Masters 2026: Ludvig Åberg chief among nine players who could make the most noise with a win

There is always a tremendous amount of anticipation entering the Masters, but this year feels like a particularly fascinating opportunity for so many players to make their mark to open the major championship season at Augusta National Golf Club. It starts with a quartet of stars who have separated from the pack at the top of the golf world, pushing each other for the title of best of a generation.

Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm account for six of the last nine major victories and have a combined 13 major titles, with every major win providing each of the four with a résumé boost in their quest for all-time status.

Then there's the chase pack, which includes veterans trying to keep their major window open, players in their primes hoping to climb another tier and a rising crop of young stars who are trying to insert themselves into the conversation of being one of the best in the world. 

Leading that latter pack is Ludvig Åberg, who is fifth on the Masters odds sheet, per DraftKings Sportsbook, despite still seeking his first major victory. 

Åberg burst onto the scene out of college, playing on a winning Ryder Cup team before ever making a major start, and finished 2nd to Scheffler in his first Masters appearance in 2024 (and first major start). He backed that up with a 7th in 2025, where he was a shot off the lead on the 17th tee before stumbling late, and oddsmakers won't want to be caught out on the man who seems destined to be the next major star in golf. 

Åberg is immensely talented with one of the most aesthetically pleasing swings in the game, but he is still learning how to win big events. His blown lead on Sunday at The Players last month shifted some of the conversation around the young Swede, as his hyper-aggression once again proved costly on a Sunday afternoon. He bounced back with another solid performance in Texas in his tune-up for the Masters but also had a chance to win there entering Sunday and couldn't get enough going in the final round to mount a charge. 

At this point, Åberg's ascension into the elite tier feels inevitable, but he won't get that full stamp of approval until he collects his first major victory. Based on his early major performances, the Masters appears to be the most likely place for that initial breakthrough. If he can finally put together 72 holes this week at Augusta National and slip into a green jacket, the 24-year-old can drop the "rising" from rising star and stake his claim to a spot among the game's absolute best. 

Winning a major championship -- specifically becoming a Masters champion -- is a huge accomplishment for anyone and incredibly meaningful on a personal level, but not all Masters wins create the same broader ripple effects around the golf world. 

With that in mind, let's highlight nine players in the 2026 Masters field with the most at stake for their careers. How will a green jacket alter their hierarchy in the game and adjust their place in golf's history? Where does an Åberg win fall in that ranking?

9. Justin Rose: Rose has the best Masters résumé of any current player without a green jacket: seven top 10s, including three runner-up finishes. He came painfully close last year in the playoff loss to McIlroy. No one expects Rose to win at this point in his career, but the 45-year-old has proven he can still ramp himself up to peak performance. After winning at Torrey Pines to open the year, Rose went into hibernation mode a bit, but a solid showing at The Players indicated he's thawing himself out to make one more run at Augusta National. That Rose has just one major championship to his name feels wrong given how many times he's been in contention; perhaps there's one more magical weekend left in him to earn a permanent invitation to the Masters and cement his legacy as one of the game's greats. 

8. Tommy Fleetwood: Fleetwood finally picked up that elusive first PGA Tour victory last year at the Tour Championship, but he's still on top of the "best players without a major" list. He's been solid, yet unspectacular to start this season when many expected (or perhaps more accurately hoped) his play from the end of 2025 would catapult him into a huge 2026. That still could be the case as the major championship season arrives. 

At 35 years old, Fleetwood's window to pick up a major or two isn't as open as it once seemed, but he's been playing the best golf of his career over the past 12 months. The depth of talent across generations makes it harder than ever to break through in a major, but Fleetwood should capture a major championship at some point in his career. 

7. Brooks Koepka: A Koepka win probably belongs higher on this list, given the historic implications, but it feels like a long shot considering the form we've seen from him over the past two seasons. The optimistic view is that Koepka's ball-striking has been great all year, and he's started to find something on the greens after a woeful start to the season with the putter. Even so, we've yet to see him fully contend in regular PGA Tour events since returning from LIV Golf in 2026. 

