
Certainly the most intriguing debutant at this year’s Masters, and honestly one of the hardest players in the field to predict. Gotterup announced himself to the golf world last summer by out-dueling Rory McIlroy in the final group at the Scottish Open, then validated it with a third-place finish at the Open Championship the following week. He has now roared into this season by winning two of the first four tournaments of 2026.
Those results came back to earth through the next few elevated events, but the talent remains undeniable. The 26-year-old is one of the biggest hitters in golf, a solid iron player, and has been capable of a very tidy short game at times. He doesn’t quite appear to be consistent week in and week out with some sloppy elements still in his game, but when everything clicks, he has looked like one of the best players in the world.
Feels like there is a wide range of outcomes this week. He has the talent and firepower to do something special, but my judgmental instincts say that he might not have the humility or discipline to give Augusta the patience it demands on a first visit.
Max Greyserman
Age: 30 | DataGolf Ranking: 97
Past Masters Results: 32
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - MC* - 18* - 24* - 37* - MC - MC - 56
Best Major Finish: T21 (2024 U.S. Open)
Still winless in his third year on the PGA Tour, but has produced an impressive five runner-up finishes. He has proven to be a capable, well-rounded player at times, but none of his top-end results have come against the type of competition he’ll face at the Masters. He has cracked the top 20 just once in elite fields (majors, the Players, FedEx Cup, elevated events), and that came last month at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Any optimism that inspired was quickly undone by a six-shot missed cut at the Players and in Houston. He has enough game to break through at some point, but this week isn’t looking like the right moment.
Ben Griffin
Age: 29 | DataGolf Ranking: 28
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 28 - MC - MC* - MC* - 41* - 37* - 28 - 24 - 19
Best Major Finish: T8 (2025 PGA Championship)
A true breakout 2025 season should have raised genuine expectations for his Augusta debut. Ben won three times last year and only Scottie Scheffler had more top-10 finishes. He was a factor at the US Open (T10) and PGA Championship (T8), contended in elevated events and throughout the FedEx Cup playoffs, and earned a spot on the US Ryder Cup team. He consistently displayed a tee-to-green game that looked built for this stage.
The form has fallen off considerably in 2026. Much of it comes down to his irons. He was a top-20 approach player last year and is now outside the top 100 through nine starts. The last month of golf paints a particularly dire picture with three missed cuts in Florida and a T28 against a soft Houston field. The metrics aren’t as dire as some others in this field, but he doesn’t currently look capable of playing the golf he did a year ago.
Harry Hall
Age: 28 | DataGolf Ranking: 31
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 28 - MC* - 9* - MC* - 24* - MC - 24 - 6
Best Major Finish: T19 (2025 PGA Championship)
Best known for his newsboy cap, but should eventually be recognized as one of the best putters in professional golf. The flatstick carried the Englishman to a very strong 2025 campaign that included eleven top-25 finishes in his final twelve starts of the season. He proved capable against top competition with T19 at the PGA Championship, T9 at the Travelers (elevated), and a 6th-place finish in a FedEx Cup Playoff event. 2026 has been more of a mixed bag, but T9 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and T24 at Pebble Beach have shown a continued ability to finish in the top half of these elite fields. He is someone capable of plotting and scrambling his way to a decent result at Augusta National, but that time will probably come when he's had more of that crucial course knowledge to fall back on.
Brian Harman
Age: 39 | DataGolf Ranking: 96
Past Masters Results: 36 - MC - MC - MC - 12 - 44 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 39 - 11* - 50* - 19* - MC - MC - 61
Best Major Finish: 1st (2023 Open Championship)
When he is at his absolute best, Brian Harman can compete with the best golfers in the world. He proved that at Hoylake in 2023, running away with the Open Championship by six strokes. Augusta National is not a Brian Harman course. The bite-sized lefty sacrifices a ton of distance off the tee, which forces him to attack these lightning fast greens with low-lofted clubs and consistently creates difficult scrambling situations.
His good results historically have come at courses where length is much less of a factor. He managed a T12 at the 2021 Masters during a hot stretch of golf, but the six other much more modest finishes are probably closer to what we should expect year to year.
Tyrrell Hatton
Age: 34 | DataGolf Ranking: 67
Past Masters Results: 14 - 9 - 34 - 52 - 18 - MC - 56 - 44 - MC
2026 LIV Golf Results: 38 - 10 - 45 - 3 - 47
2026 DP World Tour Results: 33
Best Major Finish: T4 (2025 U.S. Open)
The analysis on Tyrrell (two r's and two l's) is tricky, because we might need to just ignore recent results. He made the cut at all four majors in 2025, finishing T14 at the Masters, T16 at the Open, and T4 at the U.S. Open, and was a force at the Ryder Cup. That same player finished the year 26th in the season-long LIV standings, sandwiched between the powerhouse names of Anirban Lahiri and Richard Bland. He is a better golfer than he shows on LIV, and has shown some growing comfort with Augusta National. Having once vocalized his disdain for the course, the grumpy Englishman has now made the cut at five straight Masters and finished a very respectable T14 and T9 over the past two. He probably doesn’t have the game, or the patience, to ever be a Masters champion, but he has missed just one cut at a major since 2022 and feels like a safe bet to play the weekend and flirt with another top-15 finish.
Russell Henley
Age: 36 | DataGolf Ranking: 9
Past Masters Results: MC - 38 - 4 - 30 - 15 - 11 - 21 - 31 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 13* - 6* - MC* - 19* - 8 - 19
Best Major Finish: T4 (2023 Masters)
One of the most steady players in professional golf. Prior to an uncharacteristic missed cut at Riviera, Russell had produced eleven straight top-20 finishes dating back to early last summer, almost exclusively in elite field events.
I trust Russell most weeks, but I have concerns about his ability to handle the distance at Augusta. His ability to gain strokes with every club is usually strong enough to compensate for distance concerns, but the missed cut and T38 in his last two Augusta trips stand out as outliers in what were otherwise extremely consistent seasons. The T4 finish in 2023 might refute that idea, but it took a truly special effort chipping and putting to produce that career-best result, and that kind of week would be hard to duplicate. It goes against my instincts to not project Russell comfortably inside the top 20, but my gut says to fade him at this course, particularly after another uncharacteristic week in Texas.
Jackson Herrington (Amateur)
Age: 19
World Amateur Golf Rank: 103rd
The Tennessee sophomore earned his Masters invitation by reaching the US Amateur final at The Olympic Club last August, where he won five matches before falling in a 36-hole championship to Mason Howell, also in the field this week. Known around Knoxville as "Fridge," he is the first left-handed player to reach the US Amateur final and the first Tennessee golfer to do so since 2013. The runner-up finish at the U.S. Amateur looks like a slight overachievement against his collegiate stroke play record, and while Fridge will be bombing fairways, he might struggle to keep pace on the scorecard even with the other amateurs this week.
Nicolai Hojgaard
Age: 25 | DataGolf Ranking: 24
Past Masters Results: MC - 16
2026 PGA Tour Results: 2 - 55 - 27* - 24* - 6 - 3 - 22
2026 DP World Tour Results: 4 - 52
Best Major Finish: T14 (2025 Open Championship)
The more recent European Ryder Cup participant of the Hojgaard twins, and the one currently threatening to win golf tournaments. The three-time winner on the DP World Tour has yet to win on the PGA Tour, but with four top-6 finishes in 2026, it feels like it’s coming. The data tells a similar story. He has been consistently gaining strokes in all four categories, brings world-class distance off the tee, and has been one of the better iron players on Tour this season, most recently gaining a career-best 6.6 strokes on approach in Houston.
Before handing Nicolai a green jacket, it’s worth noting that all of his best results this year have come in non-elevated fields, and he has never finished better than T16 in a major. Still, the 25-year-old is a massive talent who even briefly held the outright lead on the back nine on Saturday in his Masters debut. It would be an unlikely spot for a first PGA Tour win, but he is not someone you can rule out.
Rasmus Hojgaard
Age: 25 | DataGolf Ranking: 51
Past Masters Results: 32
2026 PGA Tour Results: 28 - 68 - MC* - MC - 9 - 24
Best Major Finish: T16 (2025 Open Championship)
The more decorated of the two Hojgaard twins and a member of the 2023 European Ryder Cup team, though currently the one in worse form. A five-time DP World Tour winner in his second year on the PGA Tour, Rasmus is a massive ball-striking talent with elite distance off the tee.
