The 89th edition of the Masters Tournament commences on Thursday morning, with a warm and mostly sunny forecast for Augusta, Ga. The $20 million tourney has no shortage of intrigue this year: Defending champion Scottie Scheffler goes for his third green jacket, while Rory McIlroy tries to win his first and complete the career grand slam. We have ascendant PGA Tour talents like Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Åberg being joined by LIV luminaries Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson. Golf’s major season is officially open.
How to watch Round 1 of the Masters
Breakdown of Day 1 coverage (ET)
- First-round coverage on ESPN+ — 8:45 a.m.
- Welcome to the Masters — 1 p.m.
- The Masters live — 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Masters.com offerings (ET)
- Honorary starters — 7:30 a.m.
- Featured groups — 9:15 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
- Featured holes (4, 5, 6) — 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- Featured holes (Amen Corner, 11, 12, 13) — 10:45 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Featured holes (15, 16) — 11:45 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Masters.com offerings will also be available on the Masters App and Paramount+.
Notable groupings
Group 12 (9:47 a.m.): Collin Morikawa, Joaquín Niemann, Min Woo Lee
Morikawa hits Augusta as No. 4 in the official World Golf Ranking. The Los Angeles native is making his sixth Masters start, has never missed the cut at Augusta and has finished inside the top 10 in each of his last three tries. From Amos Morale III:
“Morikawa has been particularly sharp on approach, picking up a tour-leading 1.47 true strokes in that range. Golfers who are accurate with approach shots tend to do well at Augusta National. Morikawa was good with the irons in his last three Masters starts, and his worst finish was T10. He’s heading into this year’s tournament with those sticks working and the tour’s fourth-highest driving accuracy percentage (71.48). With the exception of some forecasted rain on Friday, things seem to be in line for Morikawa to make a run at his first green jacket.”
Group 13 (9:58 a.m.): Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, Keegan Bradley
Mickelson, now with LIV Golf in his mid-50s, has won the Masters three times (2004, 2006, 2010) and was a runner-up in 2023. Bradley is ranked 15th in the World Golf Ranking, while Day is 36th.
Group 14 (10:15 a.m.): Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, José Luis Ballester
The 28-year-old Scheffler is firmly atop the sport’s hierarchy right now. He won here in 2022 and again last year. Fellow American Thomas was ranked 19th at the end of 2024 and has since surged up to eighth.
Group 15 (10:26 a.m.): Jordan Spieth, Tom Kim, Tyrrell Hatton
A decade ago, Spieth pulled off his historic Masters triumph. From NYT’s Karen Crouse:
“Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose and top-ranked Rory McIlroy, who have a combined 24 major championships, all tried, but no one could catch the 21-year-old Spieth at the Masters on Sunday. Spieth closed with a two-under-par 70 to win his first major in clarion-call fashion, with a 72-hole score of 18-under 270 that matched the mark Woods set in 1997 on his way to his first major title, also at age 21.
With a birdie on the par-5 15th, Spieth, who had already broken the 36-hole and 54-hole tournament records, became the first player to get to 19 under in the history of the Masters — first played in 1934. Earlier, at the 10th hole, Spieth recorded his 26th birdie to break a tournament record set in 2001 by Mickelson; he finished with 28.”
Group 23 (noon): Max Homa, Justin Rose, J.J. Spaun
Spaun was ranked 119th last December and is now No. 29 after taking McIlroy to the brink at the Players Championship. His second-place finish netted him more than $2.7 million.
Group 27 (12:50 p.m.): Brooks Koepka, Russell Henley, Sungjae Im
Fellow LIV Golf member Koepka nearly won the Masters in 2023, surprising the field and ultimately tying for second with Mickelson. He won the 2023 PGA Championship a few months later.
Group 28 (1:01 p.m.): Adam Scott, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland
Schauffele was sensational in 2024, winning two majors and rising to the world’s No. 2 ranking. A ribcage cartilage tear derailed his offseason, but he’s made all four cuts since the return from injury and has been playing with TGL’s New York squad. Norway’s Viktor Hovland is also a top-10 ranked golfer and is coming off a win at the Valspar Championship. After winning the FedEx Cup and helping Europe clinch the Ryder Cup in 2023, Hovland began painstakingly reworking his swing and hadn’t had another win until the Valspar this March. The Masters is his next test.
