One of the best parts of Masters week is getting to follow the amateurs in the field.
For some, it’s their first time at the famed Masters tournament in what each hopes will be a long stretch of making the trek down Magnolia Lane every April.
The five ams will compete for the title of low amateur. If they make the 36-hole cut, then they will battle for the Silver Cup. There is no low amateur awarded if none make the cut.
An amateur has never won the major, but the tournament has plenty of history involving ams, including the famed Crow’s Nest, the living space on the third floor of the Augusta National clubhouse, and the Monday night Amateur Dinner.
And don’t forget, Nick Dunlap would’ve been the sixth amateur in the field before turning professional in January.
Here’s a look at the five amateurs competing in the 88th Masters Tournament.
Santiago De la Fuente of Mexico poses with the trophy after winning during the final round of the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship at the Santa María Golf Club in Panamá on Sunday, January 21, 2024. Photograph by LAAC.
Santiago de la Fuente is making his first Masters appearance. The 22-year-old from Mexico won the Latin America Amateur Championship at Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama in January by two strokes over Omar Morales with a final-round 64, and de la Fuente became the second Mexican winner of that championship, joining 2019 champion Alvaro Ortiz.
Stewart Hagestad kisses the Robert T. Jones, Jr. Memorial Trophy after winning the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough, N.Y. on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
The professional amateur is back for more. Stewart Hagestad is making his third Masters appearance and his first since 2022. In his debut at Augusta National in 2017, he finished T-36 and became the first reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion to earn Low Amateur honors since Jay Sigel in 1988. Last year, he won the U.S. Mid-Amateur for the third time with a 3-and-2 victory over Evan Beck at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in New York. Just days earlier at St. Andrews in Scotland, he was part of his fourth winning United States Walker Cup team. His 33rd birthday is Wednesday, April 10.
Christo Lamprecht of South Africa looks at the trophy following his victory during the Final of Match Play on Day Four of The Amateur Championship at Hillside Golf Club on June 24, 2023 in Southport, United Kingdom. (Photo by Octavio Passos/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)
Christo Lamprecht is making his first Masters appearance. The 6-foot-8 senior at Georgia Tech is first in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and won The Amateur Championship last June with a 3-and-2 victory over Switzerland’s Ronan Kleu at Hillside Golf Club in England. He became South Africa’s fourth winner of The Amateur Championship. One month later, Lamprecht, 23, shared the lead after the first round of the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and won the silver medal as Low Amateur.
Neal Shipley yells after playing his approach shot on hole 17 during the semifinals of the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills C.C. in Cherry Hills Village, Colo. on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
The fan favorite of all the ams. Neal Shipley, 23, is making his first Masters appearance and is in the field thanks to his appearance in the final of the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado before finishing runner-up to Nick Dunlap. The graduate student at Ohio State University started 2024 by winning the Southwestern Invitational in California for his first collegiate victory and last summer, he finished second in the Dogwood Invitational, Sunnehanna Amateur and Trans-Mississippi Amateur.
Jasper Stubbs poses with the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship trophy, The Masters trophy and the Claret Jug, The Open Championship trophy, after winning the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo: Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship)
Jasper Stubbs is making his first Masters appearance. The 22-year-old won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia last October in a playoff over 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Wenyi Ding and 2023 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball co-champion Sampson Zheng. He became the fourth Australian winner of that championship, joining Harrison Crowe, who was in the Masters field last year.
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