2026 Masters Preview: First Timer, Thoroughbreds, and Everything You Need to Know

Masters week is here. This is our Super Bowl. And this year we brought in somebody who just got back from Monday's practice round at Augusta National to help us break it all down. Matthew Zampello from the Under the Covers Golf podcast joined the Fairway Times pod fresh off the plane from Atlanta. First time at Augusta. Here is everything we covered:

Let me start by saying this. If you have ever wanted to go to the Masters and you have been on the fence about it, stop being on the fence. Matthew summed it up perfectly when he said Monday was one of the best days of his life. He got in through a lottery ticket connection, flew into Atlanta Sunday afternoon, stayed by the airport, drove up at 4am, and was in line at the South Gate by 6:45.

The South Gate drops you right at 13 and 14 which is honestly a better entry point than most people realize. Less crowd, more efficient, and you pop into the golf course at one of the best stretches on the property.

The merch situation is exactly as advertised. Everything is Masters branded. No sponsors anywhere. You cannot even tell it is Peter Millar under the logo. The beer is branded Masters. The soda is branded Masters. You walk up, tell them what number item you want in what size, they pull it and hand it to you. And right next to the shop is a pop-up UPS station where you ship your purchases home so you are not carrying bags around all day. These people have been doing this for decades and it shows. Every single thing is dialed.

The gnomes are real and they are a whole thing. Matthew had never heard of them before Monday morning but by the time he was standing in line to get through the gates everybody around him was talking about nothing else. Are the gnomes out? How many can you carry? Have you seen the rare ones? He was 150 to 200 people deep in the South Gate and the gnomes were already sold out by the time his group got to the merch tent. People were walking around Augusta National all day carrying garden gnomes rather than ship them back. That is the commitment level. For reference, one went for $8,000 in thirty seconds on a live auction app. Adult Disney was exactly how Matthew described the energy.

The food lived up to every story you have ever heard. Five dollar breakfast. Coffee that is actually good, not just hot brown water in a paper cup. Matthew went through all three sandwiches for lunch and came out with a clear ranking. Egg salad first. Pimento cheese second, and he actually liked it despite everyone saying it is overrated. Chicken salad third. All of them very good. The permanent structures dotted around the course serve as the halfway houses and they are exactly that, real buildings, not tents, open all day.

The grass looks fake. That is the only way to describe it according to Matthew. It looks like somebody photographed the most perfect grass in the world and printed it on a billboard. You get there and your brain genuinely struggles to process that it is real.

Course is playing firm. He said it felt firm underneath his feet and he watched approach shots into 13 and 15 taking one big bounce and spinning rather than checking immediately. That tells you everything you need to know about scoring conditions this week.

The big talking point among people who have been there before is the tree loss. Nine and ten in particular are noticeably thinner than they used to be. Storm damage and old age have taken a toll on the pines on the left side of ten and what used to be a hole where you really had to hook it is now giving players a wider angle down into the middle of the fairway. Matthew overheard Freddie Couples and Vijay Singh talking about it on the ninth tee box. VJ looked around and said something along the lines of it being a lot different without the trees. Augusta is reportedly bringing in new pines to replant and expects it fixed by 2027.

From a scoring standpoint Matthew and I both think the number to win this week is somewhere around eight or nine under par. Perfect weather forecast all week means Augusta gets to dial the greens up as firm and fast as they want. When they have the forecast, they use it. This is not a twenty-under week.

One inside detail that legitimately blew my mind. The tree on the left corner of thirteen tee box. The one that dictates how much of the corner you can cut on that dogleg. According to a story from Tom Hogan's caddy who played with Matthew a few years ago, that tree comes down as the week goes on. Round one it is higher and you get more of the corner. By Sunday it is lower and tighter. There is apparently a pulley system. Augusta National has a pulley system for a tree to control how much corner the players can take at thirteen. These people are operating on a different level than the rest of us.

A few things stood out watching players on Monday.

Bryson was the biggest buzz on the property. When he walked up to the first tee there was a sprint from the gallery. Everyone ran over. Matthew's read on that is actually a slight concern because Bryson tends to play his best when he is under the radar rather than when he is the center of the universe. He is out there with curved face one length irons he has been building himself, working with what sounds like Mike Taylor out of the old Nike Fort Worth facility. If Bryson told you he made his own irons and then plays well, it is the most Bryson thing ever. If he told you he made his own irons and misses the cut it is also the most Bryson thing ever. Wild card. Fun card.

Mav McNealy was the most impressive thing Matthew saw all day and it was not close. He watched McNealy on one green for twenty five straight minutes hitting chip shots to pins placed all over the corners and stopping the ball right next to every single one of them. Matthew is a competitive golfer. He knows what good short game looks like. He said it was one of the most unbelievable things he has ever seen in person. McNealy is the most underrated player on tour and the Scheffler before his first major comparison was raised on the pod. Once he wins the floodgates open and it is just a matter of when not if.

Ethan Fang was quietly doing things at fifteen and sixteen that turned heads. On sixteen, where everybody knows the flag locations in advance, he hit three iron shots and put all three within five feet of their targets. Matthew was very impressed. This kid is going to be a problem this week.

Rory was playing alone. Just him and Harry Diamond walking the course. Quiet. Not speaking much. Staring off into the distance. This is a guy who just won here last year and completed the career Grand Slam and he is back defending. The defending champion energy is a different thing and Rory clearly came in locked in.

