World Amateur Team Golf Championships - Eisenhower Trophy - Day Two
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One of the best traditions every year as it relates to the Masters is the proliferation of amateurs who descend upon the event. This has always been an important component to this event for obvious reasons, namely that Bobby Jones, who helped found the Masters, was one of the great amateurs of all time and wanted to ensure plenty of them were invited to his invitational back in the 1930s.

That tradition has endured, and every year, we see a new crop of 5-8 non-professionals playing the event. Pros have become so good over the last 50 years that no amateur has a real shot to win the golf tournament anymore. Still, making the cut at Augusta National Golf Club is a big deal. 

No amateurs have crossed that threshold over the last two Masters, and only Bryson DeChambeau has finished better than 25th since Ryan Moore finished T13 back in 2005. If you're an amateur in one of the final 10 pairings on Saturday or Sunday, that is a monumental achievement.

So, who has a chance to accomplish this feat this time around? Let's take a look at the seven amateurs in this field and rank them according to their chances of making the cut and getting into contention.

Watch all four rounds of the 2023 Masters starting Thursday with Masters Live as we follow the best golfers in the world throughout Augusta National with Featured Groups, check in at the famed Amen Corner and see leaders round the turn on holes 15 & 16. Watch live on CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports App and Paramount+.

2023 Masters field: Amateurs

1. Gordon Sargent: The Sarge is a monster. Not only is he ranked No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, but Data Golf has him No. 1 as well and indicates that he's playing at an above-PGA Tour-average clip right now. Sargent has finished in the top 10 in eight consecutive amateur events and won the NCAA Championship last spring. He hits the polyurethane off the ball and is nearly a lock to play his way onto the PGA Tour shortly after he turns pro if he doesn't earn his card before then by rolling through the PGA Tour U program as outlined here. If he unloads that 200 mph ball speed that is reportedly in the tank, Sargent could legitimately turn some heads at Augusta. WAGR: 1

2. Sam Bennett: Last year's U.S. Amateur champion has some serious lag on his swing, some serious traj on his ball flight and some serious swag in reserve. Referring to himself as "the dog in this race" en route to his U.S. Amateur win last year at Ridgewood Country Club, Bennett won't be scared because Jon Rahm hits it far or because Collin Morikawa's dispersion circle looks like center court at Texas A&M's Reed Arena (where Bennett goes to school). Don't be surprised if both he and Sargent are playing the weekend at Augusta National. WAGR: 6

3. Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira: This is probably where I would draw the line on players that can make the cut. Sargent and Bennett have a real chance. Fernandez de Oliveira or anyone else making it would be a surprise. Still, Data Golf says he is playing right at the level of a European Tour or Korn Ferry Tour player, which is impressive for an amateur and adds up considering he won the Latin America Amateur Championship in January by four strokes. A potential solid pro in the future. WAGR: 26

4. Ben Carr: The runner-up to Bennett at Ridgewood last summer, Carr has plenty of game. In nine starts since that U.S. Am, he has seven top 10s, including a victory at the Schenkel Invitational. His Georgia Southern team actually played in Augusta the weekend before the Masters at the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational, while Carr got ready to play in an, uh, slightly bigger tournament. His story from last year's U.S. Am about a lost ball marker and what it meant to him and his family is worth rewatching. WAGR: 46

5. Aldrich Potgeiter: The amateur champion is just 18 years old and was only alive for two of Tiger Woods' five Masters wins (barely for the fourth one). This nugget on him from by John Strege of Golf Digest is a great one. WAGR: 33

Potgieter, who attends the Louis Oosthuizen Junior Golf Academy in South Africa, is the second youngest winner of this event, which began in 1885. Only Italy's Matteo Manassero was younger when he won at age 16 in 2009. He also is the third South African to have won the Amateur Championship, joining Jovan Rebula at Royal Aberdeen in 2018 and Bobby Cole at Carnoustie in 1966.

6. Harrison Crowe: If you're not rooting for this guy and his family at Augusta this year, I'm not sure what to tell you. He won the Asia-Pacific Amateur last fall to get into the event and filmed this segment with Erik Anders Lang at St. Andrews in which he hit a golf ball off a sidewalk over a building and onto the green of perhaps the most famous golf course on the planet. WAGR: 32

Also, his dad recently took a shot a fellow countryman Greg Norman, saying he and his mates were housing a beer per birdie made by his son at the Asia-Pacific Amateur. Augusta could be seriously wild. 

7. Matthew McClean: A 29-year-old optometrist from Northern Ireland who will no doubt try to secure a practice round with Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry on Monday or Tuesday, McClean, the U.S. Mid-Am champion, recently declared his (realistic) intentions. "Can you go out and win it?" he asked the Belfast Telegraph. "Realistically, no. I don't think there is any point in saying I can win, you have to live in reality. That's not the goal for the week. There are six or seven amateurs playing. The goal is make the cut, to be there for the Saturday and Sunday, and then what comes with that is trying to win the low amateur. That's my tournament." WAGR: 70