The 2026 Masters Golf Tournament Starts Thursday — Here Is the Atmosphere After Tiger's Arrest

The Masters Golf Tournament begins days after Tiger Woods announced rehabilitation. Here is how Augusta will handle his absence and who the favourites are in the most unusual Masters in years.

The 2026 Masters Tournament — beginning Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club — arrives in the specific shadow of Tiger Woods's announced rehabilitation absence in a way that no previous Masters has experienced, because no previous Masters has been preceded by a DUI arrest of the sport's most iconic active figure (however limited his 2025 tournament activity was) who had been publicly preparing for the tournament.

For Augusta's specific relationship with Tiger Woods: the Masters is the tournament most completely defined by Woods's specific legacy — his 1997 win at 21 that transformed the tournament's demographics and television audience, his subsequent wins in 2001, 2002, 2005, and the emotional 2019 comeback victory whose specific viewer experience was described by CBS's highest-rated sporting broadcast in years. His absence from Augusta in 2026 creates the specific absence whose presence — if that phrase is permissible — will be felt throughout the week.

For Phil Mickelson's specific absence: the confirmation that Mickelson dropped out of the Masters — another of golf's most iconic names missing from the field — adds to the specific generation-change quality of this particular edition.

For the competitive field: without Woods and with questions about several established champions' form, the specific competitive landscape opens toward the specific generation of players — Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy (whose specific Augusta narrative involves fifteen years of near-misses), Jon Rahm — whose individual ambitions create the specific dramatic possibilities that the week will develop.

For McIlroy specifically: the Masters is the specific major that McIlroy needs to complete the career Grand Slam whose specific incompleteness has been the most discussed gap in any active golfer's record. Augusta is the specific pressure that his specific ambition creates every April, and this specific April provides the specific opportunity whose resolution will be April's most watched golf storyline.