9 Big Names Missing The Masters In 2025

There is a long list of ways to qualify for The Masters, but time has run out for a number of notable players ahead of this year's tournament.

The Masters field has been locked in at 96 players and is stacked with the majority of the world's best golfers who have made it in via a number of different routes. The most obvious one is past Green Jacket winners, but there are also Major champions from the past five years, the world's top-50 players and PGA Tour winners from the past year, as well as five amateur golfers.

Take a look at our list of big names missing the 2025 Masters, starting with the injured Tiger Woods...

Tiger Woods

Five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods misses his first Masters since 2021 after recently undergoing surgery for a ruptured achilles tendon.

The 15-time Major champion will miss all four Majors this year, like 2021, but will hopefully be back for the 2026 Masters.

Woods last played at the PNC Championship in December with his son, Charlie, where they lost in a playoff to the Langers.

Rickie Fowler

Fowler dropped out of the world's top-50 last year after going winless following his return to form in 2023, where he won the Rocket Mortgage Classic, contended at the US Open and made the US Ryder Cup team.

The six-time PGA Tour winner, who was second at the 2018 Masters, played at Augusta last year after missing the event in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Unfortunately, the World No.110 saw his record extended to four absences in five years after failing to win the Valero Texas Open last week.

Luke Clanton

The World No.1 amateur surprisingly isn't one of the five non-professionals in the field this year.

Invitations go out to various amateur champions, including the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship winner, US Amateur champion (and runner-up), US Mid-Amateur Champion, British Amateur Champion, Asia Pacific Amateur Champion and Latin America Amateur Champion.

As Clanton didn't win any of those, he has not received an invite - and he has not had a special invitation either despite his impressive play on the PGA Tour.

Gary Woodland

Woodland will miss his first Masters since 2017 after his five-year exemption from winning the 2019 US Open expired. He has played in every Major since the 2016 Open, 33 in a row, but that streak ended after he came up short at the Texas Open.

The current World No.94 has very understandably struggled with his game in recent times following his surgery last year to remove a lesion from his brain. But a recent upturn in form may well suggest that this absence is more of a temporary one from Augusta National and the fan-favorite could easily be back next year.

Jake Knapp

The smooth-swinging and big-hitting Jake Knapp made history this year when he shot 59 at the Cognizant Classic but he was unable to seal the victory to make his way into The Masters. Knapp was left to rue a triple bogey on the back nine on Sunday, and even his T12th finish at The Players wasn't enough to get himself into the world's top-50.

Last year's Mexico Open champion made the cut in his Masters debut in 2024, finishing T55th, but he will have to make do with watching on from home this time out.

Adrian Meronk

The Pole played in the 2023 and 2024 Masters but has not booked his spot for this year due to LIV Golf's lack of world ranking points.

Meronk made the ideal start to 2025 by winning his first LIV title in Riyadh but has struggled to hit the same heights since and is currently ninth in the season-long standings.

Louis Oosthuizen

Oosthuizen came so close to joining his good friend Charl Schwartzel as a Green Jacket winner in 2012 where he lost to Bubba Watson, and THAT hooked gap wedge out of the trees on 10, in a playoff.

The South African missed his first Masters since 2009 last year and he hasn't been able to make his way back this year due to LIV Golf's lack of world ranking points.

Away from LIV Golf, where he finished sixth in the 2024 standings, he played in six OWGR-sanctioned tournaments last year, with a runner-up and third place on the Asian Tour his best results. He is currently ranked 267th in the world.

David Puig

The talented Spaniard has managed to make his way into four Majors over the past two seasons thanks to his form on the Asian Tour and at qualifying events.

However, one Major that has eluded him is The Masters and that continues this year. The LIV Golfer is 98th in the world rankings, having been as high as 77th - impressive considering he primarily plays on a tour without OWGR points. He's currently sixth in LIV Golf's standings after three top-six finishes this season.

He looks set to have a very bright career with surely plenty of Masters appearances ahead of him.

Neal Shipley

Shipley made history last year in joining a select few golfers to win both the Masters Silver Cup and US Open Silver Medal, and he famously got to play with Tiger Woods in the final round at Augusta.

The Ohio State University alumnus is now a professional but he has missed five of seven cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour this year so far. He looks set to make his way up to the PGA Tour and into the Majors over the coming years as he gains more experience in the paid ranks.

Closest players to qualifying via the OWGR

The cut-off for the world's top 50 came last week, with Ben Griffin agonisingly missing out on a Masters debut by the narrowest of margins. He finished less than 0.01 points behind Michael Kim, and ended up playing in Texas (for the 13th week in a row!) to try and book his spot, but he was unsuccessful.

• Ben Griffin (51st)
• Eric Cole (60th)
• Mackenzie Hughes (62nd)
• Alex Noren (64th)
• Si Woo Kim (67th)
• Jacob Bridgeman (68th)

Notable LIV Golfers missing The Masters

Behind Oosthuizen, Dean Burmester is the second-highest finisher in LIV's 2024 standings not to qualify for Augusta. The South African is not one of the LIV Golfers in the 2025 Masters field, along with these other notables...

• Dean Burmester
• Abraham Ancer
• Sebastian Munoz
• Carlos Ortiz
• Lucas Herbert
• Paul Casey
• Marc Leishman
• Harold Varner III