AUGUSTA, Ga. — For the first time in his career, Rory McIlroy will drive down Magnolia Lane this week as a Masters champion.
And, for the first time, McIlroy won’t be carrying the burden of having never won a green jacket as he prepares for the first major championship of the season at Augusta National Golf Club.
Nearly a year ago, McIlroy made a 4-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to defeat England’s Justin Rose on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff.
With his long-awaited Masters victory, McIlroy became only the sixth golfer to complete the career Grand Slam.
“No, this is going to be the first time I drive down Magnolia Lane, and it’s all going to be about enjoying my week,” McIlroy said. “You know, enjoying the perks that come along with being a Masters champion: having a parking space in the champions’ car park to using the champions’ locker room. You know, hosting the dinner on Tuesday night.
“The thing is, I know I get to go back to the Masters Tournament for the rest of my life, and that’s quite a freeing feeling.”
Can McIlroy do it again? Will Scottie Scheffler find his groove and slip on a green jacket for the third time in the past five years? Or will a couple of LIV Golf stars, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, come out on top?
Here’s a look at the 91 golfers in the field, from the guys who can win to those who are simply trying to make the cut.
Tier I: The clear favorites
Some folks might have questions about Scheffler’s game heading into the Masters, but he’s already won two green jackets and is still the best golfer in the world. Back problems have put McIlroy’s chances of a repeat in doubt. Collin Morikawa was playing like one of the best golfers in the world before he hurt his back. Can DeChambeau’s success in the LIV Golf League carry over to the majors? Here are the golfers with the best chances to slip on a green jacket Sunday.
Scottie Scheffler
The world No. 1 golfer has been fighting his driver in recent weeks, and he ranks 80th in strokes gained: approach (.080). He hasn’t had a top-10 finish since tying for fourth in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Feb. 12 — his longest drought in nearly four years (three starts in a row!). He skipped a start in Texas because his wife, Meredith, was due with their second child. And yet, he’s still the betting favorite and would become only the ninth golfer to win three jackets or more. Scheffler is 101-under par in his major championship career, the best all time, including 111 under since 2020. He’s 45 strokes better than any other player during that span, according to ESPN Research.
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy’s form had been solid this year until a back injury forced him out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March. He was touch-and-go to tee it up in the Players, but got through 72 holes and tied for 46th at even par. His three-week layoff is tied for the longest of his career entering the Masters, according to ESPN Research. Last year, he joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win all four majors during the Masters era. He’d be the first back-to-back winner since Woods in 2001 and 2002. He’ll have to improve his putting to win again. He ranks 104th in strokes gained: putting (-.148); he was ninth in that stat entering the 2025 Masters.
Bryson DeChambeau
The long-hitting DeChambeau won back-to-back events in the LIV Golf League and is playing some of the best golf of his career. He played with McIlroy in the final Sunday pairing in last year’s Masters and carded a 3-over 75. He finished tied for fifth at 7 under. He has unfinished business in Augusta. He was inside the top 10 of the leaderboard at the end of each round in the past two Masters — Scheffler was the only other golfer who did it.
Xander Schauffele
The two-time major winner finished in the top 10 in the Masters in five of his past seven starts. He looks like he’s finally recovered from a rib injury that derailed his 2025 season with a solo third in the Players and tie for fourth in the Valspar Championship. Since his 2018 Masters debut, Schauffle is tied for the most top-10 finishes with five.
Cameron Young
Young is going to be a popular pick for the green jacket after he won the Players for the biggest victory of his career. His tee-to-green game suits Augusta National, where he already has two top 10s in four starts.
Patrick Reed
With his return to the PGA Tour coming this fall, it will be interesting to see what kind of welcome the 2018 Masters winner gets in Augusta, where he played college golf. Augusta National still feels like home — he finished in the top 12 in five of his past six starts. Did we mention Reed has already won twice on the DP World Tour this year? He’s 39 under in the Masters since 2018, which trails only Scheffler (40 under).
Ludvig Aberg
Åberg was runner-up in the 2024 Masters and was solo seventh last year. He will have to recover from his late collapse in the Players, in which he squandered a three-stroke lead with nine holes to play. In last year’s Masters, he was tied with McIlroy and Rose with two holes to play in the final round. Åberg, 26, finished bogey-triple bogey to finish 5 shots back.
