April 8, 2026
Welcome to the twenty-first edition of The Tee Sheet - your weekly read on what matters in the world of golf right now.
It's here.
The azaleas are blooming, the leaderboard is blank, and for the next four days the entire golf world stops and watches the action at Augusta National.
This is the 90th Masters. The field has 91 players, 17 past champions, and 22 first-timers. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are both absent for the first time since 1994. The two guys who defined this tournament for two decades aren't walking the fairways this week. But the players who are make a compelling case that the game has never been in better hands.
Scottie Scheffler arrives as the favorite chasing a third green jacket, fighting a driver he hasn't recognized since January. Rory McIlroy walks down Magnolia Lane for the first time as defending champion after completing the Grand Slam here last April in one of the most dramatic finishes the sport has seen. Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau arrive from LIV in the best form of their 2026 seasons. We dig into this field of contenders below — deeper and more unpredictable than the odds board would suggest.
This week's issue is our full Masters preview — the favorites, the contenders, the first-timers, the course, and the numbers that actually matter.
Let’s go.
(Also JJ Spaun won the Valero, but more on that later in the newsletter)
Tourney Preview
2026 Masters Preview:
Setting the Scene for Augusta
Augusta National opens its gates on Thursday for the 90th Masters, and for the first time since 1994, neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson will walk these fairways. This Masters belongs to a different generation — and that transition has never felt more complete.
What makes 2026 a bit different is that two of the biggest favorites arrive somewhat clouded.
Into the uncertainty steps a pack of dangerous chasers. A field of 91 players, 17 past champions, 22 first-timers, 6 amateurs. It feel like one of the most wide-open Masters in a decade.
We Unpack the Tourney as Follows:
The Favorites - Four Players, Four Stories
The Contenders
The First-Timers
The Course - What Plays Here?
A Few Other Stats to Keep in Mind
The Masters Quick Stats:
Course: Augusta National
Par: 72
Distance: 7,565 yards
Purse: $21,000,000+ & 750 Fedex Cup Points
Recent Champs: Rory McIlroy (2025), Scottie Scheffler (2022, 2024), Jon Rahm (2023), Hideki Matsuyama (2021), Dustin Johnson (2020)
All odds shown as of Tuesday night
1: The Favorites - Four Players, Four Stories
Scottie Scheffler (+485):
The case for Scheffler is historical and structural: two wins here (2022, 2024), four consecutive top-10s, never outside the top 20 in six starts, the architecture of his ball-striking built perfectly for Augusta's demands
The case against him is 2026 form — his strokes gained approach rank has started to crater and his driver is overcutting in a way that has alarmed analysts
He hasn't had a top-10 since Pebble Beach in February. He was meant to work through it at Houston, then withdrew for the birth of his son Remy. The next time he tests his driver in competition will be Thursday at Augusta, under maximum pressure, on a course that punishes overcutting more than almost anywhere on Tour - the 13th, 14th, and 15th all are tough spots to miss right
Scheffler has been the safest pick here for three years. This is the first year he arrives uncertain
Jon Rahm (+910):
Rahm's 2026 LIV stats are extraordinary: one win, three runner-up finishes, a fifth - top-5 in all five events. Sure, different field, different tournaments, but worth knowing
He ranks 1st on LIV in approach and 3rd off the tee
He won here in 2023 by four shots, knows every inch of this property, and has five top-10s
The legitimate concern is that LIV fields don't provide the same quality of preparation as PGA Tour events — he hasn't beaten a full major-caliber field since 2023, but his Augusta record is so deep that course knowledge essentially compensates for that
Bryson DeChambeau (+1075):
Here is the number that could change how you think about Bryson this week: he has never broken 70 in a final round at Augusta National (and the 70 was in 2019)
T5 last year, T6 in 2024 — back-to-back top-10s in the most important stretch of his Augusta career — but both times he did not close
Last year he was in the final pairing with Rory on Sunday and shot 75
His current form on LIV is great — back-to-back wins in Singapore and South Africa
The Sunday closing is what this week will test
