5 surprising names you won’t see at the 2022 Masters

The Masters field is set, and now we know who we’ll see at Augusta National next week. We’re still waiting to see if some players will actually tee it up — looking at you, Tiger — but we at least know who is invited.

A few players who cracked the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking released after the WGC-Match Play got an invite, and the final chance for players to punch their ticket was by winning Sunday’s Valero Texas Open, which J.J. Spaun did to earn his first Masters appearance.

And remember, at the Masters, there’s no alternate list. If a player invited drops out, that spot is not replaced. But now that we know who’s in, we also know who’s out — and a few household names won’t be in attendance as the Masters continues to feature the smallest field among golf’s majors.

Here are five players you might be surprised to learn aren’t teeing it up at the Masters.

Rickie Fowler

Fowler actually missed last year’s Masters, too, after playing in the previous 10. His last win was the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open, and he’s now ranked 130th in the world.

Matt Kuchar

Kuchar, ranked 148th in the world, has played in 15 Masters, but he’ll miss this year’s for the first time since 2009, and his streak of 27 consecutive majors played will come to an end. He was in contention at the Texas Open, but he tied for second, just two shots behind Spaun. Kuchar has had good success at Augusta, too, registering eight top-25 and three top-five finishes.

News

Jason Day

Along with Kuchar, this will be the first Masters Day has missed in several years. The 2015 PGA Championship winner was ranked 43rd in the world at the end of 2020 but dropped to 123rd at the end of 2021. He had a solid start to this year, anchored by a T3 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open and a T24 at Pebble Beach a week later, but after his missed cut at the Valero, he’s now missed the weekend in three-straight events. He’s also had to deal with the loss of his mother, Adenal “Dening” Day, who died on March 2 at age 65 from lung cancer. The former World No. 1, now ranked 104th, had played in 11 consecutive Masters and tallied four top-10 finishes.

Ian Poulter

Poulter famously won the Houston Open in 2018 to lock up a spot in the next week’s Masters, but he wasn’t able to summon the same magic this year. He had made the cut in 15 of his previous 16 Masters appearances and finished in the top 10 three times. This is the first time he won’t be in the field since 2017.

Jimmy Walker

Walker played in eight-straight Masters but will be on the outside looking in this year. This will be the first missed major for the 2016 PGA champ since the 2013 U.S. Open. Walked is one of a few players on Tour who won several times before receiving their first Masters invite. He won the Frys.com Open in October 2013, the Sony Open three months later and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am one month after that. Up until last year, Walker never missed a Masters cut.