One of the great annual traditions of the Masters is the inclusion of the myriad amateurs who have qualified for the first major of the year. There are several ways to qualify for a week at Augusta National, which often produces a diverse and interesting group of golfers, just as we did this year at the 86th edition of this tournament.
It’s pretty rare that you get a repeat fancier at this event, and the Masters not only have that with the world’s No. 13 ranked fancier, Stewart Hagestad, but they have someone playing their fifth major championship overall. (which is, sort of, the same number as world No. 11 player Sam Burns). The world’s No. 1 ranked amateur will also start this week, and those two are joined by the runners-up from the American amateur and the winner from the British amateur last summer.
Let’s take a look at the six amateurs and rank them from most likely to least likely to make the cut Friday night at Augusta National.
1. Stewart Hagestad (WAGR : n° 13) : Hagestad gets the green light on Nakajima here due to his experience. In his first Masters appearance in 2017, he finished as a low amateur and T36 in the standings ahead of Louis Oosthuizen, Tommy Fleetwood, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson. He’s a more experienced major championship golfer than any of the amateurs — and even some of the professionals — in this field, and a real threat to make the cut and play on the weekends again.
2. Keita Nakajima (1): A fascinating talent who received praise from Collin Morikawa and made the Sony Open cut on the PGA Tour in January. He certainly has the game to make the cut, but Augusta is crafty, so it will probably depend on whether he can accumulate enough course knowledge in his prep time and exercise enough patience and discipline not to going after every pin and every shot he presented. with at the start of the tournament. I’m probably the most excited to watch it out of all the ams out there.
3. Austin Oiler (23): Greaser was James Piot’s runner-up at Oakmont and, as a junior at Chapel Hill, is already North Carolina’s all-time leader in stroke average. He’s probably had an even better run than Piot since that event at Oakmont last summer, as he won the OFCC Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields last fall with a 69-68-69 performance. Despite falling to Piot in their one-on-one clash at the US Amateur, Greaser is probably the better golfer overall and has a better chance of playing all four rounds of this Masters.
4.James Piot (60): You don’t come across US Amateur wins at Oakmont like Piot did last summer. Piot was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2018 and has received multiple All-Big Ten accolades since then. He’s been consistently good since winning at Oakmont with seven top 25s in 10 events since last summer. Unfortunately for him, the difference between a top 15 finish at Colleton River Collegiate and a place at the Masters is a bit bigger than he would probably like.
5. Laird Berger (49): Shepherd was four and four to go at the British Amateur last year and walked away with the trophy as well as a bid for the Masters. He shot 74-69 at Royal St. George’s last year in his first major appearance, which was better than 42 in that area, so he certainly showed the propensity to be competitive in an event of this magnitude. He has the longest odds of any amateur to make the cut, which makes him the best bet considering he missed it at Royal St. George’s by just two strokes.
6. Aaron Jarvis (827): The UNLV freshman is the most unlikely of the six to qualify for the Masters. He won the Latin American Amateur Championship earlier this year while ranked outside the world top 1,000 (not the official world golf ranking, but the world ranking Amateur golf rankings). Jarvis is from the Cayman Islands, where they have about a golf course and a half for the 70,000 people. While his story even to have at Augusta National is remarkable, it’s hard to imagine him making the cut and playing the weekend at the most prestigious tournament in the world.
–
