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AUGUSTA, Ga. — The 2026 Masters will officially begin at 7:25 a.m. ET on Thursday, April 9, when Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson hit the ceremonial tee shots off the first tee in one of the great Augusta National Golf Club traditions. After three of the tournament’s greatest champions open play, the rest of the 91-player Masters field will begin their quest to join them as Masters champions.
The favorites, sleepers, past champions and potential surprise contenders will all be off and running as early as 7:40 a.m. Defending champion Rory McIlroy begins his quest to become the first back-to-back Masters champion since Tiger Woods in 2001-02 at 10:31 a.m., playing alongside Cameron Young and amateur Mason Howell.
The world No. 1 and heavy favorite, Scottie Scheffler, will be on the opposite side of the tee sheet, going off in the penultimate group at 1:44 p.m. with Robert MacIntyre and Gary Woodland. Other featured groups on Thursday morning include Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele, teeing off two groups before McIlroy at 10:07 a.m. Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa and Russell Henley will be next on the tee at 10:19 a.m.
In the afternoon, Jon Rahm, Chris Gotterup and Ludvig Åberg will tee off at 1:08 p.m., followed by Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Brooks Koepka at 1:20 p.m. The latter may be the surprise grouping of the first two rounds.
Check out the full list of first-round tee times and pairings for the 90th Masters below, and don’t forget to dive into the 2026 Masters TV schedule and coverage guide so you know exactly when and how to watch throughout the week.
Watch all four rounds of the 2026 Masters with expanded coverage from CBS Sports. It starts Thursday with Masters Live as we follow the best in the world on Featured Groups, Amen Corner and holes 15 & 16. Watch those streams live across Paramount+, CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports App with extended broadcast coverage Saturday and Sunday from 12-2 p.m. on Paramount+ and 2-7 p.m. on CBS.
All times Eastern
2026 Masters tee times, Thursday groupings7:40 a.m. — John Keefer, Haotong Li
7:50 a.m. — Naoyuki Kataoka, Max Homa, Carlos Ortiz8:02 a.m. — Jose Maria Olazabal, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Aldrich Potgieter8:14 a.m. — Angel Cabrera, Sami Valimaki, Jackson Herrington8:26 a.m. — Charl Schwartzel, Max Greyserman, Ryan Fox8:38 a.m. — Vijay Sing, Matt McCarty, Rasmus Højgaard8:50 a.m. — Kurt Kitayama, Kristoffer Reitan, Casey Jarvis
9:02 a.m. — Bubba Watson, Nicolas Echavarria, Brandon Holtz9:19 a.m. — Cameron Smith, Sam Burns, Jake Knapp9:31 a.m. — Keegan Bradley, Ryan Gerard, Nick Taylor9:43 a.m. — Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry, Jason Day9:55 a.m. — Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood, Akshay Bhatia10:07 a.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele10:19 a.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley
10:31 a.m. — Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Mason Howell10:43 a.m. — Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Alex Noren11:03 a.m. — Sam Stevens, Sungjae Im11:15 a.m. — Andrew Novak, Tom McKibbin, Brian Campbell11:27 a.m. — Mike Weir, Wyndham Clark, Mateo Pulcini11:39 a.m. — Zach Johnson, Michael Kim, Nicolai Højgaard11:51 a.m. — Danny Willett, Davis Riley, Ethan Fang12:03 a.m. — Adam Scott, Daniel Berger, Brian Harman12:15 p.m. — Fred Couples, Min Woo Lee, Fifa Laopakdee12:27 p.m. — Sergio Garcia, Aaron Rai, Jacob Bridgeman12:44 p.m. — Harry Hall, Corey Conners, Michael Brennan12:56 p.m. — J.J. Spaun, Maverick McNealy, Tyrrell Hatton1:08 p.m. — Jon Rahm, Chris Gotterup, Ludvig Åberg1:20 p.m. — Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka1:32 p.m. — Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, Justin Thomas1:44 p.m. — Scottie Scheffler, Robert MacIntyre, Gary Woodland1:56 p.m. — Harris English, Marco Penge, Si Woo Kim