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Claire Komarek, CBS Sports

The first major championship of 2024 is here, and with the Masters TV schedule and coverage plans now set, it is time to rank all 89 golfers in the field as Augusta National opens its doors to the world. There are a number of factors that go into these rankings. Past history matters, but so does current form.

First-timers get discounted given that a first-timer has not won at Augusta National since Fuzzy Zoeller did it in 1979. Older veterans get discounted because older veterans rarely win majors, but they also get credited because many (like Phil Mickelson) have a tremendous relationship with this golf course.

The perfect Venn diagram is great play at Augusta National over the last few years combined with top-notch current form. There are not a lot of golfers who fit those two groups, and all of those who do are ranked inside our top 10.

Let's take a look at this year's list. You can also get an entire slew of 2024 Masters picks and expert predictions from our CBS Sports experts and Kyle Porter's list of the nine golfers most likely to win the Masters to help you further evaluate the field. Don't forget to check out a full slate of Masters tee times for Round 1 at Augusta National.

Watch all four rounds of the 2024 Masters starting Thursday with Masters Live as we follow the best golfers in the world through 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+.

2024 Masters field, ranked

1. Scottie Scheffler (Won in 2022): Something a bit lost in all the histrionics around Scheffler and his tee-to-green play (currently off the charts) is how solid he's been at major championships. Since he started regularly playing majors as a pro at the 2020 PGA Championship, here's who has had the most top 10s. 

  1. Rory McIlroy (10)
  2. Scottie Scheffler (9)
  3. Jon Rahm (8)
  4. Collin Morikawa (7)
  5. Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Will Zalatoris, Xander Schauffele (6)

Ball-striking wins the day at majors because of the way those golf courses are set up, and Scheffler is one of the great ball-strikers in the last 20 years. But he's also perhaps the most disciplined golfer in the world, which leads to a ton of success at majors. Plus, he's only lost to one golfer in his last three events. A deserving 4-1 favorite and a borderline "[Insert player] or the field?" candidate.

2. Jon Rahm (Won in 2023): It always seemed obvious that he was going to win at Augusta National, but plenty of golfers have seemed like obvious winners at Augusta National and not gone on to win. Now, Rahm can play freely at a place where he has five top nine finishes in his last six starts and nothing worse than a T27 over the course of his career. He almost certainly has Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal's two green jackets circled as numbers he would love to match or even surpass.

Rahm is not playing quite as well overall as he was going into the 2023 Masters, but remember, he was also terrible at a couple of tournaments just before winning Augusta a year ago. The point with him is reserved for a tiny group and is similar to the point about Koepka at this point in his career: His major record is immaculate, and he's always among the top three or four threats to win no matter how he's played in the events leading into a major week. Rahm seven top 10s in 12 majors since 2021 with two victories and three top-five finishes among those.

3. Xander Schauffele (T2 in 2019): Schauffele has four top 10s in his last five starts and should theoretically be somebody who I have tremendous confidence in to win this event, especially because he's probably been the second-best player in the world so far in 2024. However, he's eroded my confidence with too many late fades at majors. If the question is, "Will Xander Schauffele eventually win a major championship?" I would say it's difficult to be that good for that long and have that many close calls without winning. If the question is, "Am I going to miss it when it happens?" Also probably yes.

4. Brooks Koepka (T2 in 2023): It's been feast or famine for Koepka, who has three top seven finishes in his last five starts at the Masters but also two missed cuts. The safest thing here is to presume that, if he's physically and mentally healthy (which he appears to be), he's going to contend for what would be major win No. 6, which would tie him with Mickelson, Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino. I'm not sure it's even worth looking at how he's playing going into the week ashe only has one top 10 so far this year. He's probably the only player this can be said about, or at least the only one where it's actually true.

5. Rory McIlroy (2nd in 2022): He has tried everything: playing extra tournament golf, playing less tournament, golf, extra practice at Augusta, less practice at Augusta. One year, he juggled. Personally, I believe the best thing for McIlroy to do -- if only because he's so inundated with pressure the second he steps foot on the property -- is fly up the morning of the first round and cut his tee time as close as possible. Close enough that there are multiple stories written about whether his flight is going to get there in time. Play the first three holes with his shoes untied. I'm convinced he'd shoot 64 in the first round and win by three.