Jon Rahm
The 2023 Masters champion picked up his third LIV Golf victory in Hong Kong on March 8. For all the talk about him not playing enough golf to contend in majors, he finished in the top 10 in five of the past nine. Since earning his first top-10 finish in the Masters in 2018, “Rahmbo” has recorded five top 10s in eight starts while recording the most rounds in the 60s (13) of any player, per ESPN Research.
Tommy Fleetwood
The reigning FedEx Cup champion finished in the top 25 in each of his past two Masters starts, tying for third in 2024. Even though Fleetwood finished in the top 10 in three of his four starts in signature events this season, his putting hasn’t been great. Fleetwood’s eight career top 10s in majors are the most among players in this year’s Masters field without a major title to their name, per ESPN Research.
Tier II: The guys who can win
Here are the legitimate contenders other than the top nine. They have the games, guts and nerves to handle four pressure-packed rounds on one of the most treacherous golf courses in the world.
Matt Fitzpatrick
The 2022 U.S. Open champion won again at the Valspar Championship on March 22, his first PGA Tour victory in nearly three years. His ballstriking is world-class again and he’s hitting 69% of fairways, which is fourth on tour.
Justin Rose
Rose, 45, will carry some scars to Augusta National after his painful playoff loss to McIlroy in 2025. But it was also evidence that the English golfer is still capable of winning a major. He has been a Masters runner-up three times in 20 starts.
Jordan Spieth
Sure, Spieth hasn’t won since the RBC Heritage in April 2022. But the 2015 Masters champion has put together a number of good rounds this season — and a few that knocked him out of contention. He finished in the top five in half of his 12 Masters starts. Spieth’s career scoring average (70.98) is the lowest of any player in Masters history with at least 25 rounds played.
Sepp Straka
Straka won twice on the PGA Tour last season and tied for second in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Feb. 12. His putter will have to heat up this week if he’s going to contend for a green jacket.
Brooks Koepka
Koepka’s form has been so-so since he returned to the PGA Tour in January, but few golfers show up for the majors like “Big-Game Brooks.” The five-time major winner is a two-time Masters runner-up, most recently in 2023. He ranks third on tour in strokes gained: approach (.913), but 140th in strokes gained: putting (-.529).
Collin Morikawa
The two-time major champion would have been among the top five favorites to slip on a green jacket Sunday — until a back injury knocked him out of action. Morikawa hoped to return in last week’s Valero Texas Open but wasn’t ready. He finished in the top 10 in the Masters in three of his past four starts. Since 2020, Morikawa has hit the most fairways of anyone (264), while hitting the second-most greens (291), which is only behind Scheffler.
Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama’s form wasn’t great in recent weeks, but he lost in a playoff in Phoenix and tied for eighth at Pebble Beach earlier this year. He has been fighting his driver for much of the season. Matsuyama hasn’t finished in the top 10 since becoming the first Japanese golfer to win a green jacket in 2021.
Russell Henley
The former University of Georgia golfer will get plenty of support from the galleries this week. He tied for fourth in 2023, his only top-10 finish in nine starts. He’s been one of the best putters on tour and his ballstriking is solid.
Robert MacIntyre
Bobby Mac has climbed to 11th in the Official World Golf Ranking and just finished solo fourth in the Players. The Scottish golfer will be making his fourth start in Augusta; his best finish was a tie for 12th in 2021.
Akshay Bhatia
Bhatia has already won three times on tour — and he just turned 24 on Jan. 31. His playoff victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was the biggest of his career. He made the cut in his first two Masters starts. His iron play and putting have been sublime.
Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton’s love-and-hate relationship with Augusta National is trending toward the former. The LIV Golf star tied for ninth in 2024 and for 14th last season.
Viktor Hovland
Hovland has just one top-10 finish this season and has fallen to 22nd in the world rankings. Still, he’s capable of putting it together this week if he figures out how to hit fairways. Hovland tied for seventh in 2023.
Harris English
English has scuffled a bit to start the 2026 season — he hasn’t finished outside the top 30 in the seven tournaments in which he made the cut, but hasn’t finished inside the top 20. He tied for 12th in last year’s Masters, his best finish in the major. He was runner-up in the 2025 PGA Championship and The Open.
Tier III: If everything goes right
Here are the sleeper candidates to slip on a green jacket. The list features past champions, rising stars and others whose games have been works in progress this season. Will it all come together at Augusta?
Chris Gotterup
Gotterup, 26, has already won twice on tour this season, at the Sony Open in Hawaii and WM Phoenix Open. He hits the ball a mile off the tee (319.9 yards) and ranks seventh in strokes gained: tee to green (1.311). It will be his first Masters start.