The 2026 results aren’t much to look at, but they aren’t dramatically different from a year ago when he made the cut in all four majors. He will give back shots with an errant driver and mediocre scrambling, but the irons and putter are good enough to manufacture enough birdies to play the weekend. A T32 in his Masters debut last year feels like a reasonable expectation for his second trip.
Brandon Holtz (Amateur)
Age: 39
World Amateur Golf Rank: 3263rd
Not a typo. Brandon Holtz is the 3,263rd ranked amateur in the world.
The 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion played college basketball at Illinois State before spending six years grinding the mini-tours. The 6’4 guard stepped away from professional golf around 2015 and built a career in real estate. He regained his amateur status in 2024 and won the US Mid-Amateur at Troon Country Club in his first ever USGA championship. His father Jeff Holtz, who took Brandon to the 2010 Masters as a fan, will be on the bag this week. Awesome.
Max Homa
Age: 35 | DataGolf Ranking: 116
Past Masters Results: 12 - 3 - 43 - 48 - MC - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - MC - 32 - 13 - 37 - 66 - MC - 27
Best Major Finish: T3 (2024 Masters)
Hard to say whether Max is crawling out of, or still firmly in, a two-year slump. His results are still a far cry from where they were in 2023, when the six-time PGA Tour winner climbed to as high as 5th in the OWGR. But without full confidence in where his game is, I’m still intrigued just because of what he’s done here the last two years. He threatened to win the Masters in 2024 while not playing his best golf, and managed a T12 in 2025 on the heels of a very ugly five straight missed cuts.
While he certainly doesn’t look like the player he was in 2023, there have been some signs of life. After a bad opening round at the Cognizant, Max shot 66-69-67 the final three days to rally for a respectable T13 finish. He made a ton of bogeys the following week at the Players (T32), but he also displayed some vintage scoring ability and iron play while carding 21 birdies and 2 eagles.
He is undoubtedly a high risk to miss the cut, and another one came this week at Valero, but his game is likely closer than this year's results suggest. More than anything for me though: Max is a proven competitor. We’ve seen it in his ability to close out tournaments, and in the way he locks in for his hometown event at Riviera. It’s starting to feel like he does the same at the Masters. I wouldn’t put any money behind this gut call, but also wouldn’t be overly surprised if Max threatened the leaderboard again in spite of some continuing lukewarm results.
Viktor Hovland
Age: 28 | DataGolf Ranking: 22
Past Masters Results: MC - 7 - 27 - 21 - 32
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 13* - 13* - 41* - 58* - 10
2025 DP World Tour Results: 14
Best Major Finish: T2 (2023 PGA Championship)
One of the more interesting personalities in golf and one of the most prodigious ball strikers of his generation, the affable Norwegian seems destined to win a major soon. This week is not it.
While Vik has had top-4 finishes in three of the other majors, the Masters is the one he has yet to threaten. There is a long history of creative short-game maestros excelling at Augusta — Seve, Phil, Spieth, Reed. Viktor does not fit that group. This course forces missed greens and difficult scrambling situations from tight lies into dramatically sloping greens, and until he develops more feel around the ground, it will always cost him too many bogeys to contend.
This year presents an additional challenge. He has been losing strokes putting and off the tee, the latter a significant shift for someone who has been one of the best drivers on Tour for the past five seasons. Would be one of the more fun Masters champions. Just not one of the more likely ones this week.
Mason Howell (Amateur)
Age: 18
World Amateur Golf Rank: 79th
The third-youngest U.S. Amateur champion in history won his final at The Olympic Club last August by a dominant 7&6 margin. The Georgia commit is 6’4 and hits it a mile. He got a recent taste of professional championship golf at the Houston Open, missing the cut by a stroke but showing some promise fighting back with a 66 on Friday. He is likely better than his world amateur ranking suggests, and should compete for low amateur honors this week.
Sungjae Im
Age: 28 | DataGolf Ranking: 113
Past Masters Results: 5 - MC - 16 - 8 - MC - 2
2026 PGA Tour Results: 60 - 4 - MC* - MC*
Best Major Finish: T2 [2020 Masters (Covid-Delayed)]
Sungjae struggled in 2025 and has been sidelined with a wrist injury most of this season, but the vintage week at the Valspar was a reminder of what he can do. He led the tournament through 54 holes before a Sunday fade, but it was an encouraging finish from someone who hadn’t sniffed a top-5 since last year’s Masters. Any form coming into this week is notable considering his affinity for this course. Runner-up on debut in 2020, T8 in 2022, T5 last year in the middle of an otherwise forgettable season. At his best he has the game to compete in majors, and very encouragingly he has started to show signs of life with his irons. After finishing 2025 ranked 179th in SG: Approach, Sungjae gained strokes with his irons at the Players and the Valspar.
Hard to fully trust given the limited schedule, but the Masters history and an eye-catching week at the Valspar make him impossible to dismiss.
Casey Jarvis
Age: 22 | DataGolf Ranking: 59
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 DP World Tour Results: 13 - 2 - 1 - 1 - MC - 56 - 3 - 32
Best Major Finish: Missed cut (2024 U.S. Open)
This kid is on an absolute heater. The South African won his first DP World Tour title in February, winning the Kenya Open by three strokes, then won his national open by three strokes the following week. Good golf continued with a T2 and T14 in India. Quite easily the best golf of his career leading up to his Masters debut.
Might we see another surprise South African Masters champion? Unlikely. This will be just his second major appearance and he has missed the cut all three times he has faced PGA Tour level competition (’24 US Open, ‘25 ISCO, ‘25 Barracuda). Jarvis will also be giving up significant length off the tee, which will be a disadvantage as he tries to make the cut. It would be an accomplishment to play the weekend, but probably unfair to expect much more than that in his Augusta debut.
Dustin Johnson
Age: 41 | DataGolf Ranking: 156
Past Masters Results: MC - MC - 48 - 12 - MC - 1 - 2 - 10 - 4 - 6 - MC - 13 - 38 -38 - 30
2026 LIV Golf Results: 31 - 10 - 24 - 17 - 17
2026 DP World Tour Results: MC
Best Major Finish: 1st [2020 Masters (Covid-Delayed) & 2016 U.S. Open]
Of all the players who made the move to LIV, DJ is the one whose game has suffered most. The former world number one is now merely an average player even in those modest LIV fields, and struggles to reach even that standard when he rejoins major championship competition. Since joining LIV in 2022, Dustin has missed the cut in six of nine major starts, including both of his Masters appearances. He even missed the cut in the Middle East this winter against primarily DP World Tour competition.
At 41, you might think the 2020 Masters champion is capable of a resurgence. But it also feels like Dustin may not be all that interested in working for one. The Champions Dinner figures to be the highlight of his week.
Zach Johnson
Age: 50 | DataGolf Ranking: 157
Past Masters Results: 8 - MC - 34 - MC - MC - 51 - 58 - 36 - MC - MC - 9 - MC - 35 - 32 - MC - 42 - MC - 20 -1 -32 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 70 - 61
Recent Champions Tour Results: 2 - 3 - 1
Best Major Finish: 1st (2007 Masters)
While Rory McIlroy stole the show at the 2025 Masters, Zach Johnson’s Thursday 66 and T8 finish might have been the most surprising thing of the week. That was his only top-10 finish anywhere since 2021, and his best finish at Augusta since winning in 2007.
Replicating anything close to that feels as unlikely as it sounds, but maybe the newly minted fifty-year-old will have some extra juice now that he has become a force on the Champions Tour.
Naoyuki Kataoka
Age: 28 | DataGolf Ranking: 382
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 Australian Tour Results: MC - 9
One of the more obscure qualifiers in recent Masters history, who earned his invitation by winning the Japan Open in October. He joins Casey Jarvis (South African Open) and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Australian Open) as the first beneficiaries of the Masters’ new initiative to reward winners of select national open championships around the world. This will be the Japanese golfer’s first major start and first start in the United States. A recent missed cut in his last competitive start at the Japan-Australasia Championship doesn’t bode well for his chances of playing the weekend at Augusta National.