I'm (kind of) kidding, of course. Rory continues to have two things going for him. The first is that he's awesome at Augusta National. Here are the strokes gained numbers for players in this field over the last 10 years (minimum 12 rounds played).

  1. Jon Rahm (2.8)
  2. Jordan Spieth (2.8)
  3. Scottie Scheffler (2.8)
  4. Rory McIlroy (2.5) 

The second is that he's moving in the right direction with fewer mistakes and better iron play at the Texas Open than he had in the weeks preceding that.

If -- and this is always a big "if" when it comes to Rory -- he can control some of the emotional and mental stuff early in the tournament and just play golf, he's going to be in contention multiple times over the next several years, not only to win the Masters but also other majors as well. If he does what he did last year and tells himself he's already 10 down to Koepka on the way to his second round, then he probably has no chance. 

6. Hideki Matsuyama (Win in 2021): Players with at least 20 rounds played since the beginning of January 2015, ranked by strokes gained at Augusta National:

  1. Jon Rahm (2.8)
  2. Jordan Spieth (2.7)
  3. Dustin Johnson (2.5)
  4. Rory McIlroy (2.5)
  5. Hideki Matsuyama (2.4)

Matsuyama has been incredible so far this year and not missed the cut at the Masters (or finished outside the top 32) since 2014. He should be among the six or seven favorites going in.

7. Wyndham Clark (n/a): It's hard to believe, but this will be Clark's first Masters. While the numbers say that Schauffele has been better, Clark both has more actual wins (Pebble Beach) and more real chances to win other event (Arnold Palmer and Players Championship). Between him and the next man on this list, this is one of the better chances since 1979 for a first-time Masters golfer to win the tournament.

8. Ludvig Aberg (n/a): It's been over a decade since somebody won a major in their first attempt (Keegan Bradley in 2011). Aberg and his monstrous driving ability probably represents the best chance to end that streak that we have seen since Bradley beat Jason Dufner in that playoff at Atlanta Athletic Club. Sometimes -- maybe a lot of the time -- at this golf course, no experience at all can usurp some of what the other older guys on this list have gone through.

9. Jordan Spieth (Won in 2015): Since the statistic was introduced in 2004, here are best strokes gained numbers at Augusta National (minimum 20 rounds):

  1. Jon Rahm (2.9)
  2. Jordan Spieth (2.8)
  3. Tiger Woods (2.4)
  4. Phil Mickelson (2.3)

That is some insane company. Spieth now has six top-four finishes at Augusta after his T4 to Rahm a year ago. Six! No matter how he's playing or what the form is like going in, he is very much like Phil Mickelson at that golf course. Not to be undervalued. Not to be counted out. Also, when he's even remotely competent, he plays well here.

10. Will Zalatoris (2nd in 2021): He might be the new Koepka. His major finishes are staggering. In nine such starts as a professional, he has three second-place finishes and three more top 10s! The other three were a withdrawal, a missed cut and a T28. And while he has been good at non-majors, he hasn't been nearly as good as he's been in majors. This chart from Data Golf shows that clearly. It's difficult to find two bigger over-performers at majors compared to their regular play than Zalatoris and Koepka.

11. Viktor Hovland (T7 in 2023): Hovland has never missed the cut at Augusta National and has been an extraordinary ball-striker in that time. Among the top 150 in the world currently, he ranks No. 9 in ball-striking at the Masters over the last three years (1.5 strokes gained). However, he's struggling going into the tournament. He does not even have a top 15 so far in 2024.

12. Cameron Young (T7 in 2023): He's not a great putter, but also ... Hideki Matsuyama won a Masters. He quietly had a top 10 here last year, and his iron play has been humming so far in 2024. I'm intrigued by him as a sleeper to win this event.

13. Collin Morikawa (5th in 2022): Morikawa has played in four Masters, and though I never really envisioned him as a tremendous Augusta National player, it makes sense that he is because of his terrific iron play. In those four Masters, he has two top 10s and stands as one of just seven golfers to play all 16 rounds and have a strokes gained number over 2.0 (elite). Others include Rahm, Scheffler, Cameron Smith, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed and Shane Lowry. If he wasn't struggling so much (no top 10s) outside of this course, he would be in the top five.

