The best scriptwriters in the world were likely jealous with how the final round at Augusta played out last year. It’ll likely be hard to top the drama between Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Rose, but new faces are always an easy gateway to excitement.
While there’s no Tiger or Phil this week for the first time since 1994 (and the Rory career Grand Slam chase is over), there are 17 previous Masters champions in the field for the 90th edition of the tournament. Can Rory join the rare club to repeat as a green jacket winner? Will DeChambeau or Rose win his first?
Scottie Scheffler was punctual arriving for his pursuit of a third Masters title, with a new member of his family. Can the world No. 1 shake off some up-and-down play from earlier this year?
Those are the familiar faces and questions, though. They all started somewhere. Let’s get to know the Masters debutants, from the amateurs to the relative unknowns to the multi-time winners.
Masters players making their debut in 2026
- Michael Brennan
- Ethan Fang (a)
- Ryan Gerard
- Ben Griffin
- Chris Gotterup
- Harry Hall
- Jackson Herrington (a)
- Brandon Holtz (a)
- Mason Howell (a)
- Casey Jarvis
- Naoyuki Kataoka
- Johnny Keefer
- Fifa Laopakdee (a)
- Haotong Li
- Tom McKibbon
- Andrew Novak
- Marco Penge
- Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
- Mateo Pulcini (a)
- Kristoffer Reitan
- Sam Stevens
- Sami Välimäki
Augusta National first impressions
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, the reigning Australian Open champion, spoke to reporters on Monday, calling the opportunity a “dream come true” and playing his first 18 holes at Augusta on Sunday “love at first sight.”
The 26-year-old Dane said he spent last week in Oklahoma with his team studying the speed of the course’s greens and preparing for various slopes.
“Being here as a rookie there is so many small intricacies to the course. I have three, four days to learn what other players have been playing here 10 or 20 times know,” he said. “So obviously a busy couple days for me trying to learn the golf course, but it’s another exciting thing about coming to new places, especially a place like that.”
Highest-ranked Masters debutant
Chris Gotterup is a two-time winner on Tour in 2026 (WM Phoenix Open, Sony Open) and enters the highest-ranked of the 17 professionals making their debut. The five amateurs are not part of the Official World Golf Ranking.
Gotterup, who won the 2025 Scottish Open, admitted Monday that a year ago he didn’t envision himself at Augusta.
“At some point, I had hoped to be here and to play in the Masters, but to be here, especially a year ago, [before] four wins, I probably wouldn’t have believed it,” he said. “It’s been a fun ride the last year or so. Hopefully keep it going.”
Gotterup played with 2025 Masters runner-up Rose during his practice round Monday.
He said there’s not too many better people to play a practice round with than Rose, who has “seen the ups and downs of this place.”
“As a first-timer, it’s hard to really take it all in,” Gotterup said. “Having not played the tournament to where you need to be here on certain holes, you need to be here, and kind of this wind, this wind — you haven’t seen it all. So it’s nice to hear what they have to say in that respect and at least be prepared for kind of anything that can come your way.”
“It’s more preparation work and hearing that stuff than picking their brain on the course,” he added. “It’s more kind of what to expect if this happens, what to expect if this happens.”
Current FedExCup standings leader
Jacob Bridgeman won the Genesis Invitational earlier this year, and has rode a stretch of great play to the top of the 2026 FedExCup standings where he currently sits above Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick.
Bridgeman, a Clemson grad, has been to Augusta, but this will be his first Masters.
“It’s different walking inside the ropes ... It feels like a lot of the tees you’re kind ever walking into a bottleneck of people, but it’s really cool,” he said. “It’s what all of us compete to come here. This is like the goal at the beginning of the year is to make it to the Masters.”
Bridgeman, who got to shake hands with Tiger Woods in his career-defining moment at Riviera, was asked about the five-time Masters champ not playing this year as he steps away from professional golf while seeking treatment following a rollover crash on March 27.
“I think everybody has a very soft heart for Tiger. He’s been the guy for our game that’s changed everything the most,” Bridgeman said. “He’s made these tournaments what they are, and he’s made the purses what they are just by his popularity. Everybody loved watching him. I grew up watching Tiger. He was my golf idol. I think everybody is thinking about him and hoping he can do what’s best.”
‘Welcome to the Masters moment’
Johnny Keefer, who qualified by placing in the top 50 from the final Official World Golf Ranking in 2025 thanks to a win the RSM Classic last November, said he hit his ball into the water on the 13th and 15th holes
“That was kind of a welcome to the Masters moment,” he told reporters of his experience with the back nine par-5s. “It’s kind of something that you know is probably bound to happen eventually, so you’d rather get it out of the way early in the practice rounds than you would a during the rounds. I just really enjoyed it, just the entire day. It’s a little weird not to think that I was grinding but I was just playing some golf and having fun and really taking it all in.”
Ben Griffin, also making his treks around Augusta Monday, had a somewhat different takeaway when being in and around the 13th hole.
“Once you get to Amen Corner everything kind of -- it kind of gets a bit more peaceful, honestly,” he said. When you’re on like the 12th green and then you hit your tee shot on 13, back in that corner you finally kind of feel like you’re away from the tournament for a little bit. It almost feels like you’re on a practice putting green, which is nice.”
“It’s a really cool corner of the golf course that offers some drama and also the wind swirls a ton in the corner,” he added. “Even today we had predominantly a northeast wind today and by the time we got to 12 it felt like if almost flipped. It’s a really difficult stretch of holes, a lot of history on those holes.”