Johnny Keefer
Age: 25 | DataGolf Ranking: 124
Past Masters Results: 61 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 3 - MC - MC* - MC - 41 - 43 - 27 - 61
Best Major Finish: T61 (2025 U.S. Open)
Johnny, or John (depending on who you’re asking) had a dominant season on the Korn Ferry Tour last year, finishing first on the points list, and played well enough to get into the top 50 of the OWGR and earn this Masters invite. That Korn Ferry success hasn't translated to consistent results on the PGA Tour. He flashed some of that form with a surprise T3 in Houston that followed three consecutive missed cuts in Florida, but another missed cut at the Valero this week signals the Houston performance was likely more of an outlier than a sign of things to come. Johnny ranks near the bottom of the PGA Tour in both SG: Putting and SG: Around-the-Green, a scary proposition in his first encounter with Augusta National greens.
Michael Kim
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 68
Past Masters Results: 27 - MC (2019)
2026 PGA Tour Results: 2 - 30 - MC* - 33* - MC* - 72* - 18 - MC - 31
Best Major Finish: T17 (2013 US Open, as an amateur)
Returned to Augusta last year after a six-year absence. A decorated amateur and collegiate golfer, Kim won the Jack Nicklaus and Haskins awards at Cal and finished T17 as the low amateur at the 2013 US Open. Apart from a 2018 John Deere Classic win by eight strokes, consistent success on the PGA Tour proved elusive, and he lost his card entirely for the 2022 season.
Last year felt more in line with what he is capable of. He climbed to 35th in the OWGR, won on the DP World Tour in the fall, and entered Augusta in strong form, capitalizing with his first made cut in a major since 2018. This year hadn’t been as kind, but a T2 at the Valero Texas Open this weekend changes the narrative. He gained significantly in all four major categories while shooting 65-66-69 in the final three rounds. Not sure if that’s enough to outweigh three months of below-standard golf, but he now seems much more capable of at least equaling the T27 from a year ago. In the meantime, he is a gracious interview and a wonderful follow on social media who will provide genuinely insightful dispatches from inside the ropes all week.
Si Woo Kim
Age: 30 | DataGolf Ranking: 13
Past Masters Results: 30 (2024) - 29 - 39 - 12 - 34 - 21 - 24
2026 PGA Tour Results: 10 - 50* - 13 - 34* - 45* - 3 - 2 - 6 - 11
Best Major Finish: T8 (2025 PGA Championship)
Surprisingly failed to qualify for last year’s Masters after making the cut in seven straight years, but is now comfortably inside the top 50 of the OWGR after a red-hot start to the season. Si Woo used Tour-leading approach play early in the season to put himself in the hunt in the first four tournaments of 2026.
The 2017 Players Champion has a pretty consistent pattern of mid-of-the-pack results at the Masters, with one outlier that required a near career-best iron week (+8.56 SG: Approach) to produce just a T12 result in 2021. He also smashed a putter that Saturday and finished the round with putting with a 3-wood. Distance and putting will likely always be a limitation at this course, but the iron play has been good enough to maybe flirt with another top 10.
Kurt Kitayama
Age: 33 | DataGolf Ranking: 40
Past Masters Results: 35 (2024) - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 60 - MC - 18 - 2* - 48 - 24 - MC - 40
Best Major Finish: T4 (2023 PGA Championship)
Will likely fly under the radar this week, but has genuine upside and has been one of the best ball strikers on the planet. Amongst active players, Kurt Kitayama trails only Scottie Scheffler in SG: Ball-striking over the past 12 months. He doesn't have the short game to even semi-consistently deliver, but when he finds it, he has proven capable of a big result. He beat an elevated field in difficult conditions at Bay Hill in 2023, finished a stroke off the lead against that competition this year at Riviera, and although he only has one career top-25 in the majors, that one was a flashy T4 at the 2023 PGA Championship. That tournament was also the only time he gained strokes with his short game in 17 major appearances, so we'd be betting against a steady trend to expect that again. Still, he does have enough very real firepower to spend some meaningful time on the leaderboard if he can get lucky on the greens for a few rounds.
Jake Knapp
Age: 31 | DataGolf Ranking: 16
Past Masters Results: 55
2026 PGA Tour Results: 6 - MC* - 6* - 8* - 8 - 5 - 11
Best Major Finish: 55 (2024 Masters)
If you’ve made it this far, take a minute of meditation with Jake Knapp’s golf swing.
Jake is one of the last additions to the field by virtue of finishing inside the top 50 of the OWGR after last week’s Houston Open. In his first two years on Tour, Jake saved almost all his good weeks for weak fields and wide-open courses where he could bomb and spray the driver. This year has been a different story. Excusing a missed cut at the Players while healing from a back injury, the smooth swinger has finished T11 or better in all six other starts this season, which included elevated fields and shorter, accuracy-demanding courses.
He has missed the cut in two of three major appearances and was T55 in his only Masters appearance, but I risk contradicting a lot of what I’ve already said in this article, and I don’t think I care. Even with the slip up at the Players, Jake leads the PGA Tour in Scoring Average and Strokes Gained: Total. With that swing and world-class ball speed you might think it’s all flashy firepower, but Jake is also 2nd on the PGA Tour in SG: Putting and 4th in Scrambling.
The logical part of my brain says he needs more experience at Augusta National before he can contend here, but this is also my 75th write-up and logic is taking a backseat. Nothing would surprise me.
Brooks Koepka
Age: 35 | DataGolf Ranking: 111
Past Masters Results: MC - 45 - 2 - MC - MC - 7 - 2 - 11 - 21 - 33
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 18 - 13* - 9 - MC - 56
Best Major Finish: 1st (2017 & 2018 U.S. Open | 2018, 2019 & 2023 PGA Championship)
In his first season back on the PGA Tour after leaving LIV, Brooks Koepka has shown genuine signs of life, particularly with the irons, where he is gaining nearly a stroke per round on approach, third best on Tour. The three top-20s he posted during the Florida swing were encouraging, even if they came in spite of shaky driving accuracy and a short game that remains a work in progress.
The narrative around Koepka for most of his career was that none of the regular season stuff mattered, that he would simply flip a switch when the majors arrived. We haven’t seen that in a few years. What’s interesting about this return, though, is that in his frequent broadcast appearances he has looked and sounded like a player who is engaged and determined to compete every week. That’s a different version of Brooks than the one who used to barely show up until Augusta.
The iron play is a real reason for optimism. But this week at the Masters, there is still too much else to clean up.
Fifa Laopakdee (Amateur)
Age: 21
World Amateur Golf Rank: 25th
The Arizona State junior became the first Thai player to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur, coming back from six shots down in the final round and making five straight birdies to win the title and secure Masters and Open Championship invites. A tall, lanky ball-striker with genuine amateur pedigree and a real chance to compete for low amateur honors this week.
Min Woo Lee
Age: 27 | DataGolf Ranking: 15
Past Masters Results: 49 - 22 - MC - 14
2026 PGA Tour Results: 3 - 22 - 6* - 12* - 2* - 28 - 38
Best Major Finish: T5 (2023 U.S. Open)
Min Woo Lee has always been more fun to watch than his major record suggests. Just one top-10 in 17 starts on that stage. The short game is world-class, the charisma is genuine, and somehow the results haven't followed. The disconnect has been the irons. Last year he finished 166th of 180 qualified players in SG: Approach. Not good.
This year he has already gained over 4.5 strokes on approach at three separate tournaments: Pebble Beach, Riviera, and Houston. That is a mark he had hit just once previously in his career. Add meaningfully improved driving accuracy and the removal of the big penal misses, and the short game brilliance finally has something to work with.
He is a far better all-around golfer than he was when he finished T14 in his Augusta debut, and that finish came when he was a fraction of the player he is now. The length, touch, and creativity he brings are qualities this course has always rewarded. Hard not to expect something more this year.
Haotong Li
Age: 30 | DataGolf Ranking: 110
Past Masters Results: 43 -12
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - MC - MC* - MC* - 32 - MC - 11 - 8 - 55
Best Major Finish: 3rd (2017 Open Championship)
A DP World Tour veteran best known for two surprise appearances near the top of Open Championship leaderboards. He played in the final group at last year’s Open at Royal Portrush, and most famously shot a final-round 63 at Royal Birkdale in 2017 to nearly win the Claret Jug.
This is his first full PGA Tour season and this will be his third trip to Augusta National. He started the West Coast swing with some encouraging iron play that generated a T8 at the American Express and a T11 at Torrey Pines, but has missed five cuts since and arrives at Augusta without any momentum.
Unlikely to make another surprise run this week, but he is a hilarious and truly joyful personality.
