Former Clemson ACC golfer of the year, Jacob Bridgeman, went into the Masters Tournament week atop the FedEx Cup points standings. With each of the last four Masters winners all atop the FedEx Cup points going into the week, there was reasonable hope Bridgeman could accomplish the same.
Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm all were in the top three in the Official World Golf Rankings when they put on the green jacket. If the lack of OWGR points wasn’t enough, it was also Bridgeman’s first appearance at the world’s most beloved tournament.
Bridgeman started the tournament off with a confidence-building first round with a 1-under-par 71. However, he still had a few missed opportunities throughout the round, including a missed birdie opportunity on the par-5 second hole. He went just long of the green in two after a 360-yard drive. Unfortunately, he missed the chip on the green and ended up with par. Bridgeman went on to birdie the hole every other day.
He started the second round on Friday by missing only one fairway, by just a couple of yards, until the 14th hole. He found himself in the pine straw right on 14 and was forced to punch out. With his third miss, he missed his mark by about 15 yards, and the punishing slopes of Augusta pulled him off the green and well back into the fairway. Jacob double-bogeyed the 14th and finished the round 2-over-par 74.
All things considered, the opening two days were still very impressive for the Masters first-timer. Despite a shakier second round, Bridgeman still made the cut by a healthy margin.
To start the weekend, Bridgeman hit his 3-foot birdie putt on hole three too hard, causing the ball to lip out. Still, he didn’t let that unfortunate break dictate how the rest of his round went. He found 12 fairways and hit 14 greens in regulation on Saturday, firing a 3-under 69 to move him into red numbers on the leaderboard.
Bridgeman had a sporadic fourth-round scorecard to end the tournament. In the first nine on Sunday, he made just two pars and finished the day with seven bogeys and three birdies. The ball striking took a steep drop-off, compared to the previous three days, and he finished tied for 41st after a final-round score of 76.
Before the Masters, Bridgeman was statistically the best putter on the tour, and he remains second in strokes gained per round with the flatstick. Bridgeman is +1.22 strokes per round, according to DataGolf, though he lost over a half stroke each day in his first Masters Tournament.
It is not uncommon for a rookie to struggle at the famed Augusta National, and considering that Jacob is one of the best putters on tour, he will likely have a chance to put together a more complete performance next year, given the experience he will have.
Bridgeman is currently teeing it up this week in South Carolina, playing in the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head at the iconic Harbour Town Golf Links. The second round began Friday morning after the first round on Thursday, where Bridgeman shot 4-over-par 75 and finished the day on the lower end of the leaderboard.
Despite a shaky start to the RBC Heritage, the ball-striking promise Bridgeman showed on the first three days at the Masters and the exceptional putting he has displayed this year, we likely have not seen the last of him topping leaderboards going into this 2026 major season.