Rory McIlroy (+1150):
Last year here was one of golf's great theatrical productions with Rory’s up-and-down Sunday round and playoff victory against Justin Rose
The Grand Slam is complete. The man who had carried the burden for years is free of it. The question now is whether that freedom liberates him or leaves him slightly rudderless
His 2026 has been disrupted — WD at Bay Hill (back), T46 at The Players, then three weeks off
He's hosting his first Champions Dinner Tuesday night. Whether his game is with him this week — that's the question
Only Nicklaus, Faldo, and Tiger have ever defended the green jacket. He'd be the fourth
2: The Contenders - Popular Guys With Real Chances
Ludvig Aberg (+1650):
Runner-up in 2024 on his debut, 7th in 2025. Also comes into this tourney in solid form with top fives in the Players and the Valero Texas Open
Big question starting to form around ability to close — he did not prove it in The Players when he shot 76 on Sunday (although young)
At 26, he's already proven Augusta suits him perfectly. He just needs to close it
Xander Schauffele (+1800):
The most statistically consistent non-champion in this field's recent Augusta history. Five top-10s in his last seven starts here, including T3 in 2021 and T2 in 2019
Two great finishes entering this week - solo 3rd at The Players and T4 at the Valspar
Holds the longest active consecutive cuts-made streak at majors at 15 in-a-row
The only knock: his putting and around-the-greens numbers have been middling
Cameron Young (+2300):
Won The Players Championship in March, was the Team USA MVP at Bethpage in the Ryder Cup
His Augusta record is binary — two top-10s, two missed cuts — but he's arriving as hot as anyone in the field
Tommy Fleetwood (+2300):
World No. 3, 2025’s FedExCup champion, four top-10s in five events played this season
One of the best players never to have won a major. The game is there. The moment just hasn't arrived yet
Matt Fitzpatrick (+2350):
Won the Valspar, finished 2nd at The Players, made ten straight cuts at Augusta
His iron play is the best it's been and he looks as good as we’ve seen him — World No. 6 and rising
Hideki Matsuyama (+2700):
Easy to forget he won this tournament five years ago, the first Japanese player to slip on a green jacket
He's making his 15th Augusta appearance and carries a career scoring average of 71.70 here — among the best of any active player
Started the season with promise — 2nd at Phoenix, T8 Pebble Beach — then cooling off significantly, finishing outside the top 20 in his last four events
Collin Morikawa (+3100):
Morikawa is the wildcard with the best statistical argument. He leads the Tour in approach numbers this year, won at Pebble Beach in February, posted T7 at the Genesis and solo 5th at the Arnold Palmer before back spasms ended his Players Championship after one hole
Was a WD from the Valero Texas Open last week. Hasn't competed in nearly four weeks
His Masters record is extraordinary — five straight top-20s, including T3 in 2024. The course fits him surgically: Augusta rewards elite iron play to the correct quadrant of the green, and not many do it better
Stats are there, but need to see if he can get through the back injury
Justin Rose (+3500):
Three-time runner-up at Augusta (2015, 2017, 2025). Lost to Rory in a playoff last year
At 45, he'd be the oldest winner since Nicklaus in 1986 if he pulls it off. The Augusta IQ is unmatched among the non-winners in this field
Others Included Here Based on Current Lines:
Robert MacIntyre (+3400), Min Woo Lee (+3500), Brooks Koepka (+3700), Jordan Spieth (+4200), Patrick Reed (+4300), Viktor Hovland (+4500)
3: The First-Timers
Twenty-two players walk Magnolia Lane for the first time this week. A debut victory has not been done in 47 years since Fuzzy Zoeller did it in 1979. Ludvig Aberg finished second as a first-timer in 2024 and almost changed that stat. Now there are 22 more trying.
Chris Gotterup (+4200):
The most decorated first-timer this field has seen in years. Two wins in 2026 — Sony Open and Phoenix Open. Runner-up at The Open Championship in 2025. World No. 11
He'll be only the third player to make his Masters debut with four PGA Tour wins — after Dave Hill in 1968 and Mark Wilson in 2011
The one unknown is whether Augusta's greens will take time for him to learn — first-timers consistently miss in the wrong spots and even elite ball-strikers pay for it
Jacob Bridgeman (+8600):
Won the Genesis Invitational at Riviera. Leads the Tour in Putting. World No. 18. Current FedExCup points leader.
