The 90th Masters Tournament takes place at Augusta National Golf Club from April 9 to 12, 2026, with first-round tee times beginning at 11:30 EDT (UTC-4) and the final round’s featured groups teeing off at 14:30 EDT on Sunday.
There is no tournament in professional sport quite like the Masters. The same course every April. The same rituals, the same silence between shots, the same gasp when a ball catches the slope on the 12th green and tumbles into Rae’s Creek. Augusta National was built on a former plant nursery by Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie in the early 1930s, and every hole is named after a flower or shrub that grows on the grounds. The azaleas bloom on schedule, as though the club has a private arrangement with spring itself. Magnolia Lane, the 330-yard driveway that leads to the clubhouse, is the most famous entrance in golf. The patrons (never “fans,” not at Augusta) walk the course in near-silence, a discipline enforced by tradition and the threat of permanent ticket revocation.
Amen Corner, the three-hole stretch from the 11th through the 13th, has decided more Masters than any statistic or swing coach ever could. The par-3 12th, Golden Bell, is only 155 yards, but the swirling wind over Rae’s Creek has destroyed tournaments in seconds. The par-5 13th, Azalea, tempts players to go for the green in two over the water, a decision that separates champions from contenders. The back nine on Sunday at Augusta produces drama that no screenwriter could manufacture: Jack Nicklaus at age 46 in 1986, charging home with a 30 on the back nine to win his sixth green jacket while the gallery roared on every hole. Tiger Woods in 1997, winning his first major by 12 shots at age 21, a margin so absurd it forced the club to redesign the course. Tiger again in 2019, 14 years after his previous major, walking off the 18th green in the red shirt with his son waiting behind it, completing the greatest comeback in the history of sport.
The green jacket ceremony on the putting green is golf’s most iconic ritual. The previous year’s champion helps the new winner into the jacket. It stays at Augusta except for the first year, when the champion can take it home. No other trophy in sport carries this kind of mythology.
For European viewers, the EDT timezone delivers the Sunday drama in perfect prime-time slots. When the final group tees off around 14:30 EDT, it is 19:30 in London, 20:30 in Paris and Berlin, and 21:30 in Istanbul. The back nine at Augusta, where nearly every Masters is won or lost, plays out between 21:00 and 23:00 CET. For fans in Japan and East Asia, the timing is brutal: 14:30 EDT is 03:30 Monday morning in Tokyo and 05:30 in Sydney. Setting an alarm is required, but Japanese fans have done it for decades, and the reward has been worth it, especially in 2021 when Hideki Matsuyama became the first Japanese man to win a major at this very course. For viewers on the US West Coast, the 14:30 EDT start is 11:30 PDT, a comfortable late-morning slot for a Sunday watch.
The 2026 Masters opens the major season with the usual question: who will wear the green jacket? Scottie Scheffler, a two-time champion, is the clear favorite. Rory McIlroy arrives still chasing the career Grand Slam, his fifth major the only one missing. Jon Rahm, the 2023 champion, returns from LIV Golf to defend his love of Augusta’s par 5s. And Tiger Woods will walk through the ropes one more time, because Augusta is the one place he will always come back to.
For more on the venue, see our Augusta National guide. To check the current local time at the course, see Augusta time or browse all United States time zones.