Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, USA, is ready for its annual week in the spotlight as the 2025 Masters Tournament, the 89th running of the Masters and the first men’s golf major of the year, takes place from 10 to 13 April 2025.
World number one and Olympic gold medallist Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion and will be one of the favourites to win another Green Jacket this week – it would be his third tirumph in four years at Augusta.
Breathing down his neck is world number two Irishman Rory McIlroy, whose Majors career haul is missing only the Masters. He arrives in Georgia in hot form, having won the Players Championship last month.
The other two Paris 2024 Olympic medallists also have good chances. Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood, who won silver in Paris, was joint-third last year at Augusta and will also fancy a shot at the title. Meanwhile, Matsuyama Hideki of Japan, who was third at Le Golf National last August behind Scheffler and Fleetwood, won this title in 2021.
Among the non-PGA Tour regulars taking part are four previous Masters winners: Jon Rahm (2023), Dustin Johnson (2020), Patrick Reed (2018), and Sergio García (2017). Reigning U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau is also taking part.
And five amateurs are competing for the Silver Cup and low amateur title – awarded to the best-finishing amateur player to have made the cut after the second round. They are Evan Beck and Noah Kent of the USA, Josele Ballester from Spain, Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands, and Hiroshi Tai from Singapore.
However, there will be no Tiger Woods, who is recovering from an Achilles injury.
Augusta National is well-known for the many idiosyncracies on its course, from Amen Corner on the 11th to 13th holes to the names of each of the holes, which are named for trees and shrubs. The second, Pink Dogwood, is the longest on the course, listed as a par-five at 585 yards (535m); the shortest hole is the par-three 12th, Golden Bell, at 155yd (142m).
The week’s festivities begin with practice on Monday and Tuesday before Wednesday’s curtain-raising Par 3 Contest. Infamously, no golfer has ever won the Par 3 Contest and the Masters in the same year.
