Every single player in the 2018 Masters field, ranked

HELLO, FRIENDS.

Do you tune into top-tier professional golf for exactly one Sunday a year? Have you been brain-poisoned by having Big Cat content injected directly into your skull for weeks on end and can no longer name a single competitor not named Woods? Have you failed to acquaint yourself with the early-season European Tour dominance of the young God, the absolute boy, the kid king, Shubhankar Sharma? Are you wondering which favorite player of Your Old Dad will amble into contention on Sunday?

Here is every player in the 2018 Masters field, ranked from 87-1 with moderate effort.

87. Jose Maria Olazabal, 86. Ian Woosnam, 85. Trevor Immelman, 84. Sandy Lyle, 83. Larry Mize, 82. Mike Weir, 81. Mark O’Meara, 80. Matt Parziale, 79. Yuxin Lin

Fun part of winning The Masters: You can play this event until you croak, if you’d like! This group consists of past champions who’ve aged into their Champions Tour years and past (Olazabal, Woosnam, Lyle, Mize, O’Meara), guys who actually won The Masters within the last decade-plus and just completely lost it all (Weir, Immelman), and amateurs. Parziale is perhaps the best damn story of the event, a full-time firefighter from Brockton, Massachusetts who won the U.S. Mid-Am to get here.

Any one of these guys lingering around the cut line or above late on Friday would be a hell of a story. Don’t count on it, but pull for Parziale to be the story of the week — if for no other reason we make this event into a another shitty, third-rate Mark Wahlberg biopic in 2027.

78. Danny Willett

Hi, yes, perhaps you’re not a week-in, week-out golf fan! Totally fine. You’re probably a bit confused here. Wait, didn’t Danny Willett win this thing a couple years ago? And play in Ryder Cup? Isn’t he good? Great questions: Yes he did, yes he did, and uhhhhhhhh sorry no not right now at least. At the time he ran down Jordan Spieth on Sunday at Augusta two years ago, Willett looked the type of player that could win multiple majors over the course of his career. He’s now something of a lost soul on the course.

Willett has been open about his struggles to adapt with the high of being a major champion on the course, and he’s battled injuries that have kept him from finishing tournaments — including his last start at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. Golf is better with a good Danny Willett. Hope he returns to form this week, but carding exactly one Top-20 finish in the last 12 months — and mostly missed cuts -- doesn’t bode well.

77. Angel Cabrera, 76. Vijay Singh, 75. Harry Ellis, 74. Doc Redman, 73. Doug Ghim

This group of five features two wildly different archetypes: eclectic, aging former champs — and amateurs that played their way in via the US & British Amateurs. Let’s start with the names you know. For the first fifteen some years of this millennium, it’s hard to name a handful of players to kick it around Augusta better than El Pato and Vijay. On a week-to-week basis during Tour starts, each struggle to make cuts against fields chock full of younger players and the results might merit a bit of a lower ranking.

But there’s a floor here for Vijay and Pato, knowing that this is the place they can turn it on in a heartbeat. Keep an eye on Ghim here, who’s probably one of the two top contenders to sit in Butler Cabin as Low Amateur at the end of the week.

72. Ted Potter, Jr., 71. Wesley Bryan, 70. Chez Reavie, 69. Bernd Wiesberger, 68. Yuta Ikeda, 67. Yusaku Miyazato, 66. Billy Horschel, 65. Satoshi Kodaira, 64. Jhonattan Vegas, 63. Dylan Frittelli, 62. Austin Cook

Mmmm, yes, here’s the point where I’ve hit the third glass of Cabernet and I’m dumping dudes into catch-all bins for a potpourri of reasons. Listen, I could write 100 words on each of these dudes! You wouldn’t read it! Call this a collection of guys that I’d take two out of three times to miss the cut this week. Each are here for varying reasons. Some are seemingly way out of form, like Ted Potter, Jr., who’s missed nine of his last twelve cuts and somehow sandwiched a likely not-duplicable win at Pebble Beach in the middle of that.

Others, like Wiesberger, Horschel, and Vegas, just haven’t done much to inspire in the last few months. None of Ikeda, Miyazato, or Kodaira have been burning up the world in Asia of late, which is worlds away from the field strength of The Masters. The name to buy here is Austin Cook, who’s been extremely consistent through his rookie tour season and who I spoke to earlier this week. I’ve docked 15 ranking spots for not agreeing to Call The Hogs clad in Green Jacket if he won the whole dang thing.