Shane Lowry
Age: 38 | DataGolf Ranking: 29
Past Masters Results: 42 - 42 - 16 - 3 - 21 - 25 - MC - MC - 39 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 28 - MC* - MC* - 2 - 24* - 8*
2026 DP World Tour Results: 26 - 3
Best Major Finish: 1st (2019 Open Championship)
Shane was having a fine 2026 season and seemed a sure thing for an overdue PGA Tour win at the Cognizant Classic. But the wheels came off. Leading by three with three holes to play at PGA National, he dunked consecutive tee shots in the water at 16 and 17, handing the title to Nicolas Echavarria. “I had the tournament in my hands and I threw it away,” he said afterward.
Shane has had some good rounds at Augusta National and even managed a T3 in 2022. He fits in the Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth bucket of players that succeed here with elite touch, feel, and creativity around the greens. The question is whether he has the patience to manage this course for four rounds. Augusta punishes fraction-of-an-inch misses, and Shane is easily frustrated when things don’t go his way. We’ve seen those emotions spiral and affect his golf swing. He responded to the Cognizant collapse with consecutive missed cuts, the first time he’d done that on the PGA Tour since 2021. At last year’s Masters, he was within striking distance late Saturday before plummeting to T44 with a Sunday 81.
Shane has the second shot ability, the touch and the creativity to compete here someday, but I question whether or not he has the patience. The timing this year also isn’t right.
Robert MacIntyre
Age: 29 | DataGolf Ranking: 8
Past Masters Results: MC - 23 (2022) - 12
2026 PGA Tour Results: 2 - 4* - 24* - 20* - 37* - 38 - 4
Best Major Finish: 2nd (2025 U.S. Open)
Results this season for the Scottish lefty have hinged on the irons. He only gained on approach in two of his first six starts, and tellingly finished top-5 in both of those, the most recent being a noteworthy solo-4th at the Players. The irons stayed hot in Texas this week (+5.6 SG: Approach, 4th in the field), helping fuel a T2 at the Valero Texas Open. With the approach play trending upwards, Bobby Mac looks ready. The rest of his game already is, currently inside the top 10 on the PGA Tour in putting, scrambling, and strokes gained off the tee.
The stage won’t be too big. Three worldwide wins in the past two years, a consistent Ryder Cup competitor, and he was very comfortable at the top of a major leaderboard last year, nearly chasing down JJ Spaun on the back nine at Oakmont. The missed cut here last year looks excusable as simply a bad week from a player who showed real comfort at Augusta in 2021 and 2022 as a far less experienced golfer.
He shares some of the creative shotmaking qualities of the lefties who have done well here before him, and with the irons trending in the right direction, there is plenty of reason to believe he could be the first Scottish player to win a green jacket since Sandy Lyle in 1988.
Hideki Matsuyama
Age: 34 | DataGolf Ranking: 12
Past Masters Results: 21 - 38 - 16 - 14 - 1 - 32- 19 - 11 - 7 - 5 - MC - 54 - 27
2026 PGA Tour Results: 21 - 27* - 41* - 28* - 8* - 2 - 11 - 13
Best Major Finish: 1st (2021 Masters)
Playing in his 15th Masters at just 34 years old, Hideki feels like he has been here forever. The 2021 champion is as steady a presence at Augusta National as the game has produced, making the cut in 13 of 14 appearances and finishing outside the top 25 just twice in those starts.
Augusta has always suited him. One of the best iron players of the past decade, with magical touch around the greens, and a course wide enough to forgive a driver that can be wayward. The combination has made him dangerous here almost every year.
This year is harder to read. He looked great in Phoenix (2nd) and won the Hero World Challenge in December, but hasn’t produced a similar result in two months, finishing outside the top 20 in four consecutive starts. Those underwhelming results feel in line with his last four Masters appearances: top half of the leaderboard, never part of the main story. That is probably my expectation again this year.
Matt McCarty
Age: 28 | DataGolf Ranking: 72
Past Masters Results: 14
2026 PGA Tour Results: 39 - MC - MC* - 41* - 24* - 67* - MC - 18 - 2 - 55
Best Major Finish: T14 (2025 Masters)
Another late addition to the field, clinging to a top-50 OWGR spot after the Houston Open. A T2 at the American Express early in the season vaulted him into those rankings, but he has been slipping ever since.
The top debutant at last year’s Masters with a T14, which looks like a standout performance next to missed cuts at the other three majors in 2025. As a lefty at Augusta, it is easy to overreact to that result. But McCarty’s broader profile doesn’t look like someone who will be a regular presence in the top 20 here. He is not long off the tee and has had to rely heavily on his putter to generate results. Last year the data showed a much more well-rounded player heading into Augusta. This season he has leaned almost entirely on the flatstick over the last two months. That T14 was likely a career best at the Masters.
Rory McIlroy
Age: 36 | DataGolf Ranking: 3
Past Masters Results: 1 - 22 - MC - 2 - MC - 5 - 21 - 7 - 10 - 4 - 8 - 25 - 30 - 15 - MC - 20
2026 PGA Tour Results: 46 - WD - 2 - 14
2026 DP World Tour Results: 33 - 3
Best Major Finish: 1st (2021 U.S. Open | 2012 & 2014 PGA Championship | 2014 Open Championship | 2025 Masters)
Most prognostication about the defending Masters champion will be cautious. He has played just 14 competitive rounds this season, withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a back injury, and followed that with a lackluster T46 at the Players where he failed to break 70 in any round.
I’m not concerned. The back is fine, and I’m happy to excuse the four days at TPC Sawgrass given that he was managing the injury and played without a single practice round. Those six rounds in Florida drag down the numbers, and Rory still leads the Tour in SG: Tee-to-Green. He has been phenomenal with the driver (2nd on Tour in SG: Off-the-Tee), gains strokes around the greens every week, and when he wasn’t managing back pain was one of the best iron players in the field, finishing top 4 in SG: Approach at both Pebble Beach and Riviera.
The bigger picture is this: Rory McIlroy is a more well-rounded player than he has ever been, and he is still finding ways to improve. Last year he transformed his wedge game, which allowed him to win at shorter accuracy courses like Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass. He continues to improve as a putter, finishing 2025 a career-best 9th on the PGA Tour in SG: Putting. This year at Riviera, we saw him threading fairway-finding stingers with the driver. Rory McIlroy’s driver is arguably the biggest weapon in the history of professional golf, and he is still finding new ways to use it more effectively.
The last two starts will have people talking themselves out. Don’t. With Scottie struggling, Rory is the best and most complete player in professional golf right now. He has shown enough this season to dominate this field tee-to-green, and playing Augusta without the grand slam pressure of years past, I think he is capable of running away from the field at a course that suits his game as well as any on Earth.
Tom McKibbin
Age: 23 | DataGolf Ranking: 104
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 LIV Golf Results: 24 - 21 - 24 - 44 - 17
2026 DP World Tour Results: 19 - 38
Best Major Finish: T41 (2024 U.S. Open)
McKibbin qualified for his first Masters by winning the Hong Kong Open last November. A promising young talent on the DP World Tour, he won the Porsche European Open at just 20 years old, but hasn’t taken significant strides forward since joining LIV. This season he hasn’t managed better than T17 on the league, his approach data is poor, and he sits a concerning 46th of 57 in greens in regulation percentage. The Northern Irishman has finished MC, T50, T66 and T41 in his four major appearances, and there’s not much to suggest he’ll do better than that in his Masters debut.
Maverick McNealy
Age: 30 | DataGolf Ranking: 20
Past Masters Results: 32
2026 PGA Tour Results: 21 - 32* - 13* - MC* - 29* - 13 - 10 - 24
Best Major Finish: T23 (2024 PGA Championship & 2025 Open Championship)
Solid but unspectacular is the story. The Stanford grad and son of a Silicon Valley billionaire has carved out a very consistent PGA Tour career, a reliable cut maker and top-25 finisher who lacks the high-end ball striking to consistently contend. That profile has played out at the majors too. He made the cut at all four last year with a best finish of T23, never threatening the leaderboard in any of them.
Nothing about his 2026 form or his one Masters start suggests he will finish significantly better or worse than the T32 he posted in his debut.
