Joel Beall characterized Holtz<\/a>, who grew up coming to the Masters each April as a patron after his dad, Jeff, won patrons badges for life in 2004. Interestingly, golf isn\u2019t the only sport that Brandon has excelled in; he played basketball in college at Illinois State. He tried pro golf after graduating in 2009, but eventually called it quits after four years. In 2023, Holtz applied to get his amateur status back, and then last year applied to play in his first USGA championship when he entered the Mid-Am. His victory at Sand Valley, with his father on the bag, locked up his Augusta spot. Not surprising, dad will be looping come Thursday as well.<\/p>\nAge: 18
Home: Thomasville, Ga.
College: Georga (freshman in fall 2026)
How he qualified: U.S. Amateur champion
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 79
Odds of making the cut: 2-1<\/p>\n
Skinny: The high school senior continues his dream run that began last June when he shot a pair of 63s in U.S. Open Final Qualifying to earn a spot into the field at Oakmont. In August, he became the third-youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur title at Olympic Club, followed by going 2-0-1 for the victorious U.S. Walker Cup team in September. Don\u2019t let the WAGR ranking fool you too much; Howell\u2019s schedule has been light on events since the fall. The Georgia native, however, has taken advantage of his five allowed visits to Augusta ahead of this week\u2019s main event. But playing practice rounds is different than hearing them say Fore, please, now driving. \u201cI’ll be super excited but at the same time I’ll be super nervous. I think just controlling my emotions and sticking to my game plan and just having fun.\u201d <\/p>\n
Age: 21
Home: Thailand
College: Arizona State (junior)
How he qualified: Asia-Pacific Amateur champion
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 25
Odds of making the cut: 6-1<\/p>\n
Skinny: Laopakdee will be the first Thai native to compete in the Masters after pulling out a victory at the Asia-Pacific Amateur in Dubai, making three birdies in a playoff to claim the title. The story goes that ASU coach Matt Thurmond pushed him early in his college career, seeing potential and challenging him to reach it. In turn Laopakdee\u2019s hard work paid off with two college wins last season before his Asia-Pacific Am victory. Thurmond describes him as meticulously dressed, kept together and ready and characterizes his quiet, unassuming nature like this: \u201cIf he were a Beatle, he\u2019d be George Harrison.\u201d As for the first name that he goes by, Laopakdee says his father was a soccer fan. \u201cHe was choosing between Fifa from FIFA World Cup and Uefa from UEFA Champions League,\u201d Laopakdee said. \u201cSo luckily it ends up with at Fifa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Age: 25
Home: Argentina
How he qualified: Latin America Amateur champion
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 115
Odds of making the cut: 10-1<\/p>\n
Skinny: Pulcini claimed his Augusta invite in January at the Latin America Amateur with a win over Venezuela\u2019s Virgilio Paz Valdes on the second playoff hole at Peru\u2019s Lima Golf Club. Having wrapped up his college career at Arkansas in 2024, he hopes to draw inspiration from fellow Razorback Maria Jose Marin, winner last weekend at the Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur. He also played a practice round with former Masters champion (and fellow Argentine) Angel Cabrera. And looking for another good omen? His locker in the new Player Services Building is situated between Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. \u201cI don’t know if the Masters knew or not \u2026 they were like my childhood heroes, Jordan mainly. I love how he played through his years and how he handles every situation. I feel like a superstar here basically. Like I said, how they treat you, how the fans are coming to you saying good luck and everything. And signing things. It’s a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 It\u2019s a clich\u00e9 to say any amateur competing in the Masters is living out a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14596,1657,8339,8346,14598,44,14597,6297,14599,1271,1282,8344,54,82],"class_list":["post-35559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-masters-tournament","tag-amateurs","tag-augusta-national","tag-brandon-holtz","tag-ethan-fang","tag-fila-laopakdee","tag-golf","tag-jackson-harrington","tag-mason-howell","tag-masters-2026-meet-the-amateurs-competing-at-augusta-national-including-the-high-schooler-awaiting-his-full-circle-moment-with-rory-mcilroy","tag-masters-tournament","tag-masters2026","tag-mateo-pulcini","tag-news","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}