It is one of the pinnacles of professional golf when that Masters envelope drops through the door for the first time to confirm you'll be teeing it up at Augusta National.
As the field for the 2026 Masters field is now complete, we can look deeper into who will be playing among the Azaleas this time around - including the first-timers taking it all in.
That first drive down Magnolia Lane, that walk to the first tee through the patrons, it must be a magical time for every player lucky enough to achieve it.
Rarely is it a successful one though, as we're famously almost 50 years removed from Fuzzy Zoeller being the most recent first-time Masters champion back in 1979.
It's one of the beauties of the event, as you'll have defending champion Rory McIlroy, other Green Jacket winners, legends of the game and current superstars strolling the same fairways as wide-eyed first-timers.
There are 22 players set to make their Masters debuts this year, with six of those being amateurs and some talented tournament winners among the pros.
Who are the Masters debutants for 2026?
None more so than Chris Gotterup, who started this year as he ended the last, winning two of the first three tournaments of 2026 on the PGA Tour including a playoff victory over Hideki Matsuyama at the WM Phoenix Open.
Throw in his brilliant Scottish Open win last year and a top-10 finish at the Tour Championship and you can see why many fancy Gotterup to at least go close to ending that elusive search for a debut Masters champion.
Jacob Bridgeman held off Rory McIlroy to win the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, and is the model of consistency as he's almost always in the top 20 whenever he plays, while Ben Griffin isn't your average Masters debutant aged 29 and coming off playing in the Ryder Cup.
From the international raiders, Marco Penge challenged McIlroy for European No.1 last season and his power could be a real weapon at Augusta, while mini-Rory Tom McKibbin will be dreaming of making it back-to-back Green Jackets for Holywood, Northern Ireland.
Hong Kong Open winner McKibbin is joined by South African Open champion Casey Jarvis and Australian Open victor Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen in earning Masters spots via winning those national opens.
Sami Valimaki is a rare entrant from Finland and is his country's first PGA Tour winner, while Kristoffer Reitan will join fellow Norwegian Viktor Hovland in the field after a meteoric rise from HotelPlanner Tour to DP World Tour to PGA Tour in consecutive years.
Englishman Harry Hall almost made Europe's Ryder Cup side last year and if his putter is on then he won't be scared even by the Augusta greens.
Andrew Novak is another experienced American making his first Masters start aged 30, with Sam Stevens just a year younger - and Ryan Gerard showed how much he wanted it by flying to Mauritius late last year when on the bubble of the world's top 50 to play his way in.
John Keefer managed to get inside the world's top 50 without even starting the year on the PGA Tour, with two Korn Ferry Tour wins helping out, while Michael Brennan did something similar but won the Bank of Utah Championship on the PGA Tour after getting an exemption when previously playing well on the PGA Tour Americas.
Naoyuki Kataoka is the Japan Open champion and the last of the pros, being joined by six amateur stars playing Augusta for the first time.
Ethan Fang won the Amateur Championship while Mason Howell and Jackson Herrington are the US Amateur champion and runner-up respectively
Completing the debutant line-up are Brandon Holtz, winner of the US Mid-Amateur, alongside Asia-Pacific Amateur champion Fifa Laopakdee from Thailand and Argentina's Latin Amaerica Amateur champion Mateo Pulcini.
Masters rookies 2026:
- Michael Brennan
- Jacob Bridgeman
- Ethan Fang (a)
- Ryan Gerard
- Chris Gotterup
- Ben Griffin
- Harry Hall
- Jackson Herrington (a)
- Brandon Holtz (a)
- Mason Howell (a)
- Casey Jarvis
- Naoyuki Kataoka
- John Keefer
- Fifa Laopakdee
- Tom McKibbin
- Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
- Andrew Novak
- Marco Penge
- Mateo Pulcini (a)
- Kristoffer Reitan
- Sam Stevens
- Sami Valimaki