Phil Mickelson
Age: 55 | DataGolf Ranking: 363
Past Masters Results: MC - 43 - 2 - 21 - 55 - 18 - 36 - 22 - MC - 2- MC - 54 - 3 - 27 - 1 - 5 - 5 - 24 - 1 - 10 - 12026 LIV Golf Results: 48 - 40 - 25 - 37Best Major Finish: 1st (2004, 2006 & 2010 Masters | 2005 & 2021 PGA Championship | 2013 Open Championship)
If he was going to make another run at the Masters, last year was probably the time to do it. He arrived a year ago with a third and sixth place finish on LIV in the buildup, and I gave him a very favorable write-up. He rewarded me with a pair of rounds in the mid-70s and an early exit.
This year there is considerably less to work with. He is currently 59th of 61 in the LIV standings behind some names that I promise you have never heard of. While he had some splashy major finishes as a senior golfer, he has now missed the cut in seven of his last ten majors. Course knowledge matters at Augusta, but on current ability he is one of the worst players in this field and will be lucky to make the weekend.
Withdrew from the the Masters field: “Unfortunately, I will not play in the Masters Tournament next week and will be out for an extended period of time as my family continues to navigate a personal health matter. I have great respect for Augusta National Golf Club and it is definitely the most special week of the year. I wish everyone the best of luck and will be watching.”
Collin Morikawa
Age: 29 | DataGolf Ranking: 14
Past Masters Results: 14 - 3 - 10 - 5 - 18 - 44
2026 PGA Tour Results: WD - 5* - 7* - 1* - 54 - MC
Best Major Finish: 1st (2020 PGA Championship & 2021 Open Championship)
What was trending towards a massive resurgent season has come grinding to a halt. Collin got his first win since 2023 at Pebble Beach in February and followed that with impressive T7 and solo fifth finishes at the next two elevated events. He was one of the most popular picks heading into the Players, but was forced to withdraw on the second hole of the tournament, clutching his back in obvious pain. He was scheduled to play at the Valero Texas Open but had to withdraw pre-tournament.
It’s a shame because Collin could have been a threat. He won six times in his first three years as a professional, including two majors, and at the height of his powers was the best iron player in golf. That superpower appeared to have returned this season, as he once again leads the Tour in SG: Approach, while also leading in Good Drive Percentage. Fairways and world-best approach play is a dangerous combination.
If we hear some good news in the buildup to Augusta, his form and steady Masters track record might make him someone worth taking a chance on. For now, his status for the week remains very much in doubt.
Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson
Age: 25 | DataGolf Ranking: 112
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 55 - 68 - 40 - 41 - 49
2026 DP World Tour Results: 45 - 19
Best Major Finish: T12 (2025 U.S. Open)
Earned his Masters invitation by winning the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, holing a 10-foot putt on the 72nd hole to keep Cameron Smith out of a playoff.
A top-15 finish in last year’s DP World Tour Rankings was just good enough to earn the Dane a PGA Tour card. His rookie season has featured plenty of made cuts but few peaks, with only one finish inside the top 40 while playing exclusively in non-elevated events. He did impress with a T12 at the US Open in just his second major start, though Oakmont was a better fit for someone whose game is built far more around accuracy than distance. Making the cut feels like the goal, and it’s a reasonable one.
Alex Noren
Age: 43 | DataGolf Ranking: 25
Past Masters Results: MC - 62 - MC - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 30 - 32* - 24* - 12* - 29* - MC - MC
Best Major Finish: T6 (2017 Open Championship)
A prolific winner on the DP World Tour whose game has never fully translated to PGA Tour major conditions. He has played some good golf over the past six months, including two DP World Tour wins and a handful of top-30 finishes in elevated events. The highlight this week, however, is a truly dreadful Masters record. This will be his fifth trip to Augusta and first since 2023. He has missed the cut in three of four starts and finished dead last among those who did play the weekend in the other.
It won’t take much to post his best result here, and recent form suggests he could, but expectations should be kept low for someone that is clearly not a course fit.
Andrew Novak
Age: 31 | DataGolf Ranking: 99
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 14 - 55 - MC* - 38* - 47* - 48* - MC - 7 - MC
Best Major Finish: T42 (2025 U.S. Open)
A year ago, Novak had three podium finishes in a three-week stretch surrounding the Masters, a T3 at the Valero Texas Open, a runner-up at the RBC Heritage, and a win alongside Ben Griffin at the Zurich Classic. Unfortunately, he had to wait a year to make his Augusta debut, and arrives looking far less like a player ready to compete.
A top-10 at Torrey Pines to open the season was encouraging, but he has finished outside the top 35 in six starts since and the underlying numbers have been all over the place, losing strokes with different parts of his game week to week. Last year he had a knack for putting himself in contention through sheer force of will, but Augusta demands much more than that from a first-time visitor.
José María Olazábal
Age: 60 | DataGolf Ranking: Unranked
Past Masters Results: MC - 45 - MC -MC - 50 - MC - MC - MC - MC - MC -34 - 50 - MC - MC - MC - MC - MC - 44 - 3 - MC - 30
2026 Champions Tour Results: 14 - 69
Best Major Finish: 1st (1994 & 1999 Masters)
Olazabal won his first Masters in 1994 and looked destined for more. Then rheumatoid arthritis struck so severely that doctors told him he might never walk normally again. He proved them wrong, came back, and won it again in 1999. Now 60 years old, he is still walking Augusta National every April. That he made the cut in 2024 while giving up 100 yards to the field off the tee borders on miraculous. Someone to root for every year, and quite possibly the longest shot in the field to play the weekend.
Carlos Ortiz
Age: 34 | DataGolf Ranking: 64
Past Masters Results: MC
2026 LIV Golf Results: 8 - 21 - 6 - 42 - 13
Best Major Finish: T4 (2025 U.S. Open)
Missed the cut in eight of eleven major starts, but a surprise T4 at last year’s US Open at Oakmont earned the Mexican a Masters invitation. On his best days he is a very capable ball striker. He was among the best in the field in SG: Approach at Oakmont and in two top-10 LIV finishes this season. He has generally been a top-15 player on LIV, though I’m not entirely sure what that means in broader context.
If I’m honest, I don’t have a strong read on him. Oakmont suggests he is capable of something on this stage. I just don’t have much confidence in backing it.
Marco Penge
Age: 27 | DataGolf Ranking: 73
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 21 - MC - 4 - MC - 16 - 64 - MC - MC
Best Major Finish: T28 (2025 PGA Championship)
The PGA Tour rookie certainly passes the eye test. Movie star looks, 190 mph ball speed, and just enough leaderboard time this year to have grabbed our attention.
Three DP World Tour wins in 2025 earned him his PGA Tour card, and he has had a couple of nice weeks in the states this season. He held a share of the Saturday lead at Riviera in February and was in contention again a few weeks later with a T4 at the Valspar.
He has world-class distance and a high-launching ball flight that can hold these fast, elevated greens. The putter has been streaky but dangerous when it gets hot. His around the green play hasn’t developed stateside yet, and will surely keep him out of the Sunday storyline. Massive talent though, and someone to keep an eye on this season.
Aldrich Potgieter
Age: 21 | DataGolf Ranking: 216
Past Masters Results: MC (2023)
2026 PGA Tour Results: 21 - MC* - MC* - 5* - 60* - MC - MC - MC
Best Major Finish: T64 (2023 U.S. Open)
The longest hitter in professional golf earned his Masters invitation with his first PGA Tour win at last year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. At his most dangerous on wider courses that heavily reward driving distance, Potgieter rarely brings enough game to contend elsewhere. A surprise top-5 at the Genesis looks like an outlier against the broader picture of five missed cuts in eight starts this season. Augusta National can’t simply be overpowered, and there are plenty of weaknesses in his game for this course to exploit. It will be a battle to make the cut.
Mateo Pulcini (Amateur)
Age: 25
World Amateur Golf Rank: 115th
The Argentine won the Latin America Amateur Championship in Lima, Peru in January, earning his Masters invitation and becoming the oldest winner in the tournament’s history. A three-time All-American in four years at D-II Oklahoma Christian before transferring to Arkansas for his graduate year, he infrequently made the playing roster with the Razorbacks, but did average nearly 36 putts per round in his limited starts, which could make for a long week on these frequently three-putted greens. Arkansas coach Brad McMakin called Pulcini “one of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet.” I hope he has a great week.
