2026 Masters Preview: Top Storylines as Scheffler, McIlroy, and More Compete in Augusta

Last year’s Masters Tournament was all about Rory McIlroy finally breaking through, winning a green jacket, and completing the career Grand Slam.

There’s no one in the 2026 field who could notch that achievement, but still, storylines abound for the preeminent tournament in the sport. These are the major talking points heading into the Masters 2026, which begins Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.

An Irish Encore

You could certainly understand if Rory McIlroy is still in his victory lap after last year’s Masters win, as the Irishman has gone winless in 14 PGA Tour starts since slipping on the green jacket. His last two starts consisted of a withdrawal and a 46th-place finish—he’s not exactly in the best of form as he seeks to defend his crown. McIlroy became the 57th person to win the Masters, and just 18 of those have won the tournament multiple times.

He’ll have many more attempts to notch a second Masters victory, but this year’s tournament will likely be his only chance to go back-to-back. The number of individuals who have done that can be counted on one hand, with a couple of fingers left over. Only Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90), and Tiger Woods (2001-02) have won consecutive Masters, so it will be intriguing to see how McIlroy performs in his encore.

Scheffler’s Sluggish Start

Scottie Scheffler had seven tour victories in 2024 and six in 2025. But the top-ranked golfer in the world enters the 2026 Masters with just one win on the course, though he certainly notched a win off the course with the birth of his son two weeks ago. Scheffler is hoping to overcome a somewhat pedestrian start to the year and continue his even-year winning trend—he won the Masters in both 2022 and 2024.

In his favor is his utter domination at major championships. He’s 101-under-par at majors, the best all-time. Working against him, however, is the fact that he has no top 10 finishes over his last three starts—his longest drought in nearly four years—and his sudden inability to hit the green. Scheffler ranks just 82nd on the PGA Tour in “strokes gained: approach the green” after leading the tour in the stat last year. If he can put everything together and prevail in his seventh Masters start, Scheffler would become the first golfer to ever win the tournament three times before eight appearances.

A Trio Looking to Reach Third Base

McIlroy achieved the Grand Slam at last year’s Masters, and Jordan Spieth has another chance to do the same at this year’s PGA Championship. However, nothing of that sort is at stake at Augusta National this year. Nonetheless, three golfers have won two of the other three majors, and they can reach the third leg of the career Grand Slam with a Masters win.

Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, and Xander Schauffele each have prevailed at two of the three: the PGA Championship, British Open, and U.S. Open. Winning the Masters would put them on third base, with home plate in sight. Koepka has come the closest to winning a green jacket with a pair of runners-up in his career (2019, 2023), but he’s also failed to record a top 10 over his last 10 major starts. Schauffele placed second to Tiger Woods’ comeback victory in 2019, while Morikawa’s best finish is third in 2024.

New Names

The usual suspects of Scheffler, McIlroy, DeChambeau, Schauffele, Rahm, etc. will get most of the attention as potential winners. Then again, none of them were household names until they broke through, and there are a couple of younger golfers who are looking to gain some notoriety. Just four players have three-plus PGA Tour wins since the start of last year, and two of them are Scheffler and McIlroy. The other two are unknowns to most casual fans, but they should familiarize themselves with Chris Gotterup and Ben Griffin.

They each have three victories within the last calendar year but will be Masters rookies come Thursday. Winning the Masters in your debut is even more rare than clinching the career Grand Slam—just three golfers have done so: Horton Smith (1934 – which was the first-ever Masters), Gene Sarazen (1935), and Fuzzy Zoeller (1979). While both Gotterup and Griffin are neophytes at Augusta, they have each shown that they can hang with the big boys in big tournaments. Gotterup placed third in his British Open debut last year, while Griffin had top 10 finishes in both the 2025 PGA Championship and 2025 U.S. Open.

Who’s Not in the Field

The Masters has the smallest field of any major, with 91 golfers set for this year’s event, compared with 156 who teed off at each of the other three majors last year. It’s harder to qualify for the Masters, though all past winners get lifetime exemption. However, two of those past winners—Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who have combined to win eight green jackets—won’t take part in this year’s tournament.

Woods’ recent troubles are well-documented, and he’s stepped away from golf to receive treatment. Mickelson, who was runner-up as recently as 2023, withdrew due to a health matter within his family. This will make the 2026 Masters the first without the two defining golfers of their era for the first time since the 1994 edition.