I love The Masters but I think it's golf's weakest major

With the winning putt holed at The Players Championship and all talk of a fifth major over for another 12 months, all eyes will now turn to Augusta National next month and The Masters, the year’s first ACTUAL major. 

For many, it marks the start of the golf season. Millions of people will be glued to their TVs for four days, with Sky showing just about every shot of note. Will Rory McIlroy make a successful defence of the title he won in such dramatic circumstances in 2025? Will world number one Scottie Scheffler collect the Green Jacket again? 

Will Ethan Fang claim his first major? Or what about Jackson Harrington? Mason Howell? Fifa Laopakdee? Mateo Pulcini? No, I haven't heard of any them either. How do you think 63-year-old Vijay Singh will get on? 

Before I go any further, let me say that I love The Masters and I will also be stuck in front of my TV. 

Augusta National casts a special spell over us all. 

When I worked for The Sunday Times, our chief sports writer David Walsh used to cover The Masters every year. At the end of the tournament, the names of eight journalists are drawn from a hat and the lucky few get the chance to play the course on the Monday exactly as it was set up for the final round. David’s name was chosen. He was meant to be flying home on the Sunday night but opted to cancel his flight for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play the hallowed turf. He was and is a very good golfer but he required 108 blows. He still said that he would not have swapped the round for anything.

Over the years I have witnessed some astonishing drama. Jack Nicklaus winning in 1986 at the age of 46, Tiger Woods holing THAT chip at the 16th, Sandy Lyle’s incredible bunker shot at the 18th, Sergio Garcia coming to grief as defending champion, Jordan Spieth running up a seven at the par-three-12th, Woods’ unbelievable comeback victory in 2019.

But at the risk of being strung up, there is not the slightest doubt in my mind that The Masters is the weakest of golf’s four majors. 

Did you know that if they chose to do so the likes of 86-year-old Jack Nicklaus could still play? Likewise Gary Player, Raymond Floyd and Tommy Aaron. 

In 2005, Billy Casper shot an opening round of 106 for goodness sake. In no other major would this ever happen. It makes a mockery of our sport.

As things stand, 103 individuals have "qualified" for the 2026 Masters but the actual starting field is likely to be around 90 because most of the former champions want to be remembered for the golf they used to play.

And for me, that is another problem. Of those 90 players, you can immediately dismiss the chances of at least 30 of them, and probably more. That means we are realistically looking at fewer golfers who have a chance of winning. 

In any given week on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour almost every player who tees it up in fields of 120+ has a genuine chance of winning. If you doubt it, look at the emergence of Jayden Schaper and Casey Jarvis in 2026. And who would have predicted that Jacob Bridgeman would win the Genesis?

The field for The Open Championship is 156. I know full well that you can also dismiss the chances of many of those golfers too but at least you know that most of them have earned their way into the field. Past champions can only compete up until the age of 60. 

My feeling is that too many of the past champions who play at Augusta are there in a ceremonial role.

It’s not all bad news. In a bid to increase the international feel, the winners of the Scottish Open, Spanish Open, Japan Open, Hong Kong Open, Australian Open and South African Open all qualify. That means we get a chance to see if South Africa’s Jarvis just might be the real deal.

Of course, they have always done things their own way at Augusta National and that is not going to be changing anytime soon.

There is much to like. I am a fan of the Par 3 Contest, which allows competitors to let their hair down and have a fun nine holes on the eve of the tournament with their young children, wives and girlfriends. I love the idea of the Champions Dinner - oh to be a fly on the wall at that gathering. I adore the idea of the ceremonial starters, Nicklaus, Player and Tom Watson getting the tournament under way. And it goes without saying that I am in awe of that truly astonishing golf course. It remains the only one on my bucket list that I have never played - and I know that I am never likely to. But through years of watching on TV I feel like I know every twist and turn, every break on every green. 

This is a golf club that long insisted upon players having black caddies rather than being allowed to use their own bagmen, that waited until 2012 before admitting its first women members. Not just any women but former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and mega-rich South Carolina financier Darla Moore. It hardly smacks of inclusivity.

Analyst Gary McCord found himself ostracised after he described the greens as being so fast it looked like they had been bikini-waxed!

An invite to play in The Masters remains one of the most coveted prizes in golf but please do not try to tell me that this is our sport's best major because that is patently not the case.