Jon Rahm
Age: 31 | DataGolf Ranking: 2
Past Masters Results: 14 - 45 - 1 - 27 - 5 - 7 - 9 - 4 - 27
2026 LIV Golf Results: 2 - 5 - 1 - 2 - 2
Best Major Finish: 1st (2021 U.S. Open & 2023 Masters)
Let’s start on the golf course. With a win and three solo-second finishes in five 2026 starts, this is easily the best stretch of golf Jon Rahm has had on LIV. He has been gaining strokes across all four categories, and recently compared his current game to 2023, the year he won the Masters: “I feel like I’ve driven it better so far this year. I’m feeling really, really good.”
The bigger story this week is off the golf course. Nine LIV golfers were asked to pay fines to maintain partial DP World Tour status and Ryder Cup eligibility. Eight of them paid up. Rahm, who signed a $300 million contract to join LIV, refused and has now withdrawn an appeal, calling the situation “extortion” (it’s not). His Ryder Cup future is now very much in jeopardy, and this will follow him around Augusta all week. He will be asked about it in every interview, and will come face to face with Ryder Cup teammates who have been vocal about the situation.
He has always been prone to outbursts unrelated to his own golf swing, and his diminished major record since joining LIV makes a compelling case that the circus surrounding the league affects his play when he steps into these fields. The 2023 Masters champion has all the talent to win multiple green jackets, but I just don’t trust his mental game enough to back him this week. That said, this is a wildly subjective psychoanalysis of a two-time major champion, and I’m fully prepared to be proven very wrong.
Aaron Rai
Age: 31 | DataGolf Ranking: 80
Past Masters Results: 27
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - MC - 23 - 28* - 73* - 50
Best Major Finish: T19 (2021 Open Championship, 2024 U.S. Open & 2025 PGA Championship)
Most easily recognized for wearing two black gloves, which gets plenty of attention. Less discussed, and slightly more interesting, is that he is one of the only professional golfers in the world who plays with covers on his irons.
Rai grew up in a working class English family where his dad sacrificed a great deal to buy him an expensive set of irons as a kid. After every round, his father would spend time cleaning each groove with a safety pin and baby oil before carefully putting the iron covers back on. Now a top-40 player in the world who receives free equipment, Rai has no practical reason to keep the covers. He keeps them anyway, as a constant reminder of where he came from.
As for the Masters, we don’t need to spend too much time here. Most of his game is built around generational driving accuracy, and is almost exclusively relevant on shorter courses where that ability is a significant factor. T27 in his debut might be as good as he’ll do on this golf course.
Patrick Reed
Age: 35 | DataGolf Ranking: 44
Past Masters Results: 3 - 12 - 4 - 35 - 8 - 10 - 36 - 1 - MC - 49 - 22 - MC
2026 DP World Tour Results: 10 - 29 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 26
Best Major Finish: 1st (2018 Masters)
We’ve reached a point where Patrick Reed needs to be mentioned with the favorites every year at this tournament. He has made eight straight cuts and has only finished outside the top 12 twice since his 2018 Masters win.
Lead-in form hasn’t mattered much when he steps on these grounds, but he arrives this year with pretty serious momentum. Patrick left LIV to play full-time on the DP World Tour this season and immediately started winning golf tournaments. In a three-week stretch he won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic by four strokes, lost in a playoff in Bahrain, and then won at the Qatar Masters.
He isn’t long and has never been one of the world’s best ball strikers, but he knows how to manage this golf course. Augusta rewards players who know where to miss and know when to not aim at pins. Patrick dumps it to safe spots and trusts his scrambling. In 2024, he finished the week third-to-last in greens in regulation, but was still able to scramble his way to a T12 finish. He has a lot more going for him on this trip. You’ll probably see his name next to a couple of sexier younger golf phenoms in your golf pools, but don’t be scared to click his name. He has earned the right to be trusted here.
Kristoffer Reitan
Age: 28 | DataGolf Ranking: 84
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 10 - MC - MC - 66* - 17 - 41 - 30 - MC
Best Major Finish: T30 (2025 Open Championship)
Long road to get here. The Norwegian lost his DP World Tour card after his rookie season in 2019 and spent years rebuilding on the Challenge Tour before winning his way back in 2024. Two wins and six top fives in 2025 earned him a PGA Tour card and a Masters invite.
The success hasn’t carried over to the PGA Tour yet. A season-best T10 at the Valero this week was a welcome result after consecutive missed cuts, but one good week doesn’t answer the broader questions. He has an elite combination of distance and accuracy off the tee, but has been losing strokes everywhere after that. A T30 at last year’s Open Championship is the best evidence he can hang around on a big stage, though he arrived at Royal Portrush with a considerably more consistent game than he brings here.
Davis Riley
Age: 29 | DataGolf Ranking: 368
Past Masters Results: 21
2026 PGA Tour Results: 60 - MC - MC* - 42 - MC - MC - MC - 56 - 6
Best Major Finish: T2 (2025 PGA Championship)
Making his second Masters start with about as poor a lead-in as anyone in the field. Five missed cuts in nine starts, with a season-opening T6 in Hawaii the only time he has cracked the top 40. Losing strokes across the bag and nothing to suggest he is capable of navigating Augusta National right now.
That said, Davis Riley has a history of producing shocking results. He won the Charles Schwab Challenge in the middle of an otherwise terrible 2024 season that featured only one other top-25 finish. Last year, he was T2 at the PGA Championship without breaking a top 30 in the month prior or 6 months after. Probably headed home Friday, but nobody priced at 500-1 has a better case for a surprise top-10.
Justin Rose
Age: 45 | DataGolf Ranking: 34
Past Masters Results: 2 - MC - 16 - MC - 7 - 23 - MC - 12 - 2 - 10 - 2- 14 - 25 - 8 -11 - 20 -36 - 5 - 22 - 39
2026 PGA Tour Results: 13* - MC* - MC* - 37* - 1 - MC
Best Major Finish: 1st (2013 U.S. Open)
With last year’s playoff loss, Rosey joins the unfortunate company of Greg Norman and Tom Weiskopf as a three-time Masters runner-up, and becomes the only player without a green jacket to lose two Masters playoffs.
While most of these profiles are based on recent form and trending data, with Rosey we’re mostly leaning on our gut. He is hardly reliable week to week. You wouldn’t expect the seventh-ranked player in the world to miss the cut in half his starts, but we also know that at 45 years old, Justin plans his golf schedule with the goal of peaking for the majors.
So instead of looking at the broader profile, I’m just assessing whether he has shown enough signs that he can still contend in this field. My answer is a definitive yes. Hidden amongst those missed cuts this year was a dominating seven-stroke victory at Torrey Pines. Despite some inconsistent results this year, he remains inside the top 10 on the PGA Tour in SG: Approach, a level he hasn’t sustained in over a decade. Last time we saw him at the Players he finished T13, having cleaned up the messy play that led to missed cuts at Riviera and Bay Hill.
I trust that his game will be ready. I trust him at this golf course. And I trust that he can still beat the world’s best on the right golf course.
Xander Schauffele
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 4
Past Masters Results: 8 - 8 - 10 - MC - 3 - 17 - 2 - 50
2026 PGA Tour Results: 4* - 3* - 24* - 7* - 19* - 41 - MC
Best Major Finish: 1st (2024 PGA Championship & 2024 Open Championship)
One of the most consistent major performers of the past few years, Xander’s all-around game warrants consideration every time he tees it up under major championship conditions. The winner of the 2024 PGA Championship and Open Championship has finished inside the top 20 in fourteen of his last fifteen majors. Augusta National has been particularly friendly, with three consecutive top 10s and genuine Sunday contention in both 2019 and 2021.
His game is also trending in the right direction. Xander has no real weakness and generally gains strokes with every club. When the irons get hot, he is almost always in contention. Buckle up. Xander led the field in SG: Approach at the Players and was fifth in that category the following week at the Valspar, producing his two best finishes of the season (T4 Valspar, solo third Players).
This might be noise, but I’m intrigued that Xander keeps going super low. He hasn’t won this year, but he has shot a 65 in three of his last four tournaments, including a Sunday low 65 at the Valspar the last time we saw him. He’s been playing well, but these red-hot rounds have me thinking a special week might be on the horizon.
Scottie Scheffler
Age: 29 | DataGolf Ranking: 1
Past Masters Results: 4 - 1 - 10 - 1 - 18 - 19
2026 PGA Tour Results: 22* - 24* - 12* - 4* - 3 - 1
Best Major Finish: 1st (2022 & 2024 Masters)
The betting markets apparently still think Scottie is winning every other week, but there has been a pretty significant drop in form.