Koepka has always been a major championship riser, and if he can turn back the clock a bit and return to his elite form at the Masters, he'll be a threat. A win at Augusta National would give Koepka three legs of the grand slam and move his overall tally to six major championship victories. That would break the tie he has currently with McIlroy for the most of this current era, and tie him with Phil Mickelson, Lee Trevino and Nick Faldo in 12th all-time. 

6. Xander Schauffele: Schauffele has been close to that green jacket a few times, and after a lean year due to injury in 2025, a third major (and a third leg of the grand slam) would reintroduce him into the conversation with the four players that currently have separated at the top of the sport. So far this season, Schauffele has looked solid, but we still haven't seen the form that got him two majors in 2024. What better place to find it than a course he's finished in the top 10 five times in the last seven years? 

5. Cameron Young: Young's Masters career is boom-or-bust with two top 10s and two missed cuts. There's a Koepka-esque nature to his game that brings out his best in big events, and it feels like a matter of time before he breaks through at a major. His win at The Players verified his place as one of the biggest young threats in the game, and proved he can produce his best under the pressure of coming down the close of a big championship event. A major victory is the next step in Young's career progression, and he seems like the kind of player who could rip off a few in short order once he captures his first. 

4. Rory McIlroy: For the first time in more than a decade, McIlroy isn't at the top of one of these lists. McIlroy shed the burden of trying to capture the grand slam with his win last year, and he can now set his sights on a different kind of history. Like Koepka, he could pick up a sixth major title, join the top 12 all-time and become the winningest player of this era. He also could achieve one of the rarest feats in golf by going back-to-back at the Masters, something that's only been accomplished three times: Jack Nicklaus (1965, 1966), Nick Faldo (1989, 1990) and Tiger Woods (2001, 2002). 

There's still ample pressure on McIlroy given those historic stakes. Add in the fact that he's trying to shake off the rust of a long layoff between The Players and the Masters after tweaking his back, and though he felt like he finally answered all the questions possible last year, he still comes into this year with a few new ones. None of them will feel as heavy as what he dealt with for the last 10 years, though, and it'll be fascinating to see what McIlroy looks like at Augusta National freed from the ghosts that haunted him for so long. 

3. Ludvig Åberg: Åberg is the headliner of the talented, young stars on the PGA Tour, but he needs that first major title to fully assert his arrival as one of the game's dominant forces. 

2. Scottie Scheffler: We haven't seen Scheffler's best this season since his opening win at The American Express. At this point, the dip in his ball-striking and driving stats is more than just a brief blip on the radar, but no one since Woods has been better at Augusta National than Scheffler. He's never finished outside the top 20 at the Masters in six starts, and he has two wins and two other top 10s in his last four trips to Augusta National. After taking some time off for the birth of his second child, Scheffler could quickly put to rest any questions of him slipping from his perch atop the golf world with a third Masters win, and make some history in the process. 

A third green jacket would tie him with Gary Player, Sam Snead, Nick Faldo, Jimmy DeMaret and Mickelson for the fourth most in history. Winning three Masters in five years would be a feat only accomplished by Woods, Nicklaus and Palmer. Scheffler would also tie McIlroy and Koepka for the most major championships of the current era with five, and would be the first player to reach five major wins before 30 years old since, you guessed it, Tiger. 

1. Bryson DeChambeau: This will be DeChambeau's 10th start at the Masters, and he's the only member of that top four who has yet to capture a green jacket. For a long time, his T21 as an amateur was his best finish, until he finally showed signs of cracking the code at Augusta National with a T6 finish in 2024. Last year's T5 was a slight improvement, but also came with the bitter disappointment of being in the final pairing on Sunday and falling completely out of the race by the middle of Amen Corner. 

A win this week would quickly put that final round 75 in the rearview mirror and give him the one title he doesn't have yet that he most covets. DeChambeau has made clear how important golf history is to him, and if he can complete the set of the three most important titles in American golf -- U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and Masters champion -- he'll join Nicklaus, Palmer and Woods as the only men to accomplish that feat. 

He can also avoid the questions mounting about his ability to get it done at Augusta National, as the pressure only mounts more and more as the years come and go without winning a green jacket. With McIlroy now freed from that vicious cycle, DeChambeau is primed to start getting those questions, especially after his Sunday struggles in 2025.