The 88th edition of The Masters gets under way this week, with this year’s field set to include 12 Challenge Tour alumni.
Frenchman Matthieu Pavon and Dane Nicolai Højgaard will both tee it up at Augusta National for the first time, with Pavon arriving in Georgia after a stellar start to the year.
The 31-year-old has been in fine form on the PGA Tour after earning one of the ten available cards from the DP World Tour last year. He’s recorded three top ten finishes including a maiden PGA Tour win at the Farmers Insurance Open and enters the week off the back of a strong fifth place finish at the Porsche Singapore Classic.
Højgaard, who joined Pavon on the PGA Tour after an exceptional 2023 which saw him play a key role in Team Europe’s success in Rome, will be hoping to return to the form that saw him win the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai at the end of last year.
Højgaard’s countryman Thorbjørn Olesen returns for his fourth appearance at Augusta, where he finished in a tie for sixth in 2013. His last appearance came in 2019 when he registered a second top 25 finish, and he enters the week having already won on the DP World Tour this year at January’s Ras Al Khaimah Championship.
Tommy Fleetwood, who graduated as the Challenge Tour Number One in 2011, also returned to the winner’s circle this year when he secured victory at the Dubai Invitational, and is one of four alumni from England in The Masters field.
Major-winners Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick will both go in search of a first Green Jacket, with this week marking Rose’s 19th appearance at Augusta. He has previous form in the opening major of the year, with second place finishes in 2015 and 2017. Fitzpatrick, who claimed the US Open title in 2022, will be looking to build on a tenth-place finish in last year’s tournament.
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox made his Masters debut 12 months ago where he finished in a tie for 26th, while 2014 graduate Byeong Hun An and 2017 graduate Erik Van Rooyen will also be returning to Augusta.