Worst finish this season: T18. That level of consistency entering a major debut is exceptional
Ben Griffin (+11000):
A massive story in 2025. After losing his Korn Ferry Tour card in 2019, Griffin quit professional golf entirely and took a desk job as a mortgage loan officer. He gave it once last shot a few years later which produced a PGA Tour card in 2023, three wins in 2025 (Zurich Classic, Charles Schwab Challenge, Worldwide Technology Championship), a Ryder Cup debut at Bethpage, and a spot inside the world top 20
He's making his Masters debut ranked No. 16 in the world. The form concern is real — three straight missed cuts in March before steadying at Houston — but the game could be interesting for Augusta
Casey Jarvis (+24000):
22-year-old South African. Won the Magical Kenya Open and Investec South African Open in consecutive weeks earlier this season, nearly making it a three-peat at the Joburg Open (one shot short of becoming just the third player in European Tour history to achieve it after Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo)
Qualified via the new South African Open pathway added for 2026. He shot 59 on the DP World Tour at age 19 — the youngest in European Tour history to do so
Longshot but worth checking in on
Others Included Here Are:
Harry Hall (+15500), Ryan Gerard (+16000), Sam Stevens (+18500), Marco Penge (+14000), Johnny Keefer (+40000), and a handful of others
4: The Course — What Plays Here?
Strokes gained via approach is a massive predictor.
Six of eight Masters winners before 2023 ranked inside the top five for the week in approach. The greens are so severely contoured that where you land the ball on the putting surface determines everything
11 of the last 13 winners had 1.7+ strokes gained from tee-to-green in the three months prior.
The players who meet it in 2026: Scheffler, McIlroy, Rahm, Fitzpatrick, Morikawa, Si Woo Kim, Gotterup, Young, Åberg, Sepp Straka, Min Woo Lee
The 17th change matters more than it looks this year. “Nandina” plays 450 yards now — the longest it's ever been
Making it ten yards longer into a green that rewards a specific approach angle adds another variable to the last gauntlet before the 18th
Putting matters less than perception might suggest. McIlroy lost strokes putting when he won in 2025. Scheffler gained under two strokes putting when he won in 2024
The greens are so hard that the leaderboard in putting is almost always bunched — it’s tough to lap the field on the greens here
What separates winners is that they avoid three-putting, which is a function of where they leave their approach shot, which circles back to approach play as the master stat
Course knowledge is a very real competitive edge — not sentimental background noise
Augusta rookies consistently bogey holes that veterans par because they miss in the wrong place and don't know where the safe misses are
First-timers score worse at Augusta than their world ranking might predict
5: Other Stats & Numbers to Keep in Mind
Only three players have ever defended the Masters: Nicklaus (1965-66), Faldo (1989-90), Tiger (2001-02). McIlroy is attempting to become the fourth
The 54-hole leader has won around 53% of the time at Augusta
Augusta National's course history is the most predictive of any venue in golf, per DataGolf. Players who have learned how to navigate this course show up consistently on leaderboards regardless of broader form cycles
Some Plays We Like This Weekend:
Top 10: Xander Schauffele (+148)
Top 20: Viktor Hovland (+132)
Top 30: Akshay Bhatia (-122)
Top 40: Daniel Berger (-126)
Tourney Recap
2026 Valero Texas Open Recap:
Spaun Gets One Before Augusta
JJ Spaun finished off the pre-Masters Florida-Texas swing with a victory at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday — his second win at TPC San Antonio and his first since winning the US Open last summer. He closed with -5 on Sunday in difficult conditions to set the clubhouse target at -17. Robert MacIntyre — who had led the tournament entering Sunday — needed birdie on 18 to force a playoff and couldn’t find it.
It matters for Augusta because Spaun had gone seven starts this season without a top-20. A US Open champion with no momentum is a very different proposition from a US Open champion who just won in tough conditions five days before the first major. We’ll see if it translates to The Masters.
The Valero Texas Open Quick Stats:
Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green Leaders
JJ Spaun (1): +2.32
Robert MacIntyre (T2): +2.27
Davis Thompson (T14): +2.22
Strokes Gained: Putting Leaders
Chandler Phillips (T8): +2.14
Maverick McNealy (T21): +1.48
Mac Meissner (T30): +1.36
Strokes Gained: Approach Leaders
Ryo Hisatsune (T8): +1.74
JJ Spaun (1): +1.69
Matt Wallace (T2): +1.50
Author’s Note
There is no tournament like this one.
Every April, the same course. The same azaleas. The same back nine on Sunday that has produced more drama, more heartbreak, and more defining moments than anywhere else in the sport. Augusta National doesn't change — and that's precisely the point. The world changes around it. The players change. The storylines change. The course stays exactly as it is, waiting.
This is the week where reputations are made and burdens are finally lifted. Where players who have won everywhere else discover they still have something left to prove. Someone nobody expects has a chance to walk up the 18th on Sunday with the whole world watching.
The leaderboard is blank. The field is loaded. Thursday morning cannot come soon enough.
Enjoy the Masters, and see you next week for the recap.