THE INTERLOPERS LOVED BY YOUR DAD

61. Fred Couples, 60. Bernhard Langer

[ahem]

just a second

[clears throat one more time]

HI YES HELLO, DO YOU WORK IN SPORTS MARKETING OR ACTIVATION OR BRANDS OF SOME SORT? COOL. NEAT. BERNIE LANGER’S VISOR IS PERHAPS AVAILABLE AGAIN. THIS IS ROUTINE NOW, IT’S APRIL, YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS DRILL, BUT YOU DON’T. YOU’RE GOING TO GET SUCKERED, PERHAPS, AGAIN — JUST LIKE THE REST OF US ALL WILL. NANTZ WILL TELL US WHAT A STORY THIS IS, YES, YES SIR. BERNHARD OR FREDDIE, KICKING IT AROUND IN CONTENTION. EITHER ONE OR BOTH OF FRED COUPLES OR BERNHARD LANGER WILL ENTER SUNDAY AT THE MASTERS IN THE TOP 15. THAT CAN NET YOUR VERY LOVELY #BRAND LOTS OF MONEY. PLEASE DON’T LET BERNIE’S POOR HAT GO EMPTY AGAIN.

59. Joaquin Niemann

Meet your top candidate for low-amateur, a 19-year-old Chilean sensation who’s currently the top amateur player in the world. He’s in the event by running away with the Latin America Amateur Championship, a relatively new way for ams to play their way into the Augusta field — and likely not often a spot where the favorite to make it to Butler Cabin will come from. That won’t be the case this year.

Niemann’s got eons of game, and already has plans to turn pro immediately after this week at Augusta. At just 19 years old, he played his way into conditional status on the Web.com Tour for this season — and he’ll try to Monday qualify into events for the rest of the season. This week can up the ante, however. A strong finish here and he’ll likely find himself the beneficiary of all kinds of sponsor exemptions to come on the PGA Tour, giving himself the chance to play his way to a card over a handful of starts. Prediction: A top-25 finish this week, and we’ll come back a year from now with Niemann being a household name among week-to-week golf fans.

58. Martin Kaymer, 57. Jimmy Walker

Kaymer’s a borderline-insano swing freak who’s going to cost himself an all-time great career because he won’t leave a mostly-really-good-thing alone. I hope Jimmy Walker gets healthy soon from what’s been a difficult battle with Lyme Disease. Both are starting to round back into form. It’s still probably a bit too early for them to contend, but you should root for them to do so.

56. Ross Fisher, 55. Russell Henley, 54. Cameron Smith, 53. Brendan Steele, 52. Kyle Stanley, 51. Adam Hadwin, 50. Gary Woodland, 49. Pat Perez, 48. Francesco Molinari, 47. Matt Fitzpatrick

Hey, uh, all these dudes here? Super capable of a Top-10 finish this week! Plenty of good players, each of them with some level of success in the past few months. Gary Woodland’s the type of bomb-it-off-the-tee player who could have some success at Augusta if he’s rolling it well on the greens, and Pat Perez is probably too low. But admit it: Did you know Pat Perez was a Top-20 player in the world right now? No, you, the casual golf fan, probably did not! Perez is extremely good, but’s been a little meh over the past couple months after a strong start to the 2017-18 — and he’s a bit less proven in majors.

Adam Hadwin’s in some nice form right now. I need Frank Molinari to win a danged major sooner rather than later, but it’s likely going to be an Open Championship if it happens. I’m selling stock on Matt Fitzpatrick, owner of exactly one career major championship Top-10. He’s 23. I am violently ill in the head.

Also, shot:

Chaser:

46. Charl Schwartzel, 45. Jason Dufner, 44. Zach Johnson, 43. Adam Scott

Adam Scott hasn’t done much of anything for over a year, but might finally be finding enough form to scrounge together a Top-15 here on the right week. Zach Johnson’s not sniffing wins but is consistently making cuts, which exactly where Zach Johnson wants you. Dufner is going to wear a hat that just says DADDY in bedazzled letters across the front, so he’s actually the Masters Champion now before we even start.

42. Bryson Dechambeau

No!