14. Justin Thomas (4th in 2020): On paper, the fit is so good. J.T.'s short game is magic, and you could argue that he's the best iron player in the world.  His weakness -- arguably accuracy off the tee -- is not a massive issue here. However, he has struggled at times to play his way into contention at Augusta National. A (possibly dumb) theory: He tries to hit too many shots instead of just playing stock shots on what's in front of him. He'll opt for that rolling draw on No. 13 and make a mess of what should be an auto-birdie hole for him. That's emblematic of how he's played this course at times. Regardless, there are almost no lingering concerns from a year ago when he was truly terrible at the major championships. J.T. is all the way back from the swing that got him off kilter a bit in 2023 and should be ready to rock for major No. 1. The two things that do give me a bit of pause are a putter that went ice cold at the Valspar Championship and a split from multi-year caddie Jim "Bones" Mackay.

15. Joaquin Niemann (T16 in 2023): Niemann is playing the best golf of his life, and he's gotten better every single year he's played the Masters. It would be unusual, though, for somebody to go from no top 10s in 19 major tries to winning a green jacket.

16. Patrick Cantlay (T9 in 2019): One of the biggest mysteries in the professional game right now is why Cantlay is not better at majors. An example: He's been worse statistically than -- checks notes -- Sebastian Munoz, Steve Stricker and Corey Conners at Augusta National over the last 10 years.

17. Matt Fitzpatrick (T7 in 2016): Among the current top players, Fitzpatrick ranks among the top 15 over the last three years in tee-to-green play at Augusta National. I didn't used to think he had the power to thrive at Augusta National, but he has clearly solved that over the last few years, and now I think he can legitimately become the No. 1 player in the world. 

18. Bryson DeChambeau (T21 in 2016): A friend in the media recently randomly texted to inform me that he thinks Bryson is going to win the Masters. (He needed me to know.) I could not disagree more. There's too much nuance. He's missed two straight cuts. His best finish came as an amateur in 2016. He's never been in the top 20. And yet, the skillset is still good enough that I can't rank him any lower.

19. Dustin Johnson (Won in 2020): In the years leading into his win in 2020, he finished in the top 10 four consecutive times before beating Cam Smith and Sungjae Im in that November Masters. Since then? Missed cut, T12 and T48. It doesn't seem like D.J.'s focus on the majors is what it used to be, hough he does have the talent to win seemingly from out of nowhere.

20. Shane Lowry (T3 in 2022): Here are the golfers with the most top 25s in the last four Masters:

  • T1. Scottie Scheffler, Hideki Matsuyama, Shane Lowry (4)
  • T4. Jon Rahm and eight others (3) 

21. Tony Finau (T5 in 2019): Here's a weird one: Finau has only gained .02 strokes per round off the tee at Augusta National over the last three years. That's a similar number to guys like Stewart Cink, Sebastian Munoz, Tyrrell Hatton and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

22. Russell Henley (T4 in 2023): Here's a stunner: Henley has better numbers at Augusta National over the last 10 years than Tony Finau, Cameron Smith, J.T., Schauffele, Hovland and Patrick Reed.

23. Tommy Fleetwood (T14 in 2022): For whatever reason, this has been Fleetwood's worst major. That's relative, of course, but he doesn't have a top 10 here, and he has top fives at the other three (including multiple top fives at the U.S. Open and Open Championship). His iron play at Augusta National of late has been below his normally terrific baseline. That's the stat to watch for him this year.

24. Si Woo Kim (T12 in 2021): Among the top players right now, Kim has been fourth-best at Augusta National in terms of iron play over the last three years. That's wild! He does the thing you need to do best at Augusta National nearly better than everyone. Only Scheffler, Marc Leishman and Corey Conners have been better in that span.

25. Sahith Theegala (9th in 2023): If Zalatoris is the new Koepka, Theegala might be the new Spieth: good but wild off the tee, terrific iron player and at times elite short game. He's also an electric factory. Impossible to take your eyes off, and if he plays like he did at the end of last year's Masters -- 67 on Sunday -- you won't need to.

Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Greg DuCharme and Patrick McDonald preview the 2024 Masters Tournament. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

26. Cameron Smith (T2 in 2020): Forget about the Official World Golf Rankings, Smith is dropping on a much more important list, the Data Golf top 100. After rising all the way to No. 3, he's now closer to No. 50 and not playing at the same level he was when he won The Open in 2022. There is a chance that that Open at St. Andrews was part of the 18-month run that many of the best players have in which they do most of their prolific winning. That doesn't mean he can't win Augusta, only that it seems as if he's no longer in that 18-month stretch where he won seven times worldwide from January 2022 to August 2023, which means winning another major -- already a difficult feat -- will that much tougher. 

27. Brian Harman (T12 in 2021): Hovland changed my mind the most of anyone in 2023 in terms of what he could be as a player. Harman, though, was probably second. I'm not positive what he does necessarily translates to Augusta National -- he's missed three of five cuts there -- but I'm far more intrigued following his Open Championship victory than I was a year ago at this time.

28. Max Homa (T43 in 2023): Homa has been good with his iron play at Augusta National but terrible almost everywhere else. I refuse to believe this is a bad spot for him as it rewards precise, elite iron play, which is his greatest strength. Also, if you can win at Riviera (where Homa has four consecutive top 10s, including a victory), you can win at Augusta National. For Homa, it's about finding the balance between not caring enough and caring too much (which is where he sometimes finds himself).

29. Sam Burns (T29 in 2023): Burns has yet to top 10 at a major, and there's a reason for that. He does most of his damage off the tee and on the greens, and majors are the most demanding when it comes to iron play where he has been more up and down over the course of his career. It's an area where he's had years of greatness, but overall, it has not been consistently good as his driving or his putting. He's played extraordinary golf so far in 2024 but has dropped off slightly in the last few events.

30. Tyrrell Hatton (T18 in 2021): I am very much in on Hatton being one of the most underrated players in the world (as Homa pointed out to me earlier this year). But the reality is that, since the start of 2020, he has five missed cuts at majors and no top 10s. More suited for one of the Opens.

31. Adam Scott (Won in 2013): I don't know what's crazier, that he's made 14 cuts in a row at Augusta or that only one of them since his win in 2013 has been a top 10. 

32. Corey Conners (T6 in 2022): He's the superior version of Eric Cole (see below). He's probably not going to win, but nobody has more top 10s than him at the Masters since the start of 2020 (he's tied with Rahm, Smith and Reed at three top 10s).

33. Jason Day (T2 in 2011): After he finished T2 and third in two of his first three Masters, he looked like the player who would become the first Australian to win the Masters (Adam Scott got him in that third-place finish by beating Angel Cabrera in a playoff at Augusta). After those two starts, though, it would have seemed wild to suggest that Day would never really contend for another one, but that's mostly how it has played out. He has two other top 10s (2016 and 2019) but in neither was he really a contender to win.

34. Harris English (T21 in 2021): After struggling through a few years because of injury, English is playing solid golf again. If you want him for a major, though, it's probably going to be the U.S. Open where he has three top-eight finishes in his last four appearances.

35. Min Woo Lee (T14 in 2022): Boy, don't let Min Woo get hot. His big problem is that he's a bad iron player and especially so from 150-200 yards, which is a tough distance from which to be a bad iron player at Augusta National. 

36. Keegan Bradley (T22 in 2015): Bradley has been decent at Augusta National but probably not as good as you might expect. He does not have a top 20, which is odd for somebody who is such a great-ball striker, and particularly such a good iron player. In fact, he only has one top 10 at any major in the last nine years. 

37. Sungjae Im (T2 in 2020): This is certainly Im's best major. He has six top 25s in 17 starts in all four majors, and half of those are at Augusta National, including two top 10s (one of which was a T2 to Dustin Johnson in 2020). 

38. Phil Mickelson (Won in 2004, 2006, 2010): Mickelson's results last year make zero sense. He did nothing before the Masters and nothing after the Masters. And in the middle of all of that, he shot 65 on Sunday at Augusta National to finish tied for second at the Masters.

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Data Golf

All of that happened as he was attempting to buoy the LIV Golf league he helped start amid a maelstrom of conflicting thoughts and ideas about how pro golf should operate. The conclusion? The marriage of Phil and Augusta National is magic. It's not crazy to think he can contend there again this year given his history. Likely? Not really, but he certainly has more win equity than almost everyone in the field outside of, say, the top 15 or 20 guys.

