The season of the surge
Global tours already marked by multiple winners running hot early; Stray Shots
Casey Jarvis is the fourth two-time winner already this season on DPWT and PGA Tours (Warren Little/Getty Images)
Golf has always been a game prone to hot and cold streaks. When a player’s swing clicks into the zone where it all works out, you ride that wave as far as it will take you.
It just seems like we’re seeing a lot of hot streaks right now in the current PGA Tour and DP World Tour seasons.
Before the calendar flipped, there was South Africa’s Jayden Schaper going back-to-back on his home continent’s DPWT events in Johannesburg and Mauritius to close the book on 2025 as the hottest golfer on the planet.
The baton was quickly picked up in the new year by transitioning former LIV-ster Patrick Reed, who went on a Gulf states tear going 1-P2-1 in successive weeks on the DPWT’s Middle East swing through Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar.
Over on the PGA Tour, Chris Gotterup giddy-uped to two quick wins in his first three starts of the season in Hawaii and Phoenix and climbed as high as No. 5 in the world. Jacob Bridgeman rode a string of five straight top-20 finishes that culminated in his breakthrough victory at Riviera two weeks ago.
Back on the DP World Tour, it’s South African Casey Jarvis’ turn to own the stage by going back-to-back to win the Kenya and South African Opens in successive weeks. The latter was a really big deal as the 122-year-old championship was pegged to give the winner an automatic invite to the Masters. The 22-year-old from Boksburg — who also won consecutive starts back in November on the Sunshine Tour — will make his Augusta National debut in April.
“I feel on top of the world at this moment,” Jarvis said. “It was my dream as a kid to play at Augusta. I thought about it this morning. I tried not to, but it was hard not to think about it.
“Now I just cannot wait to go there and see how my game compares to the best players in the world. I had a slight feeling that something crazy was going to happen and, now it has, it’s just incredible.”
Jarvis joined the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic winner Nico Echavarria as the first two automatic professional qualifiers of 2026 for the Masters, bringing the current field to 88 players.
Jarvis is also the 23rd Masters rookie to book a spot — a pretty remarkable number (26.1 percent of the field so far) that would be 24 if NCAA champion Michael La Sasso hadn’t forfeited his spot to join LIV.
The folks at Augusta have to feel pretty good about how the handful of newly minted international open qualifying events worked out with all six events being won by players who have never before played in the Masters — Gotterup (Scottish Open, which was already a qualifying event on the PGA Tour), England’s Marco Penge (Spanish Open), Japan’s Naoyuki Kataoka (Japan Open), Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin (Hong Kong Open), Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Australian Open) and Jarvis (South African Open).
While not yet a winner this season, surging success has worked pretty well for Jake Knapp as well. Knapp has finished no worse than T11 in five PGA Tour starts this season to climb from No. 105 in the Official World Golf Ranking when he teed it up in the Sony Open in Hawaii to currently No. 41 with a good chance of getting back to Augusta.
Players currently inside the top-50 bubble hoping to secure Masters starts at the March 30 deadline (after Houston Open) include Matt McCarty (No. 40), Pierceson Coody (47) and Nicolai Højgaard (50). Currently outside looking in are Michael Thorbjorsen (56) and Schaper (57).