Jason Day in the Malbon vest looked phenomenal in person. Matthew confirmed it. A lot of people hate it on social media but standing there on the golf course watching him come through thirteen, the look landed. And yes, Augusta confiscated the vest from last year. Stefan Malbon confirmed in an interview that a member told him it is now inside one of the cabins as a pillow. The vest is a Masters pillow. Incredible story.

Cam Smith played alone and Matthew did not love what he saw. Hit one in the water on fifteen, then hit two in the water on sixteen during practice. He came out of LIV looking like a guy who has been fishing a lot. Those are Matthew's words, not mine, but I am not going to argue with them.

We ran the Augusta data through AI before recording and the output was interesting. The conventional wisdom has always been you have to be an elite putter to win at Augusta. The data actually pushes back on that. What you need is elite approach play specifically with your five, six, and seven iron. Great putters who cannot move the ball with the long irons tend to struggle because the greens are so diabolical that they level the putting advantage. You need to get the ball into the right shelves and spots to even have makeable putts. If you are bombing approach shots into the wrong tier you are leaving yourself nothing.

Length off the tee matters because it unlocks easier approach shots into the par fives. Get past the corner at thirteen and you are hitting a different club into a flatter lie. Get up on top of the hill at fifteen and you are looking at eagle birdie instead of layup decisions. The formula is length plus elite long irons plus good enough putting to survive.
The thoroughbreds who fit that profile this week:

Scottie Scheffler. Obviously. The world number one has won here twice and has a legitimate case as the best player alive. He moves the ball both ways, hits elite irons, and figures things out on courses that reward patience and precision.
Ludvig Aberg. Both Matthew and I landed here independently. Matthew declared on his own podcast after The Players that Aberg wins the Masters this week and he is sticking to it. The profile fits perfectly. He played well at Valero the week before. He is trending at the right time. He has the length and the ball striking to attack Augusta.

Jon Rahm. Former champion. Knows this property. Hits the ball a long way and plays with a natural right to left shape that suits Augusta's layout. His watch was also the best thing walking around Augusta this week at $250,000 but that is a different article.

Tommy Fleetwood. Nobody is talking about Tommy except to discuss his hat situation and that is exactly the kind of under the radar positioning you want. This is one of the best ball strikers alive. He goes back to mini driver on tight fairways and becomes more accurate when the course demands precision. He deserves more conversation than he is getting.

Long shot plays we like:

Jake Knapp at plus 10,000. Every strokes gained metric he has is elite and he is out there at Augusta learning the secrets from Vijay Singh and Freddie Couples in the practice round. Second Masters appearance. The market is pricing in inexperience. That feels like a lot of value.

Min Woo Lee at plus 6,500. Hits it far, plays well on US Open style setups, and is running around with Jason Day and Adam Scott all week absorbing course knowledge.

Justin Rose for a top ten. Two putts went against him last year in the playoff against Rory. He is back and playing beautifully. Shot sixty four on Grant Horvat's YouTube channel two weeks ago with the claw grip and was absolutely rolling it.
Angel Cabrera to make the cut. Straight out of prison. Knows this course as well as anyone. Just dominated the Champions Tour events he played to get into the field. When you are not tight you can play some of the best golf of your life and that guy has zero reason to be tight right now.

Brooks Koepka is a wild card in the truest sense. He has not played great this year. Missed the cut in Houston at a tournament he co-designed. Switched to a TaylorMade Spider mallet putter same model as Scheffler with a Super Stroke grip. Everything about him this week screams uncertainty. But if you told me he was in the final pairing on Sunday I would not flinch. This is the guy who said he does not even carry a yardage book and has his caddy call the club. When that guy is putting with a mallet and tinkering with things he is not in his best headspace. Blade Brooks in alpha mode is different. We have not seen that version in a while.

Jordan Spieth is generating some heat this week and I get it. His overall game is trending in a better direction. There is a post circulating on Instagram about how he hits all eight criteria for a player about to have a major breakthrough and he is the guy that fits all of them. The problem for me is he already has the green jacket. The redemption angle is not the same when the guy already got his. Now if JT won this Masters that would be the best Masters of all time. Nobody is talking about JT this week and I refuse to write him off. Major champions with elite ball striking can turn it on at any time and JT is absolutely in that category.

Lefties are quietly set up well this week and that means Akshay Bhatia deserves a look. On thirteen if you are a lefty and you pull it, you go long, you do not go in the water. Right handers who fade it end up in the creek. The hole just plays differently for them. Twelve is the same story. Pulling a shot as a lefty at twelve sends you long and away from the water rather than directly into it. The course geometry quietly favors left handed players in ways that rarely get discussed.

One final thing from the pod that I cannot stop thinking about. The tunnels. There are confirmed underground tunnels at Augusta National. This came from Kevin Kisner originally and Matthew believes it entirely based on one simple observation. He has been to Colonial, Frisco, the Dallas event, a dozen other PGA Tour stops. There are always trucks, cars, deliveries moving around the property. At Augusta he saw none of that. Zero. And the golf course does not run itself. Something is delivering lunch to those halfway houses and water to those greens and supplies to those buildings. It is running underground. Augusta National has a full tunnel system beneath the golf course and they are operating it as smoothly as everything else they do.

That is Augusta. That is the Masters. Nobody does it like them. Subscribe to Under the Covers Golf wherever you get your podcasts and go enjoy the best week in sports.

Go listen to our full conversation: MASTERS PREVIEW