39. Nick Taylor (T29 in 2020): He probably won't get into contention, but if he manages to somehow, he definitely won't shy away from the lead. 

40. Adam Hadwin (T24 in 2018): Here's a weird one: Over the last 10 years, Adam Hadwin has a better strokes gained average at Augusta than Adam Scott. He's only played 10 rounds compared to Scott's 40, but I would not have expected that.

41. Sergio Garcia (Won in 2017): Garcia's last 10 years at Augusta National make almost no sense.

  • Top 10s: 2
  • Missed cuts: 5
  • Strokes gained: 0.66 per round
  • Wins: 1

42. Akshay Bhatia (n/a): Bhatia is an awesome story -- skipped college to turn pro and has made his way on the Tour -- and he fits the mold for Augusta National in that he's a lefty who hits the ball quite well. However, expecting him to win in his debut a week after his first full field PGA Tour victory (one in which he got injured) is probably a bit much.

43. Nicolai Hojgaard (n/a): The Dane should punish Augusta National off the tee. There are only a handful of golfers in the world (McIlroy, Young among them) who rank ahead of Hojgaard in driving distance relative to field since the start of 2023.

44. Justin Rose (2nd in 2017): It's been feast or famine for Rose recently at ANGC. Starting at the 2015 Masters, he has five top 12s but also two missed cuts at an event where it's actually somewhat difficult to miss the cut. He has only finished between T26 and T50 once (T36 in 2008).

45. Rickie Fowler (2nd in 2018): This is, surprisingly, Fowler's first April Masters since before the COVID-19 pandemic started. He has been awesome at this golf course with one of the best scoring averages in the history of the tournament, but his play has dropped off a bit since winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic last summer. Still, the only players better than him in the last 10 years at Augusta are all familiar: Zalatoris, Rahm, Spieth, Scheffler, McIlroy, Rose and Johnson. 

46. Patrick Reed (Won in 2018): Reed has been low-key excellent at Augusta National. Obviously his 2018 victory gets all the run, but since then he has a T10 in 2020, a T8 in 2021 and a T4 in 2023. I don't know that he'll have another victory here, but he should be an absolute force when it comes to fantasy teams.

47. Tom Kim (T16 in 2023): I was pleasantly surprised by what Kim did at the majors last year. Between his T16, T8 at the U.S. Open and T2 at the Open Championship, it's not what I expected. He doesn't have the modern skillset you think of when you think of major winners, but he does have an impressive amalgamation of magnetic presence, grit and sense of the moment that is difficult to quantify. I'm more convinced than I was this time last year that Kim will be a major champion.

48. Ben An (T33 in 2017): The late addition to the event with the best chance of winning. An is a ball-striker savant who is having an amazing year with five top 21s so far in 2024. 

49. Tiger Woods (Won in 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019): Woods has accomplished some extraordinary feats in his career, but beating Scehffler, Rahm, Thomas, McIlroy, Spieth, Morikawa, Schauffele and a host of other players -- after having finished one major since the start of 2021 -- would be the most extraordinary thing of all. Still, if there's anyone who can do it …

50. Denny McCarthy (n/a): McCarthy has played in nine majors (including four PGA Championships) but never a Masters.

51. J.T. Poston (T34 in 2023): Poston is playing the best golf of his career and has been at a top 25-like level leading into this Masters. He finished T5 at Kapalua, which has some Augusta attributes. He reminds me a bit of Russell Henley in that he is playing like somebody who could win but you're a bit dubious that he actually will. A good top 20 bet.

52. Sepp Straka (T30 in 2022): Players who finished in the top 10 in multiple majors in 2023.

  • Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler (3)
  • Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Cameron Young, Sepp Straka, Tom Kim, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele (2)

53. Gary Woodland (T14 in 2023): With just two top 25s and five missed cuts, Woodland has had a surprisingly average history at Augusta National. He's a proven major champion, though, and would be one of the easier stories in the field -- bouncing back from brain surgery last fall -- if he gets into the mix. 

54. Emiliano Grillo (T17 in 2016): Grillo is coming in off his first top 10 in a major. Of course, that will have been nine months ago when he tees it up at Augusta National.

