Four days until the Masters at Augusta kicks off. The most exclusive Major of the year begins this Thursday with a field of just 89 players. Akshay Bhatia was the last to arrive, at the last minute and in the playoff of the last regular tournament before the Masters. The qualification routes for the first Major of the year are not at all easy and, in fact, the tournament will only feature three Spaniards: Jon, Sergio and Txema. All three as champions of the tournament.
Among these 89 golfers there are five who do not have the professional status as they are still amateurs and will fulfill the dream of playing in one of the great meccas of golf. The six access routes to the Masters for amateurs are opened by winning some of the following competitions:
- U.S. Amateur Championship (also the runner-up)
- The Amateur Championship
- Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship
- Latin America Amateur Championship
- U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship
- NCAA Division I Individual Championship
However, those who access the Masters through any of these routes have to maintain their amateur status to be able to participate in Augusta. If they turn professional they lose this invitation. For example, Fred Biondi, lost his invitation as a university champion when he turned professional.
As we have said, this year there are five amateurs who will be part of the tournament in just 72 hours: Christo Lamprecht, Santiago de la Fuente, Jasper Stubbs, Neal Shipley and Stewart Hagestad. Five players who will seek the feat of winning in Augusta as amateurs, something unprecedented in the history of the tournament. They will fight among themselves for the Silver Cup that honors the best amateur of the tournament, as long as they make the cut. In fact, in 2022 and 2021 the trophy was left vacant.
In a tournament with so much tradition, the defending champion of the Masters usually pairs with the winner of the US Amateur of the previous year. In this case it would be Nick Dunlap, who is no longer an amateur. We will see how the pairings finally turn out. Another tradition that these five brave men will fulfill is the amateurs’ dinner, inaugurated in 1948 and which even precedes in time the champions’ dinner established in 1952.
That an amateur makes the cut at Augusta National can be considered practically a feat. It is a tournament that requires a lot of precision and in which knowing every corner of the field is a basic element to survive the web. Therefore, the feat that Sam Bennett did as an amateur last year will be remembered for a long time. He finished in 16th position and flirted with the podium almost all week. The two previous years no amateur had managed to play the weekend.
Get to know a little more about the five amateurs who play this week at Augusta National:
Christo Lamprecht
The South African giant Christo Lamprecht defeated Swiss Ronan Kleu 3&2 at Hillside to win the Amateur Championship and thus earn a place for the 2024 Masters.
The 23-year-old player, 190 centimeters tall, dazzled at the Open with 66 strokes, the lowest score recorded by an amateur in the tournament since Tom Lewis in 2011. Christo shared the lead in the first round at Hoylake. Of course he won the Silver Medal as the best amateur.
The South African reached the top of the world amateur ranking in September and will be a player to keep on the radar this week.
Neil Shipley
The American makes his debut at the Masters. Last year he reached the final of the U.S. Amateur 2023 at the Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado before finishing second behind Nick Dunlap. Shipley has started 2024 by winning the Southwestern Invitational in California and last summer, he finished second in the Dogwood Invitational, Sunnehanna Amateur and Trans-Mississippi Amateur. Both he and four-time Masters champion Arnold Palmer have won the Junior and Open titles of Western Pennsylvania. In 2022, he graduated in Finance from James Madison University in Virginia.
Stewart Hagestad
Stewart Hagestad is the only non-debutant amateur, as he makes his third appearance at the Masters (2017 and 2022). In his debut at Augusta National in 2017, he finished T-36. Two years ago he did not make the cut. In 2023 he won the U.S. Mid-Amateur for the third time and also won the Walker Cup at Saint Andrews. He turns 33 on April 10, one day before the start of the tournament.
Santiago de la Fuente
Mexican Santiago de la Fuente makes his first appearance at the Masters this week after winning the Latin America Amateur Championship at Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama in January. He won by two strokes over Omar Morales with a spectacular final round of 64 strokes that earned him invitations to this year’s Masters, US Open and The Open. A few weeks ago he was the best amateur at the Mexico Open.
Jasper Stubbs
Jasper Stubbs makes his debut at the Masters this year. The 22-year-old won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia last October in a playoff over the 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Wenyi Ding and the co-champion of the 2023 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Sampson Zheng.