Just looking at the results, he broke an historic streak of 18 consecutive top-10 finishes at the Genesis (T12), and then finished outside the top 20 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players. The bigger concern for me is that the data (and the eye test) show a pretty significant dip in ball striking. Scottie has quite easily led the PGA Tour in SG: Approach in each of the last three seasons, but heading into last week’s tournament he was 80th in that statistic, highlighted by losing strokes on approach in back-to-back events for the first time since 2021, while a two-way miss has also dropped his driving accuracy meaningfully below his typical standard over those three tournaments.
Not to say he won’t win. Any negativity here is relative to who he has been the past three years, and even this slightly worse version of Scottie Scheffler is still more likely to win than pretty much anyone in the field. But I personally don’t think he will, and based on what we’ve seen of late, definitely don’t think he should be priced at half the odds of anyone else in the field. I’ll be fading Scottie this week, more comfortably than I have in years.
Charl Schwartzel
Age: 41 | DataGolf Ranking: 159
Past Masters Results: 36 - MC - 50 - 10 - 26 - 25 - MC - MC - 3 - MC - 38 - MC - 25 - 50 - 1 - 30
2026 LIV Golf Results: 24 - 21 - 31 - 17 - 30
2026 DP World Tour Results: MC
Best Major Finish: 1st (2011 Masters)
The 2011 Masters champion seems to be more or less the same golfer he has been for years. Charl has consistently been a middle of the pack golfer since he joined LIV in 2022, which is in line with the slightly below-average golfer he was on the PGA Tour the several years prior. He mostly outperformed that standard at Augusta of late, making the cut in five of the last six years, so we can probably expect him to make another cut and disappear into the weekend.
Adam Scott
Age: 45 | DataGolf Ranking: 30
Past Masters Results: MC - 22 - 39 - 48 - 54 - 34 - 18 - 31 - 9 - 42 - 38 -14 -1 - 8 -2 - 18 -MC - 25 -27 -27 - 33
2026 PGA Tour Results: 21 - 56* - 11* - 4* - 30 - 24 - 40
Best Major Finish: 1st (2013 Masters)
Like a fine wine, the 2013 Masters champion continues to age gracefully. He is having one of the best approach seasons of his career, gaining well over a stroke per round in his last four starts, and has added meaningful ball speed to still be competitive off the tee at 45. Not for nothing, he continues to possess one of the most gorgeous swings and prettiest faces in professional golf.
Also resurfacing are the short game woes that were ever-present in the first half of his career. Although he had found some limited success with the putter over the last five years, he has lost strokes on and around the greens in five of seven starts this season. The one encouraging sign is that his best week on the greens came at Riviera, where he finished fourth, a course he is extremely familiar and comfortable with. Augusta National should be another comfortable spot. He missed the cut here last year, but had played the weekend in each of the previous 15 Masters appearances.
He can still keep pace with almost anyone in golf as a ball striker, and it would not surprise me at all to see him make a run at a second green jacket before his career is over.
Vijay Singh
Age: 63 | DataGolf Ranking: Not ranked
Past Masters Results: 58 - MC - MC - MC - MC - 49 - MC - MC - 54 - 37 - 38 - 27 - MC - MC - 30 - 14 - 13 - 8 - 5 - 6 - 6 - 7 - 18 - 1 - 24
2026 PGA Tour Results: 40
2026 Champions Tour Results: 12 - 12
Best Major Finish: 1st (2000 Masters)
Twenty-six years after winning his only green jacket, the legendary Fijian ball striker will don his signature visor and running sneakers to stroll the Augusta fairways for the 32nd time. He did so for four rounds in his last Masters start in 2024, and a made cut on the PGA Tour suggests he might be able to enjoy another extended stay. Vijay made the cut at the Sony Open in January, shooting three rounds in the 60s to finish T40 and ahead of a dozen players who are in this field this week. My gut says he plays four rounds this week.
Cameron Smith
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 102
Past Masters Results: MC - 6 - 34 - 3 - 10 - 2 - 51 - 5 - 55
2026 LIV Golf Results: 17 - 8 - 48 - 8 - 13
Best Major Finish: 1st (2022 Open Championship)
At one point, the 2022 Open champion looked destined for a green jacket. Four top-6 finishes and another top 10 in his first nine trips to Augusta painted the picture of a future champion. Since joining LIV, he has rarely looked like a world class player capable of winning in these fields. He has missed the cut in his last five majors and was three strokes off the cut line at the 2025 Masters.
His strength has always been a world class short game, but he was also capable of elite iron weeks that could win him golf tournaments. The latter no longer shows up. His ball striking numbers were poor across all four 2025 majors, and sitting 53rd on LIV in greens in regulation percentage is not an encouraging sign heading into Augusta.
Smith now seems destined to join the list of Australians who merely came close to a green jacket.
J.J. Spaun
Age: 35 | DataGolf Ranking: 23
Past Masters Results: 50 - 23 (2022)
2026 PGA Tour Results: 1 - MC - 24* - MC* - MC* - 45* - MC - 40
Best Major Finish: 1st (2025 U.S. Open)
A breakout 2025 that featured a runner-up at the Players, a first Ryder Cup appearance, a top-10 OWGR ranking, and a US Open win at Oakmont. After a massively disappointing start to 2026, he looked very much like that player this week in Texas, gaining strokes in every major category and winning the Valero Texas Open.
I’m not going to let that change my attitude too much this week. Oakmont last year was a sweet spot. Best form of his career, a US Open setup that rewarded fairway finders, and the best putting week of his career. The Masters is a different ask. Augusta’s length and the pressure it puts on the short game make this an unlikely place for JJ to ever contend. He has hit his irons beautifully over the past month, but this week at the Valero was the only time this season that he also brought a competent short game. Expectations are raised after the win in Texas, but they don’t extend much beyond a top 20.
Jordan Spieth
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 39
Past Masters Results: 14 - MC - 4 - MC - 3 - 46 - 21 - 3 - 11 - 2 - 1 - 2
2026 PGA Tour Results: 63 - 11 - 32* - 11* - 12* - 29* - MC - 24
Best Major Finish: 1st (2015 Masters, 2015 U.S. Open & 2017 Open Championship)
Jordan doesn’t feel like one of the best players in modern golf right now, but the game isn’t as far away as it looks. He has had three top-12 finishes this season, two in elevated events, and has been able to gain strokes with every club at times, albeit rarely in the same week. What feels slightly different this year is some real peaks with his irons. He was 8th in the field on approach at the Players and 7th the following week at the Valspar. The putter has been volatile, posting a season-worst at Valero but ranking among the best in the field at Riviera and Pebble in February. The pieces are there.
Augusta National, more than most places, feels like somewhere it can come together. Spieth has said the course allows him to fully commit to creative shots in a way other venues don’t. The touch around the greens, the longer pitches and bunker shots, have always been his strength. Jordan hasn’t been a top-10 player in the world for several years, but he has produced a T3, T4, and T14 at the Masters in the last five years. The rational case isn't overwhelming, but I can still see Augusta bringing out the best of the 2015 Masters champion.
Samuel Stevens
Age: 29 | DataGolf Ranking: 46
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 5 - 58* - MC* - 16* -55* - 35 - 30 - 6 - 31
Best Major Finish: T23 (2025 U.S. Open)
Not the most recognizable name in the field, but worth a closer look. The Oklahoma State product has made the cut in five of five previous major starts, which is a better track record than plenty of better-known players with longer résumés. His tee-to-green numbers over the last 36 rounds rank 17th in this field, and that consistency rarely gets reflected in the results because the short game has been the ceiling. He has struggled to convert on and around the greens this season.
Stevens is the kind of player who can make an appearance on the weekend and make people feel dumb for overlooking him, even if a top-20 finish would be a genuine surprise.
Sepp Straka
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 32
Past Masters Results: MC - 16 - 46 - 30
2026 PGA Tour Results: MC - 8* - 13* - 50* - 2* - 18 - MC
Best Major Finish: T2 (2023 Open Championship)
Starting to grow a little tired of writing that this should be the week Sepp Straka “takes a step forward at a major.” Although he is a regular presence near the top of PGA Tour leaderboards, the big Austrian is far less familiar with that position in major championships. Sepp has won four times on the PGA Tour since 2022, including a double last year when he topped an elevated field at the Truist Championship. Far less formidable in the majors, missing the cut in three of four last year and finishing T52 at the Open.