55. Eric Cole (n/a): Cole is one of those guys who is perfect to bet as a top-25 finisher because he has no name recognition and is thus probably a bit underrated but not the guy you want to bet at even 100-1 odds (appropriately and humorously, at the time of this writing, he's not even listed at most major books taking bets on the Masters).

56. Cameron Davis (46th in 2022): I'm a bit confused about what Davis is supposed to be. His skillset suggests that he should be excellent at major championships. Perhaps he develops into that player; he did finish T4 at last year's PGA Championship at Oak Hill. But he has not quite reached the level where I feel comfortable about him being a contender at this major (or any other). 

57. Chris Kirk (T20 in 2014): Kirk is playing for just the second time since 2016, but he brings perhaps the best version of his game to Augusta National. Will he win? I'm dubious about that, but I do believe he's a good fourth or fifth guy on your fantasy team this week.

58. Lucas Glover (T20 in 2007): It's a bid odd to me that Glover has not been better here. He flushes everything he sees, and though the putting hasn't been great, one would think it would be good enough to get at least a top 15 or top 10 in one of his previous starts. Glover has two top 10s in any major, and one of them was, of course, a victory.

59. Bubba Watson (Won in 2012, 2014): The win equity remains higher than most with him because he's done it before (twice), but it's pretty difficult to envision him winning a Masters at age 45, mostly because his one elite skill (driving distance) has taken a huge hit since 2012 and 2014 when he was truly generationally long off the tee, which helped him win two green jackets. The blue line below represents the top five in distance. Watson lived above it for so long, and now he's dropped all the way to basically being barely a top 100 guy.    

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Data Golf

60. Matthieu Pavon (n/a): Is Pavon the best player in the world? He sure looked like it for a bit earlier this year when he won Torrey Pines and was in position to win Pebble Beach before the final round was canceled due to weather. Still, it would be a shock if that carried all the way through to Augusta in April. He's never finished better than T25 at a major.

61. Stephan Jager (n/a): Having (by far) the best year of his career, and a lot of it is based on how well he's striking the ball. He won't win, but he could absolutely make the cut and make a little noise.

62. Erik van Rooyen (MC in 2022): Three South Africans have won the Masters, and incredibly none of them are Louis Oosthuizen or Ernie Els. Gary Player, Trevor Immelman and Charl Schwartzel. Van Rooyen would make it four.

63. Jake Knapp (n/a): The big-hitting Knapp will be playing his first Masters and just his second major after his win in Mexico. If he's in contention, you might want to make sure the sleeves are big enough for his pipes.

64. Nick Dunlap (n/a): At this point, the only thing that could make his last year any more remarkable is to cap a U.S. Amateur-Walker Cup-PGA Tour victory (as an amateur) run with a green jacket.

65. Austin Eckroat (n/a): "Who will be low Oklahoma State Cowboy at this Masters?" is a fun game. Eckroat is definitely the underdog here but a sneaky-interesting play nonetheless.

66. Peter Malnati (n/a): I cannot imagine a more fun and compelling story than a 36-year-old who recently cried after just his second win playing in and winning his first Masters.

67. Ryan Fox (T26 in 2023): I'm more intrigued by him as a potentially sneaky-low Australian, which he was last year (just edging out Smith), than I am intrigued by him to win the event.

68. Adrian Meronk (MC in 2023): At 6-foot-6, he will be the toughest LIV Golf player to his peers to carry off the 18th green on their shoulders (if that is still a thing that is being done this year, as Greg Norman suggested.

69. Taylor Moore (T39 in 2023): The good news for Moore is that he beat Thomas, DeChambeau and D.J. at his first Masters last year. The bad news is that none of those guys finished in the top 40 on the leaderboard.

70. Luke List (T33 in 2005): I don't believe there is any non-winner in the field whose best finish at the Masters happened longer ago than 2005.

71. Adam Schenk (n/a): It would be incredible if a guy named "Schenk" won the most famous golf tournament in the world.

72. Kurt Kitayama (MC in 2023): Kitayama has a strange major resume. He has just one top 50 in 12 major championship starts … but it was a T4 (!) at last year's PGA.