Nico Echavarria celebrates his third career PGA Tour win and subsequent Masters invite (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
2026 Masters Field
Through March 2, 2026
Here’s how the 88 players currently qualified to play in the 2026 Masters got into the field
# first-timers (23); * amateurs (6); Americans (46); Internationals (42); Seniors (7)
Ludvig Åberg (13, 18, 25) – Sweden
Akshay Bhatia (18, 25)
Keegan Bradley (17, 18, 25)
#Michael Brennan (25)
#Jacob Bridgeman (17, 18)
Sam Burns (18, 25)
Angel Cabrera (1) – Argentina
Brian Campbell (17)
Patrick Cantlay (18, 25)
Wyndham Clark (2, 25) – through 2028
Corey Conners (13, 18, 25) – Canada
Fred Couples (1)
Jason Day (13) – Australia
Bryson DeChambeau (2, 13, 25) – through 2029
Nico Echavarria (17) – Colombia
Harris English (13, 15, 16, 18, 25)
#Ethan Fang* (8)
Matthew Fitzpatrick (2, 25) – England – through 2027
Tommy Fleetwood (17, 18, 25) – England
Ryan Fox (17, 25) – New Zealand
Sergio Garcia (1) – Spain
#Ryan Gerard (25)
#Chris Gotterup (15, 17, 18, 19, 25)
#Max Greyserman (25)
#Ben Griffin (17, 18, 25)
#Harry Hall (18) – England
Brian Harman (3, 18, 25) – through 2028
Tyrrell Hatton (14, 25) -- England
Russell Henley (18, 25)
#Jackson Herrington* (7-B)
#Brandon Holtz* (11)
Rasmus Højgaard (25) – Denmark
Max Homa (13)
Viktor Hovland (14, 18, 25) -- Norway
#Mason Howell* (7-A)
Sungjae Im (13, 18, 25) – South Korea
#Casey Jarvis (24) – South Africa
Dustin Johnson (1)
Zach Johnson (1, 13)
#Naoyuki Kataoka (21) -- Japan
#John Keefer (25)
Kurt Kitayama (17, 25)
Michael Kim (25)
Si Woo Kim (25) – South Korea
Brooks Koepka (4) – through 2028
#Fifa Laopakdee* (9) – Thailand
Min Woo Lee (25) – Australia
Haotong Li (15) – (China)
Shane Lowry (18, 25) – Ireland
Robert MacIntyre (14, 18, 25) – Scotland
Hideki Matsuyama (1, 17, 18, 25) – Japan
Rory McIlroy (1, 5, 18, 25) – Northern Ireland
#Tom McKibbin (22) – Northern Ireland
Maverick McNealy (18, 25)
Phil Mickelson (1, 4)
Collin Morikawa (3, 4, 17, 18, 25) – through 2026
#Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (23, 25) – Denmark
Alex Noren (25) – Sweden
#Andrew Novak (18, 25)
José María Olazábal (1) – Spain
Carlos Ortiz (14) – Mexico
#Marco Penge (20, 25) – England
Aldrich Potgieter (17) – South Africa
#Mateo Pulcini* (10) – Argentina
Jon Rahm (1, 2) – Spain
Aaron Rai (25) – England
Patrick Reed (1, 13, 25)
#Kristoffer Reitan (25) – Norway
Davis Riley (16)
Justin Rose (13, 17, 18, 25) – England
Xander Schauffele (3, 4, 13, 25) – through 2029
Scottie Scheffler (1, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17, 18, 25)
Charl Schwartzel (1) – South Africa
Adam Scott (1) – Australia
Vijay Singh (1) – Fiji
Cameron Smith (3) – Australia – through 2027
J.J. Spaun (2, 18, 25) – through 2030
Jordan Spieth (1)
#Samuel Stevens (25)
Sepp Straka (17, 18, 25) – Austria
Nick Taylor (18) – Canada
Justin Thomas (4, 18, 25) – through 2027
#Sami Valimaki (25) – Finland
Bubba Watson (1)
Mike Weir (1) – Canada
Danny Willett (1) – England
Tiger Woods (1)
Cameron Young (14, 17, 18, 25)
CATEGORY 1: Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime)
CATEGORY 2: U.S. Open champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
CATEGORY 3: British Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
CATEGORY 4: PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
CATEGORY 5: The Players Championship Winners (3 years)
CATEGORY 6: Current Olympic Gold Medalist
CATEGORY 7A & 7B: Current U.S. Amateur champion (A, Honorary, non-competing after 1 year) and runner-up (B)
CATEGORY 8: Current British Amateur Champion (Honorary, non-competing after 1 year)
CATEGORY 9: Current Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion
CATEGORY 10: Current Latin America Amateur Champion (TBD Jan. 15-18, 2026 at Lima Golf Club)
CATEGORY 11: Current U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion
CATEGORY 12: Current NCAA Individual Champion
CATEGORY 13: First 12 players (including ties) in previous year’s Masters
CATEGORY 14: First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s U.S. Open
CATEGORY 15: First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s British Open
CATEGORY 16: First 4 players (including ties) in previous year’s PGA Championship
CATEGORY 17: Individual winners from previous Masters to current Masters of non-opposite PGA Tour events that award a full FedEx Cup point allocation toward the Tour Championship
CATEGORY 18: Eligible qualifiers for previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship
CATEGORY 19: Current Scottish Open champion
CATEGORY 20: Current Spanish Open champion
CATEGORY 21: Current Japan Open champion
CATEGORY 22: Current Hong Kong Open champion
CATEGORY 23: Current Australian Open champion
CATEGORY 24: Current South African Open champion
CATEGORY 25: Top 50 on final Official World Golf Ranking for previous calendar year
