Augusta National Golf Club is typically cruel to debutants, but no one told Matt McCarty.
The PGA Tour rookie fired a 4-under 68 in the second round of the 2025 Masters to put himself in contention at the halfway point of the tournament. He sits at 5-under through two rounds in his first-ever Masters start.
For many golf fans, this might be their first time seeing McCarty's name on the leaderboard. Let's get to know the Masters debutant who has a bright future on the PGA Tour no matter how he closes out the week.
Matt McCarty's journey to the PGA Tour
McCarty first flashed his potential as a high schooler when he won the 2014 Arizona Junior Match Play Championship in 2014. The Scottsdale native went on to play collegiate golf at Santa Clara University, where he earned All-West Coast Conference honors three times and won two more amateur tournaments.
He graduated in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in finance, then went to graduate school and earned a master's degree in marketing. He turned pro in 2021 and played his way to the Korn Ferry Tour a year later.
McCarty punched his ticket to the PGA Tour in 2024 by finishing first on the Korn Ferry points list and winning Player of the Year.
He was nearly unbeatable down the stretch of the season, winning three tournaments in the span of six weeks to secure his PGA Tour card. He became the first player to win three KFT events in a season since YouTube star Wesley Bryan in 2016.
McCarty's winning ways immediately translated to the big leagues, as he won the 2024 Black Desert Championship in just his third career PGA Tour event. He's one of just five players in PGA Tour history to score a win in three or fewer starts.
After a hot start to his PGA Tour career, the left-hander cooled off in 2025 with three missed cuts and only one top-50 finish in his first seven starts of the season. He found some form with back-to-back top-20 finishes at The Players Championship and Valspar Championship, and he's having his best week of the season at Augusta National.
McCarty is crashing the leaderboard in his Masters debut
Add another one to the list. Six birdies in the last eight holes. #themasters https://t.co/csVP5IPr1L pic.twitter.com/oAMW6p28o9
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 11, 2025
Augusta National is a golf course you need to play dozens of times to understand, but McCarty seems to have cracked the nuclear code in just his first Masters appearance.
The rookie fired a 1-under 71 in the first round and followed it up with a sizzling 4-under 68 in Round 2. After going double bogey-bogey on his first two holes Friday, McCarty rattled off eight birdies in his final 16 holes to put himself on the first page of the leaderboard through two rounds.
Lefties have a great track record around this place—just ask Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, and Mike Weir. McCarty is aiming to become the fourth lefty to win The Masters and the first debutant to don the green jacket since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.