73. Thorbjorn Olesen (T6 in 2013): After a nice start to the year, he's done nothing in the last month. It would be stunning if he contended to win this event.

74. Lee Hodges (n/a): Since the start of 2023, Hodges has had two top 10s. One of them was a win to get into the Masters. 

75. Ryo Hisatsune (n/a): He does not have a top 10 on the PGA Tour this year.

76. Camilo Villegas (T13 in 2009): Villegas does not have a top 10 in any major since 2010, but his story would be the sports story of the year if he were even to get into contention here.

77. Charl Schwartzel (Won in 2011): Schwartzel has had such an interesting (and at times, odd) pro career. He only has four PGA Tour and European Tour wins (that were not co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour), but one of them is the Masters. Then in 2017, he finished in third at Augusta, three shots out of a playoff. But he also doesn't have a top five at any other major. Name me a more bizarre run than that of Schwartzel.

78. Grayson Murray (n/a): Murray's redemption story is really interesting (though I am still cautious about it), and I am intrigued to see how the broader sports world would receive it if he gets into contention at a big-time event like the Masters.   

79. Danny Willett (Won in 2016): Willett is proof of what a life-changer the Masters can be. He's currently outside the top 300 in the Data Golf rankings and would be mostly irrelevant as a pro right now if Spieth hadn't hit two shots in the water on No. 12 back in 2016. Willett has only made two cuts at Augusta since that win (although one was a T12 in 2022).

80. Zach Johnson (Won in 2007): Honestly, I think Z.J. might have a better chance of making the next Ryder Cup team than he does of winning this year's Masters.

81. Stewart Hagestad (T36 in 2017): Hagestad, the 2023 Mid-Am winner, has played as many rounds at Augusta National as Young, Burns and Min Woo Lee.

82. Christo Lamprecht (n/a): Data Golf ranks him as basically an average PGA Tour player so it makes sense that he would finish T74 at last year's Open. The question is how high the ceiling is for Lamprecht. The 6-foot-8 Georgia Tech star could supplant George Archer (6-foot-5) as the tallest Masters winner ever. 

83. Mike Weir (Won in 2003): Weir does not have a top 25 at the Masters since 2008. Since 2021, he's only played the Masters, Canadian Open and Sony Open on the PGA Tour.

84. Fred Couples (Won in 1992): Couples will try to break his own record for oldest player to make the cut at a Masters, which he set just a year ago when he made it to the last two rounds at age 63 and 187 days. "It's not like, 'Ha, ha, ha, I can screw around and play 36 holes for fun.' I'm going to try and compete," he said. "I can't compete with Viktor Hovland or Jon Rahm or anybody, but I can compete with myself, and that's really why I come. That's what I like to do, is make the cut here at an older age."

85. Neal Shipley (n/a): The Ohio State graduate student became a legend last summer when he nearly holed out at Cherry Hills to win his semifinal and get into the Masters. Ranked outside the top 25 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, he was never really been a star until that week at Cherry Hills, but he's one of the easier guys in this field to cheer on.

86. Jose Maria Olazabal (Won in 1994, 1999): Olazabal has made just one cut in his last eight majors. It was a stunner, too, in 2021 when he beat D.J., McIlroy, Day, Garcia and Adam Scott at the age of 55.

87. Vijay Singh (Won in 2000): The biggest mystery with Singh this week is whether he'll choose to set up shop and watch DeChambeau try to reach the media center with his driver from the practice area.

88. Santiago de la Fuente (n/a): De la Fuente joined Alvaro Ortiz (2019) as Mexicans who have won the Latin America Amateur Championship to get a spot in the Masters. De la Fuente's story is wild. He started his career at Arkansas Tech (where the men's athletic teams are called the Wonder Boys!) before landing at Houston where he became an All-American. From Wonder Boys to Magnolia Lane. Golf rocks.

89. Jasper Stubbs (n/a): Stubbs was an out-of-nowhere winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur toward the end of 2023. He said he knows ANGC well from having played it on "Tiger Woods 2012" (kids!), but I found this part to be perhaps the most interesting. Ranked 476th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Stubbs became the third highest ranked player in the history of the championship to wear the crown. Matsuyama was 544th when he won the first of his two titles in 2011, and China's Tianlang Guan was 490th when he won in 2012 as a 14-year-old.