It’s not just the winner of the 2025 Masters Tournament who will end up in Butler Cabin after Sunday’s final round, sitting across from Jim Nantz and Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley.
The low amateur will be there, too.
It was Neal Shipley last year. Viktor Hovland earned the honors in 2019. There are other names you know well, too, in the years before that: Bryson DeChambeau. Patrick Cantlay. Hideki Matsuyama. Sergio Garcia. Tiger Woods.
There are others that will ring a bell, even if you haven’t heard them in a while: Guan Tianling. Casey Wittenberg. Ricky Barnes.
Five ams made this year’s field. Here’s who they are — and how they got to Augusta National:
Jose Luis Ballester
How he made it: Won 2024 U.S. Amateur
Top-20 odds (via FanDuel): 12-1
Ballester became the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Amateur last year. Spanish players have fared quite well historically at Augusta National, of course — think Ballesteros, Olazabal, Garcia, Rahm — and added to their collective hardware when Carla Bernat Escuder won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur over the weekend. She and Ballester have been good friends since childhood. They’ve both worked with Sergio’s father, Victor, as a swing coach. It would be fitting to see them both in Butler Cabin a weekend apart.
Noah Kent
How he made it: Runner-up, 2024 U.S. Amateur
Top-20 odds: 35-1
Kent transferred from Iowa to Florida and will tee it up representing the Gators at Augusta National. Our Josh Berhow got to know Kent at the U.S. Am last year and how meeting Rory McIlroy helped sway his interest from hockey to golf; he bottled up plenty of that power in his swing and put it to use as he tore through more accomplished amateurs at Hazeltine last summer.
Hiroshi Tai
How he made it: Winner, 2024 NCAA individual title
Top-20 odds: 28-1
Though his game has cooled in the year since his victory at Omni La Costa, Tai will be the first player from Singapore to compete in the Masters. The Georgia Tech golfer will hope to follow in the footsteps of a high-profile alum, Matt Kuchar, en route to low amateur honors.
Evan Beck
How he made it: Winner, U.S. Mid-Am
Top-20 odds: 12-1
Beck is by far the tournament’s oldest amateur at 34; one year after losing in the 2023 Mid-Am finals, he ran away with the 2024 edition at Kinloch. This will be his first major championship, though not his last — he’s in the field for the U.S. Open, too.
Justin Hastings
How he made it: Winner, 2025 Latin American Amateur
Top-20 odds: 12-1
Hastings won the final amateur spot in the field. The San Diego State star will also become the second player to represent the Cayman Islands at the Masters after Aaron Jarvis won the same event in 2022; it’s an impressive feat for a country with just 27 holes. Hastings flashed plenty of game in a recent T13 finish at the Mexico Open.
LOW AMATEURS, LAST 30 YEARS
Skipping years when no amateurs made the cut.
1995 – Tiger Woods
1998 – Matt Kuchar
1999 – Sergio Garcia
2000 – David Gossett
2003 – Ricky Barnes
2004 – Casey Wittenberg
2005 – Ryan Moore
2010 – Matteo Manassero
2011 – Hideki Matsuyama
2012 – Patrick Cantlay
2013 – Guan Tianlang
2014 – Oliver Goss
2016 – Bryson DeChambeau
2017 – Stewart Hagestad
2018 – Doug Ghim
2019 – Viktor Hovland
2020 – Andy Ogletree
2023 – Sam Bennett
2024 – Neal Shipley
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