Group 29 (1:12 p.m.): Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Åberg, Akshay Bhatia
McIlroy and Åberg in the same group? Loaded. From Brody Miller:
“When [Åberg] arrived in Tallahassee, he was a rookie with promise. By the time he left, he was getting stopped in Target. Life would no longer be normal. Now, Åberg goes to Augusta as one of the five or so best players in the world. He’s considered by most to be the current best golfer without a major, and he’s only played in four. It is simultaneously all in front of him, and it’s all right here already. He was asked in October his goals for 2025, his first real season as a top star.
Win a tournament: Check.
Make the Ryder Cup team: Unofficially a check.
After that, he doesn’t think in those types of terms. He thinks about processes.
‘I have a lot of acceptance for expectations,’ he says. ‘I understand there’s always going to be a lot of expectations outside, from the inside, and I’m OK with that. I’m OK with a lot of people thinking I’m going to do this or that. I’m OK with myself thinking that way. But it doesn’t change the way that I approach the game or my training or my practice. That’s still going to be the same.’”
Group 30 (1:23 p.m.): Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau, Shane Lowry
The Japanese phenom Matsuyama enters play as the world’s No. 6. Ireland’s Lowry isn’t far behind him at 13th, and the American DeChambeau is 19th.
Group 31 (1:34 p.m.): Jon Rahm, Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood
From Gabby Herzig:
“Rahm says he hasn’t spent a lot of time thinking about LIV Golf and the PGA Tour coming back together — or at least uniting the best players back on the same stages more often — but he shares the same sentiment as many.
“‘I mean, I think we all would like to see that,’ Rahm said during Tuesday’s pre-Masters news conference. ‘But as far as I can tell, and you guys can tell, it’s not happening anytime soon.’”
Round 1 tee times and groupings
Group | Groupings | Tee Time (ET) |
---|---|---|
— |
The Honorary Starters: |
7:25 a.m. |
1 |
Davis Riley |
7:40 a.m. |
2 |
Kevin Yu (Chinese Taipei) |
7:51 a.m. |
3 |
Mike Weir (Canada) |
8:02 a.m. |
4 |
Zach Johnson |
8:13 a.m. |
5 |
Danny Willett (England) |
8:24 a.m. |
6 |
Bernhard Langer (Germany) |
8:35 a.m. |
7 |
Cameron Smith (Australia) |
8:52 a.m. |
8 |
Fred Couples |
9:03 a.m. |
9 |
Corey Conners (Canada) |
9:14 a.m. |
10 |
Patrick Reed |
9:25 a.m. |
11 |
Robert MacIntyre (Scotland) |
9:36 a.m. |
12 |
Collin Morikawa |
9:47 a.m. |
13 |
Phil Mickelson |
9:58 a.m. |
14 |
Scottie Scheffler |
10:15 a.m. |
15 |
Jordan Spieth |
10:26 a.m. |
16 |
Tony Finau |
10:37 a.m. |
17 |
Cameron Davis (Australia) |
10:48 a.m. |
18 |
Angel Cabrera (Argentina) |
10:59 a.m. |
19 |
Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain) |
11:10 a.m. |
20 |
Bubba Watson |
11:21 a.m. |
21 |
Tom Hoge |
11:38 a.m. |
22 |
Charl Schwartzel (S. Africa) |
11:49 a.m. |
23 |
Max Homa |
12:00 p.m. |
24 |
Dustin Johnson |
12:11 p.m. |
25 |
Sergio Garcia (Spain) |
12:22 p.m. |
26 |
Patrick Cantlay |
12:33 p.m. |
27 |
Brooks Koepka |
12:50 p.m. |
28 |
Adam Scott (Australia) |
1:01 p.m. |
29 |
Rory McIlroy (N. Ireland) |
1:12 p.m. |
30 |
Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) |
1:23 p.m. |
31 |
Jon Rahm (Spain) |
1:34 p.m. |
32 |
Sahith Theegala |
1:45 p.m. |
Odds for Masters leader at the end of Round 1
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(Photo of Scottie Scheffler: Katie Goodale / Imagn Images)