Chris Gotterup leads list of 9 highly ranked golfers making their Masters debut

Twenty-two golfers will try to join an exclusive club in Masters history next week.

Household PGA Tour names like Chris Gotterup and Ben Griffin are aiming to win their Masters debut and become the first since Fuzzy Zoeller won it as a newcomer in 1979. Zoeller was the first to complete the feat since Gene Sarazen won in 1935, the tournament’s second year of existence.

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The 2026 Masters debut class includes a handful of PGA Tour winners and several more professionals with previous success in major tournaments. Here are the nine golfers among the Official World Golf Ranking top 50 making their Masters debuts next week.

Chris Gotterup — World ranking: 9

The highest-ranked Masters newcomer didn’t waste any time finding his winning form in 2026. Gotterup opened the season with a win in the Sony Open, followed by a win in the WM Phoenix Open three weeks later.

The 26-year-old from Maryland has made the cut in seven of his eight tournaments this year. He had a strong outing in his last major tournament, finishing in third place in the British Open last year. Gotterup has never won a major championship.

Ben Griffin — World ranking: 16

Griffin won two PGA Tour events last year, including a season-ending victory in the World Wide Technology Championship that vaulted him to No. 8 in 2025’s final Official World Golf Ranking.

Griffin hasn’t had a top-10 finish yet this season, though, and he’s missed the cut in three of his last four tournaments.

Griffin did perform well in major tournaments last year, tying for eighth place in the PGA Championship and 10th place in the U.S. Open. The North Carolina native also missed the cut in the British Open last year.

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Jacob Bridgeman — World ranking: 17

Bridgeman jumped from No. 81 at the end of 2025 to No. 17 entering the Masters, thanks to a red-hot start to the year. The 26-year-old from South Carolina has finished in the top 20 of all eight of his tournaments this year.

Bridgeman earned his first PGA Tour win at the Genesis Invitational on Feb. 22 and followed with a fifth-place tie in The Players Championship two weeks later. Bridgeman has won more money than anyone on the PGA Tour this season, with $6,564,485 in earnings.

Ryan Gerard — World ranking: 28

Gerard started the season with a second-place finish behind Gotterup in the Sony Open and tied for second place in the American Express the following week. The 26-year-old from North Carolina has only had one top-20 finish since then and has missed the cut in two of his last three tournaments.

Gerard’s best major finish came in last season’s PGA Championship, when he came in a nine-way tie for eighth place.

Marco Penge — World ranking: 37

The PGA Tour’s highest-ranked rookie earned his first Masters invitation before he even earned a spot on the PGA Tour. Penge won the Spanish Open in October and earned his tour card in November with his second-place finish in the DP World Tour’s seasonlong Race to Dubai standings.

Penge struggled early in his rookie season before tying for 16th place in the Genesis Invitational on Feb. 22. The 27-year-old Englishman followed that by tying for fourth in the Valspar Championship on March 22.

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Samuel Stevens — World ranking: 44

Stevens moved up six spots after his fifth-place finish at the Texas Children’s Houston Open on Sunday. The 29-year-old Kansas native’s only other top-10 finish this season came with a tie for sixth place at the American Express on Feb. 25.

Stevens has played in five major tournaments since 2022 and has made the cut in all of them.

Michael Brennan — World ranking: 45

Brennan is the youngest Masters newcomer ranked in the top 50 at 24 years old. The Virginia native earned PGA Tour membership in October and has had a solid start to his first full season.

Brennan has only missed the cut twice in nine tournaments this season — though he was disqualified from the Farmers Insurance Open — and is coming off his most profitable finish of the year. Brennan tied for 28th place in the Texas Children’s Houston Open, adding $59,625 to his 2026 earnings.

Andrew Novak — World ranking: 47

Two spots behind Brennan is Novak, the oldest Masters newcomer ranked in the top 50. The season highlight thus far for the 31-year-old from North Carolina came at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he tied for seventh place.

Novak has never won an individual PGA Tour event. He made the cut in two of the three majors he played in last season, but his highest finish was a tie for 42nd.

Kristoffer Reitan — World ranking: 49

Reitan is the only other top-50 PGA Tour rookie making his Masters debut next week. The 28-year-old from Norway has made the cut in four of his seven tournaments this year and finished tied for 17th place at the Cognizant Classic on March 1.

Reitan competed in his first major since 2018 last season and tied for 30th place in the British Open.

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