Shane Lowry
Lowry had a tough stretch after losing a late lead in the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, missing the cut in the API and the Players. He tied for third in the 2022 Masters.
Jacob Bridgeman
Bridgeman picked up his first PGA Tour win by holding off a loaded field in the Genesis Invitation. He didn’t finish outside the top 18 in his first eight starts this season. He leads the tour in strokes gained: putting (1.339) and is second in strokes gained: total (1.933). It will be his first Masters start.
Justin Thomas
Thomas tied for eighth in the Players, a positive sign as he continues his return from back surgery in November. Augusta National hasn’t been his happy place, recently. After back-to-back missed cuts, he tied for 36th in 2025. Since 2023, JT missed the cut in seven of his 12 major starts. The only player with more missed cuts in majors during that span is Nick Taylor (nine), according to data from ESPN Research.
Min Woo Lee
“The Chef” has been heating up in recent weeks with four top-12 finishes in a five-tournament stretch. He ranks in the top 10 on tour in strokes gained: total (1.693), tee to green (1.236) and off the tee (.675).
Si Woo Kim
Kim had five top-25 finishes in his first eight starts this season, tying for second in the Farmers Insurance Open and for third in Phoenix. He finished in the top 15 of the Masters once in eight starts.
Nicolai Højgaard
Højgaard finished second in the Houston Open, which secured his spot in the OWGR top 50 and earned him a spot in the Masters field. He tied for 16th in his first start in Augusta in 2024.
Corey Conners
The Canadian ballstriking machine has been undone by his putting and work around the greens this season. He finished in the top 10 in four of his past six Masters starts.
Adam Scott
Just when it seems like the 2013 Masters champion’s best golf is in the rearview mirror, he finishes solo fourth in the Genesis Invitational and ties for 11th in the API. He ranks fourth on tour in strokes gained: approach (.912).
Sam Burns
Burns had an up-and-down start to the 2026 season, missing three cuts and tying for sixth at Pebble Beach and 13th in the Players. He didn’t finish in the top 25 in each of his first four Masters starts.
Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay hasn’t won on tour in more than three years and missed the cut in three of four majors last year (he tied for 36th in the Masters). It’s time for “Patty Ice” to turn things around.
Jason Day
After a rough stretch, Day tied for sixth in the Houston Open and grabbed some momentum. His iron play has held him back so far this season. He tied for eighth in last year’s Masters.
Jake Knapp
Knapp is coming off an 8-under 62 in the final round of the Houston Open, which tied for the low score at Memorial Park Golf Course. His tie for sixth moved him into the OWGR top 50, securing his second Masters invitation.
Daniel Berger
Berger nearly completed his incredible comeback from a debilitating back injury, losing to Bhatia on the first hole of a playoff in the API. He tied for 21st in the Masters last year, his first start in the major since 2022.
Ben Griffin
Griffin, who won three times on tour last season, is fighting his swing and missed three straight cuts in March. It will be his first start at Augusta National.
Gary Woodland
His victory in the Houston Open — after coming back from brain surgery and battling PTSD — is one of the best stories in the sport in a long time. He tied for 14th in the 2023 Masters, his best finish in 12 starts.
Alex Noren
After winning twice on the DP World Tour last year, Noren is ranked 19th in the world. He hasn’t finished in the top 10 in a major since 2017 and made the cut at Augusta once, trying for 62nd in 2019.
J.J. Spaun
The reigning U.S. Open winner has struggled mightily this season with four missed cuts in his first seven starts. He was 114th in strokes gained: total (-.450) and 159th in putting (-.875).
Cameron Smith
From 2020 to 2024, Smith’s name seemed to be on the Augusta National leaderboard as often as pollen. He tied for sixth in 2024, but then missed the cut in his past five majors.
Sungjae Im
The South Korean golfer finished in the top eight in three of his six Masters starts, tying for fifth last year. A right wrist injury delayed the start of his 2026 season, and he’s still catching up.
Zach Johnson
The 2007 Masters champion won his first event on the PGA Champions Tour in the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational on March 8. He tied for eighth in last year’s Masters at age 49, carding a 6-under 66 in the third round, his best score at Augusta National.
Tier IV: Hey, miracles happen
They are the long shots. This tier includes past champions, a few players struggling with their form and a handful who are trying to crack the puzzle of Augusta National.
