What golf fans need to know about the 16 players making their debut at the 2023 Masters
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There are 16 players making their first appearances at Augusta National for the 87th Masters Tournament this week with an array of backgrounds and storylines of interest.
There are seven amateurs in the field with six coming from qualifying tournaments and one — Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent — receiving a special exemption.
Here's a list of the 2023 Masters rookies with their qualifying status and what Masters patrons need to know about the golfers making their debuts at Augusta National.
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Sam Bennett
Age: 23
Height, weight: 5’10, 153
Residence: Madisonville, Texas
College: Texas A&M University
Invitation: Current US Amateur Champion
Need to know: Bennett, ranked No. 6 in the World Amateur Golf rankings, is a senior at Texas A&M, The 2022 SEC Player of the Year will have Aggie Golf Coach Brian Kortan as his caddie this week.
Ben Carr
Age: 22
Height, weight: 6'0, 165
Residence: Columbus, Ga.
College: Georgia Southern University
Invitation: Current US Amateur runner-up
Need to know: Carr is the fourth player from Georgia Southern to play in the Masters -- joining Jodie Mudd, Buddy Alexander and Gene Sauers. He will have Donald Cooper, a former Augusta National caddie who has won a U.S. Open with Lucas Glover in 2009, on the bag this week.
Aldrich Potgieter
Age: 18
Residence: South Africa
Invitation: Current British Amateur champion
Need to know: Potgieter, ranked No. 32 in the World Golf Amateur rankings, is the youngest player in the field. Born in South Africa, he was raised in Australia.
Harrison Crowe
Age: 21
Residence: Sydney, Australia
Invitation: Current Asian-Pacific Amateur champion
Need to know: Crowe was able to play a practice round Monday with fellow Australians Jason Day and Min Woo Lee. Crowe said 20 family members and friends from Australia made the trip to see him play -- and he's staying in a rental house with 10 or 11, who are sharing six rooms, although he managed to "shotgun" a room for himself.
Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira
Age: 23
Residence: Buenos Aires, Argentina
College: University of Arkansas
Invitation: Current Latin American Amateur champion
Need to know: After just missing a berth in the Masters with a runnerup finish in the 2022 Latin America Amateur Championship, Fernandez de Oliveira punched his ticket to Augusta by winning it in January at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico. He'll have Ruben Yorio, who caddied for Angel Cabrera in his 2009 Masters win, on the bag this week.
Matthew McClean
Age: 29
Residence: Belfast, Ireland
Invitation: Current U.S. Mid-Amateur champion
Best Masters Finish: First appearance
Need to know: The Mid-Amateur champion is the oldest Amateur in the field at the age of 29. He is an optometrist and the first Irishman to ever win the Mid-Am.
Mito Pereira
Age: 28
Height, weight: 6'0, 196
Residence: Jupiter, Florida
College: Texas Tech University
Career victories: 6
Invitation: Top 4, 2022 PGA Championship. Top 50 Final World Golf Ranking 2022
Need to know: Pereira initially secured his spot at the Masters with a third-place finish at the PGA last year. The Chilean native represented his home country in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and finished in a tie for third, but lost in a seven-man playoff. He plays in the LIV Golf League.
Tom Kim
Age: 20
Height: 6'0
Residence: Seoul, South Korea
Career victories: 2
Invitation: Won qualifying PGA Tour event since 2022 Masters. Top 50 Final World Golf Ranking 2022
Need to know: The youngest professional in the field won the Wyndham Championship in August and the Shriners Children's Open in August to join Tiger Woods as the only players to win on the PGA Tour twice before turning 21. in the last 80 years. He is ranked No. 19 in the Official World Golf Rakings.
Kurt Kitayama
Age: 30
Height, weight: 5'7, 170
Chico, California
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Career victories: 1
Invitation: Won qualifying PGA Tour event since 2022 Masters. Top 50 Final World Golf Ranking 2022
Need to know: Kitayama bounced back from a triple bogey on the ninth hole in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March to win the tournament and earn his first Masters invite. He has played on 11 different tours around the world and has two wins on the DP World Tour.
Taylor Moore
Age: 29
Height, weight: 5'9, 160
San Angelo, Texas
College: University of Arkansas
Career victories: 1
Invitation: Won qualifying PGA Tour event since 2022 Masters
Need to know: Moore is the most recent professional to earn a Masters berth by winning a tournament as he took home $1,458,000 in prize money by taking the Valspar Championship in Florida on March 19. Four years ago, he suffered a collapsed lung while a member of the Korn Ferry Tour and worked his way back to achieve a dream of playing at Augusta National.
Adam Svensson
Age: 29
Height, weight: 6'0, 178
Residence: Surrey, Canada
College: Barry University
Career victories: 1
Invitation: Won qualifying PGA Tour event since 2022 Master
Need to know: This is the first appearance in an Major for Svensson, who won at Sea Island in November. He attended Division II Barry College in Miami Shores, Florida and racked up nine individual titles -- earning First Team All-America honors twice and leading his team to back-to-back national titles in 2013 and 2014.
Sahith Theegala
Age: 25
Height, weight: 6'3, 200
Residence: Spring, Texas
College: Pepperdine University
Career victories: 1
Invitation: Qualified for 2022 Tour Championship. Top 50 Final World Golf Ranking
Need to know: Theegala grew up mastering his game on municipal courses in Southern California and had the honor of hitting the first shot at the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. In his senior year of 2020 at Pepperdine, the son of immigrants from India, he became just the fifth player in NCAA history to sweep the Fred Haskins, Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan awards as the top player in college golf.
Ryan Fox
Age: 36
Height, weight: 6'0, 220
Residence: Auckland, New Zealand
Career victories: 0
Invitation: Top 50 Final World Golf Ranking 2022
Need to know: Fox is the oldest first-time professional Masters participant in the field. Fox has represented New Zealand in the Olympics twice and finished second in the DP World Tour season points race to Rory McIlroy in 2022.
Adrian Meronk
Age: 29
Height, weight: 6'5
Residence: Poland
Career victories: 0
Invitation: Top 50 Final World Golf Ranking 2022
Need to know: Meronk is the first player from Poland to ever play in the Masters. He represented his country in the Olympics and is also the first Polish golfer to win on the European Tour when he won the Irish Open in 2022. He played college golf at East Tennessee State.
Kazuki Higa
Age: 27
Height, weight: 5’2
Residence: Okinawa, Japan
Invitation: Special Invitation
Need to know: Higa may be the shortest golfer to ever compete in the Masters at 5-foot-2. Ian Woosnam, who won a green jacket in 1991, is 5-foot-4, and three-time champion Gary Player stands 5-foot-6.
Gordon Sargent
Age: 19
Residence: Birmingham, Ala.
College: Vanderbilt University
Invitation: Special invitation
Need to know: Ranked No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Sargent won the NCAA individual title playing as a freshman for Vanderbilt last season, becoming the first to achieve that feat since 2007. Sargent played a practice round with Justin Thomas.
Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: 2023 Masters: What you need to know about first-time players
