9 big names missing the Masters (for now!)

There are quite a few big names missing the Masters, but they still have one last throw of the dice. Here are nine household names heading to the Texas Open in a bid to get that last invite…

For those yet to receive their invitation, it is a major goal at the start of each year, but time is running out for players to secure their spot in the Masters.

The first men’s major of the year gets underway on April 10 as the best in the business battle it out over one of the sport’s most famous golf courses. But as is the case every year, there will be some big-name absentees from the field. 

Anyone not yet exempt in the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking after the Houston Open will have now been invited – and what a tense final day that was, with Michael Kim climbing into that all-important 50th slot to edge out Ben Griffin by just 0.014 points.

Laurie Canter, meanwhile, could only sit and watch as players attempted to bump him down from 48th. Thankfully for the Englishman, he managed to stay exactly where he was and he will make his Masters debut next week.

• Who will win the 2025 Masters? We ranked EVERY player at Augusta!

But it’s not over for the others just yet.

Akshay Bhatia won the Valero Texas Open to snatch the last Masters invite last year – so it can be done. Here’s who’s heading to San Antonio hoping to repeat that feat…

Big names missing the Masters

Joel Dahmen

The breakout star of the Netflix Full Swing docuseries has a couple of major top 10s under his belt – but has somehow never qualified for the Masters.

Dahmen’s having a good year on the PGA Tour. A T9 at Torrey Pines and a T6 in Mexico, as well as his top-20 at the Houston Open, will have him believing he can go down the road to San Antonio and nab that all-important final spot.

Rickie Fowler

For a while, Rickie Fowler appeared destined to win the Masters and become a multiple-time major champion. The popular Californian famously completed a calendar grand slam of top-five finishes in 2014 without getting over the line and came second to Patrick Reed at the 2018 Masters.

But his career hit the skids in the early part of this decade and he is at jeopardy of missing the Masters for a fourth time in the last five years.

He is currently ranked outside the top 100, which leaves him relying on a win.

Si Woo Kim

Si Woo Kim has spent a large part of his recent career floating around the top 50 in the world, but he currently has work to do to regain his place among the game’s elite.

He finished 12th at Pebble Beach in February and T19 at Bay Hill but those are his only top-20s of the season. 

One of the tour’s more colorful characters, Kim is set to miss the Masters for the first time since 2016 if he can’t produce his best golf this week.

Kevin Kisner

These days the 41-year-old spends more time concentrating on being behind the camera than in front of it.

But it seems missing out on last year’s Masters for the first time in nine years gave the four-time PGA Tour champion turned NBC analyst a severe case of FOMO, so he’ll be teeing up in Texas to rectify that.

Jake Knapp

He has a tempo the envy of many a golfer – but smooth swinging alone isn’t enough to satisfy the Green Jackets. Nor, it seems, is shooting a 59.

Knappster made his Masters debut last year after winning the Mexico Open a couple of months before, but needs to dig another one out if he is to back-to-back back-door invites to Augusta. 

He has shown glimpses of good form in 2025, finishing T6 at the Cognizant Classic and T12 at the Players, but he missed the cut at the Valspar before a T27 last week in Houston.

Matt Kuchar

After a good run of form at the back end of last year – including a T3 at the 3M Open – Kuch has gone off the boil somewhat since the turn of the year.

His Masters record is extraordinary. He won the Silver Cup at Augusta in ’98, but then only played two more before a run of 12 in a row from 2010 that included four top-eight finishes in a six-year run.

A win in San Antonio would see the American return to Augusta for the first time since his missed cut in 2021.

Matteo Manassero

The former Italian prodigy’s Masters record just about sums up his career, really. In 2010 he joined champion Phil Mickelson in Butler Cabin to be presented with the Silver Cup before going on to turn pro and rocket as high as 25th in the world rankings. But the now 31-year-old qualified for Augusta just two more times and failed to bother the cut line.

Last year, Manassero ended an 11-year wait for a title on the DP World Tour as he attempts to resurrect what was once such a promising career.

Francesco Molinari

The 2018 Champion Golfer teed up at Augusta a few months later and – but for an overhanging tree – will have almost certainly denied us of seeing Tiger Woods get over the line for major number 15. Other than ’19, where he eventually finished T5, the Italian’s record is poor here.

Still, nice to play, isn’t it?

Gary Woodland

Another major champion on the outside looking in. The American has been through a tremendous ordeal off the course and underwent surgery last year to remove a lesion from his brain that was affecting his golf.

He has played every major since the 2016 Open at Royal Troon but his five-year exemption for his 2019 US Open triumph has now come to an end.

Now well outside the top 150 in the world, like Fowler, Woodland will need to win in Texas to keep his major streak alive.

And if he plays anything like he did on Sunday in Houston – where he shot a course record-equaling 62 at Memorial Park to finish one back of winner Min Woo Lee – he will have every chance…