Here they are others winners from Masters 2026. Participation Jackets, if desired. Let’s get to them.
Honorable mention: All of us
After a week at Augusta with impressively limited screen time, I returned to social media the Monday after the Masters to catch up on what I’d been missing. This turned out to be a spectacularly stupid way to process the golf tournament; somehow the conversation had shifted to heated topics like Rory McIlroy must keep score OR what did the governor of Florida think from his scouting trips to Augusta.
Look, petty squabbles are encouraged. I’m more than happy to hear the brain’s pick for golf course setup or TV production or selection of birds in Jason Day’s vest or whatever your heart desires — as long as we keep in mind that, as golf tournaments go, this one was pretty good. So this is a reminder to myself, and I think to you, dear reader, that we are all of them winners for how it all went down. Augusta National showed up, the weather cooperated, and we got a legitimate back-to-back Masters Sunday, interspersed with intrigue between a handful of the world’s best players.
10. Michael Brennan
Brennan announced his arrival at a impossible victory at last year’s Bank of Utah Championship, where he entered the field through the sponsor exemption and — in his first PGA Tour start as a pro — won it all. It’s been uneven since then, but Brennan held his own in his first run as a pro; His T24 at Augusta National is his best finish anywhere in 2026.
8. Maverick McNealy
He’s not a flashy personality, doesn’t play a flashy game, and doesn’t have a flashy major league resume. But Mav McNealy recorded his first career top 20 thanks to a typically hot player and Sunday’s 67; it was an especially impressive score given that he shot a 77 on Thursday.
9. Russell Henley
When Henley birdied four of the first eight holes on Sunday to get to 10 under, he suddenly had a legitimate chance to win his first major championship. Instead, he couldn’t make a birdie putt and played the final 10 holes at even par. The good news: It was his fifth top-10 finish in his last seven major starts and the first of three top-10s in his career. On trend at the age of 37.
“I hit it amazing today. I gave myself a bunch of looks. Unfortunately, I didn’t capitalize on those looks on the back end like I would have liked,” he said. “I felt like I handled the pressure well, I handled the conditions well. It was tricky out there.”
7. Tyrrell Hatton
LIV Golf had a largely disappointing week; only one of his players finished below the top 30. But even though that golfer, Tyrrell Hatton, saw his chances of winning all but disappear with a Saturday 72, his superb Sunday 66 left him T3 and extremely pleased with how he finished. Finishing in the top 12 also guarantees him a return visit next year, which he said he’s thinking about with a baby on the way.
“To be honest most of the back nine, I just wanted to make birdies because my wife is due in six weeks and I thought it would be good to be back next year, and our little girl will be almost 11 months, so it would be amazing to see her in a boiler suit,” Hatton said, referring to the caddy uniforms families wear to Wednesday’s Par-3 competition. “Obviously you see all the other dads and their families and little ones in boiler suits it’s so cool.”
6. Scottie Scheffler
There’s no chance the world No. 1 would be interested in a turnout jacket (the more I type that phrase the more I’m planning to brand him) but Scheffler entered the week as a new father, coming off his two “worst” starts in more than a year and sat out. 12 strokes back half way; if it was anyone else it would be number 1 on this list. (Instead, we’ll set it semi-randomly to number 6.)
A bogey-free weekend left Scheffler in second place, just one stroke off McIlroy’s winning number and will more than silence the doubters. McIlroy won the tournament; Scheffler is still the best golfer in the world. Between them they have won four of the last five Masters, as well as four of the last five Masters, and McIlroy now has six majors to Scheffler’s four. The game is on.
“I think big championships bring out the best in me sometimes, and I had some good starts last year and definitely had a good week this week,” Scheffler said. “There are a few shots I would like to do again, but overall I put up a good fight.”
5. Jordan Spieth
Speaking of trending iron play: Jordan Spieth is showing it right now. His T12 is his best finish at a major in three years and came largely thanks to his approach game, which DataGolf had as fifth-best in the field. Spieth remains extremely reliable at Augusta National, where he has nine top-15 finishes in 13 career starts. He’s trending toward reliability everywhere else, too, if he can get his player to cooperate.
“I hit it better (this year) than the year I won and I hit it a lot better than any second or fourth place,” he said. “Probably the best I’ve ever hit here and I usually putt these greens really well. This part is a little disappointing. Again, putting can be streaky so just get on the right lane and try to win next week.”
4. Jake Knapp
Knapp has played eight tournaments in 2026. He has now finished T11 or better in seven of those eight after a relatively quiet seven-under-par performance. It felt like a particularly significant finish because Knapp had only played four previous races as a pro (three MCs and a T55), making this his best result.
3. Cameron Young
If you take Young at his word, he left the Masters disappointed with the result but happy with his game.
“There’s no negative to take away, except obviously I would have liked a different result,” he said. “But as far as golf goes, I played well enough to win today and well enough to win by a couple I guess. So, just one of those days. If you go through the back nine, I had a little bit of a chance on every hole and I didn’t make any. That happens sometimes.”
The tournament appeared to be won by Young when McIlroy, his playing partner, three-footed a five-footer on No. 4 to give Young a two-shot lead. But there was still plenty of golf to be played; Young went 6-7-8-9 and then holed a back nine as McIlroy slipped past him.
So why does he get a turnout jacket? Because he just squeezed in to win the Players, because he’s just gone T3-win-T3, because he’s No. 3 in the world — and because this time last year he missed the cut at the Masters and fell outside the top 60 at the OWGR. This is a hell of a few weeks and a hell of a year.
2. Max Homa
Max Homa didn’t win the 2024 Masters, but he did finish T3, meaning he received an automatic invite to the 2025 Masters, where he finished T12, meaning he received an automatic invite to the 2026 Masters, where he finished T9 thanks to a bogey-free 67 on Sunday — and secured a 202 invitation to the Masters. Things could be good for Homa, whose iron games and goals have been trending since the start of the season. Now it’s just a matter of pretending every other course is Augusta National…
“Yeah, it feels good,” Homa said of his score, smiling. “I wish next time I could be in contention earlier, not need a miracle on Sunday. “But because I didn’t have it all and I felt like I left some out there, I’m just really proud of the golf, (and) my brain was pretty good. Yeah, it was fun.”
1. Collin Morikawa
It takes a very specific set of circumstances to feel shocked by the world’s No. 7 golfer finishing seventh in a pro golf tournament, but given Collin Morikawa’s pre-tournament form (he bogeyed his second hole at the Players with a back injury, then sat out the next three weeks) plus his tournament week form, it was clearly a mess to beat him by a shot. simple) this was perhaps the most impressive non-victory of his impressive young career.
“Trust me, it’s going to be one of the best tournaments ever,” Morikawa said. “I’ll remember that for a lot of reasons, but more than that being strong minded, to be able to go out there and convince yourself that everything is going to be okay.”
You can watch more analysis of Masters 2026 in the video below.
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