Keegan Bradley
Wyndham Clark
Nico Echavarria
Ryan Fox
Ryan Gerard
Max Greyserman
Harry Hall
Brian Harman
Rasmus Højgaard
Max Homa
Casey Jarvis
Dustin Johnson
Michael Kim
Kurt Kitayama
Matt McCarty
Maverick McNealy
Andrew Novak
Aaron Rai
Nick Taylor
Bradley, Clark, Harman and Johnson are major champions. Bradley still seems to be processing the U.S. team’s loss to Europe in last year’s Ryder Cup and hasn’t played well.
After a slow start to the season, Harman tied for 11th in the Players, but he missed the cut in three of his past four starts in the Masters. Johnson, the 2020 Masters champion, missed the cut in six of his past nine starts in majors.
McNealy is ranked 27th in the world, but doesn’t have a top-10 finish in 12 starts in majors. Gerard, Hall, Jarvis and Novak are all first-timers; Fuzzy Zoeller was the last golfer to win the Masters in his first start in 1979.
Tier V: Happy to make the cut
They aren’t expected to be among the contenders unless something special happens. For various reasons, just being around on the weekend at Augusta National Golf Club would be considered a victory.
Michael Brennan
Brian Campbell
Sergio Garcia
Naoyuki Kataoka
Johnny Keefer
Haotong Li
Tom McKibbin
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
Carlos Ortiz
Marco Penge
Aldrich Potgieter
Kristoffer Reitan
Davis Riley
Sam Stevens
Sami Välimäki
García, 46, missed the cut in six of his seven starts since winning the Masters in 2017 — he tied for 23rd in 2022. He has one top-10 finish in five starts in the LIV Golf League this season, tying for eighth in Hong Kong.
McKibbin, who plays on the Legion XIII team with Rahm, is making his first Masters start, along with Brennan, Kataoka, Keefer, Neergaard-Petersen, Penge, Reitan, Stevens and Välimäki.
Kataoka was ranked 500th in the world rankings when he unexpectedly won the Japan Open on Oct. 19 to earn invitations to the Masters and The Open at Royal Birkdale in July. He’s now ranked 366th in the world.
Tier VI: Past champions
They’re competing this week because they won green jackets and earned the right to come back to play, but their days of competing for another major championship — barring the completely unexpected — are behind them.
Ángel Cabrera
Fred Couples
José María Olazábal
Charl Schwartzel
Vijay Singh
Bubba Watson
Mike Weir
Danny Willett
It wouldn’t be stunning to see at least one of the past Masters champions put together a couple of good rounds and make the cut. A few of them still have something left in their tanks. Last year, Watson posted a 4-under 68 in the final round and tied for 14th at 3 under.
Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, announced on social media Thursday that he wouldn’t be playing because of a family health situation. Five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods also isn’t playing after he announced Tuesday that he’s taking an extended leave and seeking treatment, following his rollover crash and DUI arrest in Florida on March 27.
It’s the first time since 1994 that neither Mickelson nor Woods is competing in the Masters.
Tier VII: Amateurs
They’re the new kids in the Crow’s Nest and the most talented (and most fortunate) amateur players in the world. They’re trying to do what Ryan Moore (tied for 13th in 2005), Matsuyama (27th in 2011) and DeChambeau (21st in 2016) did before turning pro by making the cut as amateurs.
Ethan Fang
Jackson Herrington
Brandon Holtz
Mason Howell
Fifa Laopakdee
Mateo Pulcini
Howell, 18, is playing in his second major after qualifying for the 2025 U.S. Open with a pair of 63s in qualifying at Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta. A native of Thomasville, Georgia, he missed the cut in the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.
In August, Howell became the third-youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur, defeating Herrington 7 and 6 in the final 36-hole match. That victory earned him invitations to the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship this year.
Howell played a practice round with Rose at Augusta National on Wednesday and nearly aced the par-3 fourth.
Holtz, 39, won the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Sept. 18. It was his first start in a USGA championship. Holtz was a guard on Illinois State’s basketball team and played on mini-tours for six years. He regained his amateur status in 2024.
If you’re looking for an everyman golfer to root for this week, Holtz is your guy. The real estate agent from Bloomington, Illinois, is ranked 3,263rd in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Fang, 20, won the Amateur Championship at Royal St. George’s in England., less than a month after he helped Oklahoma State win an NCAA national title. The Plano, Texas native was named a Ping All-American and Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.