41. Kevin Chappell, 40. Daniel Berger, 38. Si Woo Kim, 38. Patton Kizzire, 37. Charley Hoffman, 36. Webb Simpson, 35. Ryan Moore, 34. Patrick Cantlay, 33. Marc Leishman, 32. Kevin Kisner, 31. Branden Grace, 30. Rafa Cabrera-Bello

There’s not a single player here in this group that wouldn’t be a deserving major champion. Any of the above winning would also pour a comically large bucket of cold water on what seems poised to be the best Masters in recent memory. Cantlay is primed for a breakout major season. Charley Hoffman’s early-round lead seems like a springtime rite of passage at this point. Berger & Leishman are probably underranked here. Webb Simpson’s going to Zach Johnson his way to a second major sooner rather than later. Just, please, like, not this week.

29. Tony Finau, 28. Haotong Li, 27. Thomas Pieters, 26. Shubhankar Sharma, 25. Kiradech Apihibarnrat, 24. Xander Schauffele

EMBRACE THE FUN TIER. Listen, before you, American Golf Fan, get mad at me before ranking some of these guys above your beloved Kevin Kisner & Danny Berger — let’s dive into why. Haotong Li has superstar level talent, finished 3rd at last year’s Open, and already outdueled Rory this year for a win in Abu Dhabi. There’s perhaps been no one better in the world to start this season than Shubhankar Sharma, who’s leading the Euro Tour Order of Merit, has two Euro wins on the season, and could easily have two more from Mexico and the Indian Open. Our beloved Yeezy-wearing, chain-smoking Large Thai Son has quietly been on a tear since sometime last fall, and just turned in two top fives at back-to-back WGCs.

Finau’s had a nice start to 2018. Pieters finished T-4 here last year so we’ll look past a dip in form because I’m making the rules up as I go. Xander’s already had major championship leaderboard experience last year at Erin Hills, and I had him flagged as a dark horse to win this week at one point. All three were constructed in labs to shred Augusta.

23. Louis Oosthuizen, 22. Patrick Reed, 21. Ian Poulter 20. Matt Kuchar, 19. Henrik Stenson, 18. Hideki Matsuyama, 17. Brian Harman, 16. Rickie Fowler, 15. Paul Casey, 14. Tyrrell Hatton, 13. Jon Rahm, 12. Tommy Fleetwood

If you’d like some quick evidence to the depth of this Masters field at the top, consider Jon Rahm’s ranking in this exercise. The current World No. 3, who’s a bona fide star and likely has multiple majors to come in his career, is 13th on this list! I think around 12 or so players are better positioned to win this tournament! Part of that’s likely because my opinions are violently horrible and off-base, but still!

Each guy in this section’s just nearly at the level where they could peek their head into the contender list, but there’s just one thing here or there that keeps them out. Brian Harman’s been as strong as anyone on Tour over the last twelve months, but I’ll openly wonder if he hits the ball long enough to compete with bombers over four rounds at Augusta. Hideki hasn’t been healthy all season. Rickie’s weekend ejection in Houston should have you selling stock. Rahm’s been average over his last five events. Patrick Reed is a replacement-level major championship player. Paul Casey will contend, but not win. Matt Kuchar will finish 9th whilst being completely omitted from the CBS broadcast on Sunday.

11. Alex Noren

Let’s start here: I’m not even sure it’s exactly fair to list Noren as a dark horse. Despite the handwringing from American fans and media about how he hasn’t yet won stateside, the guy’s been a top-15 player for two-plus years. He won the European Tour’s premier event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, last year. If you’re just learning the name as a casual fan, Alex Noren is good. Extremely good. Pay no mind to anyone who downplays the ability of top Euro Tour players. There’s a reason they’re here, and there’s a reason Grayson Murray will have plenty of time to tweet this weekend.

Much of the knock on Noren has been that his game hasn’t traveled across the Atlantic. With two near-misses and a 3rd place at the Match Play, that shouldn’t hold much water this year. He’s played a heavy U.S.-based schedule to prep for the majors and acclimate to being stateside. Don’t be shocked if those choices pay off this week for the extremely handsome Swede.

10. Jason Day

As an established Jason Day stan, I never gave up my seat on the bandwagon when the Aussie went through the wilderness in 2017 on the golf course. The win over Noren at Torrey earlier in the year should be a sign of positive things to come. He’s not your top candidate to win this week, but with the success he’s had here in the past and play that seems to be rounding back into form — expect him to be in the coverage come Sunday.

