The wait for golf’s most anticipated event is no longer.
The 90th edition of the Masters will begin Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club. There will be 91 golfers looking to put on the Green Jacket this weekend, and in that field, seven have connections to North Carolina.
Four North Carolina locals will make their first Masters start, and all will look to etch their name in history for the first time. Mark O’Meara, who was born in Goldsboro, was the last golfer to with North Carolina ties to win the tournament in 1998.
Here’s a look at those with ties to the state, from natives to former college golfers.
Cameron Young
Cameron Young, 28, will compete in the Masters for the fifth time. Young went to Wake Forest, earning honorable mention All-American honors and winning the U.S. Collegiate Championship and the Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational as a freshman.
Young’s best showing at the Masters was in 2023 when he tied for seventh. In last year’s tournament, he missed the cut.
This year, Young, who ranks second in the FedEx Cup standings, took home The Players Championship title in March, shooting 13 under par. He also finished third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and seventh in the Genesis Invitational, earning top 10 finishes in his last three tournaments.
Akshay Bhatia
Akshay Bhatia, 24, will make his third start at the Masters. He moved to Wake Forest as a child and turned pro in 2019 without playing in college.
Bhatia’s best Masters tournament was in 2024 when he tied for 35th. Last year, he tied for 42nd, and in 2024, he tied for 35th.
In March, Bhatia won the playoff hole against Daniel Berger to take home the Arnold Palmer Invitational title. He earned two more top 10 finishes this year (WM Phoenix Open and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am), and ranks fourth in the FedEx Cup standings.
Max Greyserman
Max Greyserman, 30, is making his second Masters start. Greyserman attended Duke from 2013-17, winning the NJSGA Amateur Championship in 2015. He turned pro in 2017.
In his first Masters last year, Greyserman tied for 32nd, shooting one over par. Although he has yet to win on the PGA Tour, Greyserman has come close numerous times. In 2025, he finished second in the Baycurrent Classic after falling one stroke short of champion Xander Schauffele.
Then in 2024, Greyserman posted back-to-back runner-up finishes in the 3M Open and the Wyndham Championship.
Greyserman also posted some high finishes on the Kom Ferry Tour from 2019-24, including two runner ups in The Ascendant and the Pinnacle Bank Championship in 2023.
Michael Brennan
Michael Brennan, 24, is making his first Masters. He attended Wake Forest where he earned multiple All-American honors and tied for third in program history with eight individual titles. Brennan also holds the fourth-best career stroke average in Wake Forest history (71.46).
Prior to turning pro in 2024, Brennan competed in the 2023 U.S. Open as an amateur and represented the United States in the Arnold Palmer Cup.
In 2025, Brennan won three events on PGA Tour Americas and won the tour’s points race. He earned his first PGA Tour win that same year, finishing first in the Bank of Utah Championship in October. This year, Brennan’s best outing was the Puerto Rico Open in March, in which he tied for 26th.
Ryan Gerard
Raleigh native and Ravenscroft graduate Ryan Gerard, 26, is making his first Masters. Gerard went to UNC where he was a two-time All-American, made four NCAA Championship appearances and finished fourth in program history in career stroke average (71.65).
He turned pro in 2022, beginning his PGA Tour career in that year’s U.S. Open. That same year, Gerard won the Quebec Open on the PGA Tour Canada. In 2023, he earned two PGA Tour top five finishes at the Honda Classic and the Barracuda Championship. The next year, Gerard took home the BMW Charity Pro-Am title on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Gerard won the Barracuda Championship in 2025, and he has started 2026 with two PGA Tour runner-up finishes in the Sony Open and The American Express. He ranks 18th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Ben Griffin
Chapel Hill native and East Chapel Hill graduate Ben Griffin, 29, is making his first Masters start. Griffin earned multiple honorable mention All-America nods at UNC and as a freshman, achieved the lowest stroke average in a season (71.06) by a Tar Heel at the time since the program first recorded stats in 1979.
After turning pro in 2018, Griffin has found some success on the PGA Tour. He won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside teammate Andrew Novak, the Charles Schwab Challenge and the World Wide Technology Championship in 2025. That same year, Griffin also earned two runner-up results, seven top five placements and 12 top 10 finishes.
In 2024, Griffin finished in the top five twice and in the top 10 five times. His highest placement that season was a runner up result in the RBC Canadian Open, in which he was one stroke away from champion Robert MacIntyre.
This year, Griffin has yet to crack the top 10.
Andrew Novak
Andrew Novak, the 31-year-old who was born in Raleigh, is making his first Masters start.
On the PGA Tour, Novak has earned a top 10 finish this year after tying for seventh in the Farmers Insurance Open in January. He had a solid 2025, earning second place in the RBC Heritage and third in the Farmers Insurance Open and the Valero Texas Open on top of his win in the Zurich Classic alongside Griffin.