He has had some bright spots in 2026, including a T2 at Pebble Beach and a T8 at the Players. But missing the cut as one of the favorites at Valero this week has dampened my interest further. I am going to stop projecting major success until he shows any consistent ability to generate results on that stage.
Nick Taylor
Age: 37 | DataGolf Ranking: 41
Past Masters Results: 40 - MC - 29 (2020)
2026 PGA Tour Results: 28 - MC - 42* - 38* - 28* - 24* - 28 - 27 - 27
Best Major Finish: T23 (2025 U.S. Open)
Although somewhat unheralded, the 37-year-old Canadian has had an impressive PGA Tour career. In his 12th consecutive season on Tour, Taylor has five wins including one in each of the last three years, and made it to the Tour Championship last year to earn a third consecutive Masters invitation. 2026 hasn’t produced anything resembling a win, with a season-best T24 at Pebble Beach and a missed cut at the Valspar in his most recent start.
More than anything, a stubborn pattern of poor major results makes him someone hard to count on this week. Taylor has played the weekend in just 33% of his 18 major starts, and of the six cuts he made, only a T23 at last year’s US Open and a T29 at the 2020 Masters were remotely encouraging results. A proven winner at the right venue. Augusta National has never been that venue, and nothing suggests it’s about to become one.
Justin Thomas
Age: 32 | DataGolf Ranking: 36
Past Masters Results: 36 - MC - MC - 8 - 21 - 4 - 12 - 17 - 22 - 39
2026 PGA Tour Results: 20 - 8* - MC*
Best Major Finish: 1st (2017 & 2022 PGA Championship)
The two-time PGA champion had limited starts in 2026 while recovering from offseason back surgery, and hopes for early success were pretty low. A pair of 78s at Bay Hill in his first start back did nothing to change that. He rebounded spectacularly under the circumstances with a T8 at the Players, where he was among the best in the field on approach. He came back to earth the following week at the Valspar (T30), losing strokes on approach. The Masters will be his first competitive start in three weeks.
Hard to trust with the back injury alone, but JT also carries a fairly shocking major record for a player of his quality. Since winning the 2022 PGA Championship he has missed the cut in half of his last 14 majors, with a T8 at the 2024 PGA Championship his only finish inside the top 30. Augusta National is unlikely to be where he breaks that trend, with his T4 finish at the COVID Masters in November 2020 the only truly noteworthy result here.
Sami Valimaki
Age: 27 | DataGolf Ranking: 100
Past Masters Results: First appearance
2026 PGA Tour Results: 14 - MC - MC - 37* - 34* - 41 - MC - MC
Best Major Finish: T68 (2023 Open Championship)
Around this time last year, Big Sammy was striking his irons as well as anyone in golf during a five-week stretch that only produced a T4 at the Houston Open. Despite an imposing frame, he is surprisingly short off the tee, and without consistent weapons elsewhere in the bag, the iron play alone wasn’t enough to break through. He did reemerge in the fall to win the RSM Classic and earn an invite to his first Masters.
2026 hasn’t produced many highlights, and a career-best finish of T68 in six major starts doesn’t bode well for his chances to become the first Finnish player to make the cut at Augusta National.
Bubba Watson
Age: 47 | DataGolf Ranking: 188
Past Masters Results: 14 - MC - MC - 39 - 26 - 57 - 12 - 5 - MC - 37 - 1 - 50 - 1 - 38 - 42 -20
2026 LIV Golf Results: 38 - 28 - 41 - 37 - 48
Best Major Finish: 1st (2012 & 2014 Masters)
The T14 at last year’s Masters ranks right alongside Zach Johnson’s T8 at the top of the list of most surprising things to happen that week, particularly because it was carried by one of the best putting performances of Bubba’s 20-year professional career. That kind of week is not something you can bet on repeating.
Bubba once made Augusta look like his personal playground and was a prototype for how rewarding creativity and shot shaping can be at this golf course. That feels like a long time ago. At 47, he is no longer among the longer hitters on tour and very infrequently gains strokes with his irons. Currently ranked 48th on LIV with just one top-half finish this season, he missed the cut in his two other Masters starts since joining LIV. His 18th appearance will likely be another short week.
Mike Weir
Age: 55 | DataGolf Ranking: Unranked
Past Masters Results: MC - MC - MC - MC - MC - 51 - MC - MC - MC - MC - MC - 44 - MC - MC - MC - 43 - 46 - 17 - 20 - 11 - 5 - MC - 1
2026 Champions Tour Results: 14 - 50 - 15
Best Major Finish: 1st (2003 Masters)
The 55-year-old Canadian lefty has missed the cut in all but two Masters appearances since 2011, including each of the last five. The 2003 champion is having one of his better seasons on the Champions Tour, but he remains one of the longer shots to play the weekend here.
Danny Willett
Age: 38 | DataGolf Ranking: 457
Past Masters Results: 42 - 45 - MC - 12 - MC - 25 - MC - MC - MC - 1 - 38
2026 PGA Tour Results: 56 - MC - 42 - MC
2026 DP World Tour Results: 45
Best Major Finish: 1st (2016 Masters)
The 2016 Masters champion is one of the more unlikely green jacket winners in tournament history, opening that week at 150-1 odds before taking advantage of blustering conditions and a Sunday back-nine quadruple bogey from Jordan Spieth.
A decade on, it’s hard to find much encouragement from his limited starts. Playing on temporary status, he has made just two of four cuts in non-elevated events. That said, the Englishman has made the cut in each of the last two Masters and finished 12th in 2022 without anything resembling form heading into any of those starts, suggesting he knows his way around the place well enough to at least contend to play the weekend.
Gary Woodland
Age: 41 | DataGolf Ranking: 77
Past Masters Results: MC - 14 - MC - 40 - MC - 32 - MC - MC - MC - 26 - WD - 24
2026 PGA Tour Results: 1 - 14 - MC - MC - 64 - MC - 72 - MC
Best Major Finish: 1st (2019 U.S. Open)
Well, the story of the year in golf is pretty well locked in. If you’ve found this article, you probably know it, and I highly recommend watching his recent Golf Channel interview, but here’s the short version. In 2023, Woodland underwent brain surgery to remove a lesion on his brain. He returned to the PGA Tour appearing okay, but was privately battling PTSD, often struggling to hold it together on the golf course. He went public with his diagnosis because hiding it had become too heavy a burden, and then remarkably went on to win the Houston Open by five strokes two weeks later.
While we’ll be rooting for Gary at the Masters, we probably need to temper expectations. The Houston win is an incredible story, but the Augusta history is harder to ignore. A T14 in 2023 is his lone top-20 in twelve starts, and he has missed the cut in half of them, which is particularly concerning given how forgiving this cutline can be. He remains one of the longest hitters on tour and has been elite in his last two starts in Texas, but the Augusta greens have always given him trouble, and he would need to tame them in his thirteenth visit to keep this remarkable run going. I’ll be happy if he does, but I wouldn’t expect it.
Cameron Young
Age: 28 | DataGolf Ranking: 7
Past Masters Results: MC - 9 - 7 - MC
2026 PGA Tour Results: 1* - 3* - 7* - 55* - 41 - 22
Best Major Finish: T2 (2022 Open Championship)
With eleven top-10s, seven top-5s, two wins, and a dominating 3-1-0 record at the Ryder Cup, it’s hard to find anyone in professional golf who has been better than Cam Young over the past 11 months. He had always been a force tee-to-green, but last spring he found a putting stroke to match it, finishing the year 7th on the PGA Tour in SG: Putting.
That success on the greens has carried into 2026 and been a big part of the story in successive T7, T3, and a win against elite fields at Riviera, Bay Hill, and TPC Sawgrass. His irons are also red-hot coming off the second best approach week of his career (+7.08 SG: Approach at the Players).
Adding fuel, he’s been on major leaderboards and never once seemed scared of the moment. In 2022, he finished T2 at the Open. Last year he was T4 at the US Open, and had back-to-back top-10s at the Masters in 2023 and 2024. He has the game and the mentality to win major championships, and it certainly looks like he is ready to take that step. Will be a very popular pick to get it done this week.
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So after that giant analysis (which we love btw), who’s your pick to win?