9. Tiger Woods

Roughly 97 percent of the Masters content you’ll consume this week will be Cat-driven, so let’s keep this short. Two things can be true. Tiger Woods’ return to professional golf is going as well as could possibly be expected, or even better — and he’s absolutely capable of winning this week given his history at Augusta National. It’s also absolutely insane for him to be the betting favorite entering this event. T-2 at the Valspar and T-5 at Bay Hill is still worlds away from winning a major championship on Sunday. Tiger needs mental reps of being in contention. He’ll contend because he’s playing as well as anyone on tour right now. Be skeptical he’s had enough of those mental reps to close the deal on Sunday.

8. Phil Mickelson

It’s still weird to think that we’d gone almost five years without a PGA Tour victory from Phil or Tiger until just a few weeks ago. Chapultepec isn’t exactly Augusta, but Lefty turned in three straight 6th-or-better finishes leading up to the win in Mexico. Few players play Augusta better than Mickelson, he’s in-form, and he’s running out of chances. He’d be older than Jack in 1986 if he could pull it off. If the early season has been predictive, it’s certainly possible.

7. Dustin Johnson

Hi there! I’m the guy that ranks the world’s current top player seventh in a major championship field ranking, and I’m not sure exactly why! DJ’s had a fine start to the season, has top 10s in his last two healthy starts on Magnolia Lane, and won’t be intimidated one bit by the length of the track, of course. There’s just nothing I love about him this week, and that, again, speaks to the ridiculous strength of the field.

6. Justin Rose

Will we ever appreciate Justin Rose as we should? If golf is just, he’ll grab a couple more majors to pair with his 2013 U.S. Open title and his Olympic gold medal. Last year’s epic duel with Sergio down the stretch was nearly another. He won three times in six weeks to close the 2017 calendar year, and has had a couple of nice finishes coming into Augusta at the Valspar and Bay Hill. He’s a strong, safe slightly-under-the-radar pick to win the whole thing this week.

5. Jordan Spieth

Jordan Spieth has not played all that much good golf to start 2018, but here we are, alas, ranking Jordan Spieth in the top five to win the dang Masters because it feels weird to not have him here. I think I have to. I think it’s law. He’s struggled with short putts all season, and his putting is what makes up for the lackluster length and ballstriking where he can give shots away to other longer players. This is, in theory, massively concerning — and cause for me considering JS outside the top ten in my rankings ahead of the Houston Open.

Then he turned in a nice high finish at Houston, all my theories are now upside down, and at this point I’m not sure what he’s done leading up to Augusta even matters anymore. Jordan at Augusta is horse-for-course idealism. I can wildly scream at you about concerning strokes-gained putting stats now, only for him to sleep on a three-shot 54 hole lead later in the week. I’m not gonna be foolish. He can win, because this is Jordan Spieth at Augusta National, and no stats or projections really matter when it comes to this guy at this place. Nothing at all matters, actually. We’re all trapped on a space rock, waiting for the sun to explode and life to immediately cease. He’s going to probably win. I’m gonna look stupid. Eat at Arby’s.

4. Sergio Garcia

Pssssssssst. Don’t look now but Sergio’s playing better than he was entering last year’s Masters. He won earlier in the year in Singapore, and has ripped off three straight top-10s coming into Augusta. Defending here’s ridiculously difficult — only Tiger, Jack, and Nick Faldo have done it. But I’m ranking an in-form defending champion who seems to have a new lease on life after last year’s win, getting married, and the birth of daughter Azalea just a few weeks ago. I need a Sergio-Tiger duel on Sunday like I need air to breathe.

3. Rory McIlroy

When he’s good, there’s perhaps no one better — and we’ve all been waiting with bated breath for him to finally contend to lock up his career grand slam at Augusta for what seems like ages. After a midding start to the US-based season, it’s hard to not see Rory as a top contender after his performance at the API.

2. Bubba Watson

MEET YOUR HEEL FOR THE WEEK. Might as well prepare yourself now. Bubba could teach Ph.D level courses on how to play Augusta, there’s no one better when it comes to the creativity and shotmaking that’s needed to win here. It’s been multiple seasons since we’ve seen Bubba on this level entering the Masters -- and he’s never won multiple times in a season before The Masters ever. It’s almost too obvious to jump on the Bubba Bandwagon for the week, but this is probably gonna happen.

THE FAVORITE: Justin Thomas

Why not get halfway to the Justin Slam? Since his win at the PGA in August, he’s won three times in fourteen starts, finished second twice, and added four other top ten finishes. There’s a reason he’s nearly about to overtake Dustin Johnson atop the world rankings. His towering ball flight pairs well with Augusta, length won’t be an issue, and he’s in great form entering the week. He’s your best bet to win.