Fans of professional golfers with Utah ties will have only one local favorite to cheer for on Thursday when the 90th Masters Tournament begins at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
And it won’t be Tony Finau.
For the first time since he made his Augusta debut in the 2018 Masters with a tie for 10th place, the 36-year-old Finau will not tee it up in what he has referred to as his favorite golf major. The former Salt Lake City and Lehi resident failed to qualify because he is outside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings (he’s currently 111th) and has not won a PGA Tour event in the past year.
However, former BYU golfer Mike Weir is in the field of 91 players — the smallest field of any of the four majors — because as the 2003 Masters champion, the Canadian who still lives in Utah, has a lifetime exemption into the tournament.
Weir, who mostly competes on the PGA Tour’s Champions Tour, is outside the top 300 in the OWGR and is not being given much of a chance to make the cut, let alone win the tournament. Weir, 55, who grew up in Brights Grove, Ontario, before playing for legendary coach Karl Tucker in Provo, is a huge long shot, according to USA Today.
The publication ranked all 91 golfers in the field and put Weir at T84 with another former champion, Angel Cabrera, and several others. Weir’s odds of winning are at 200,000 to 1, slightly better than the 300,000 to 1 odds being given to past champions Fred Couples and Vijay Singh.
When will Mike Weir tee off Thursday?
Weir will tee off in Group 19 at 9:27 a.m. MDT Thursday with former U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and Mateo Pulcini, an amateur from Argentina. Friday, that group will begin play at 6:02 a.m. MDT.
Weir has played in three Champions Tour events in 2026, with a T14 finish at the Hoag Classic last month in Newport Beach, California, his best finish this season. He earned $35,294 for the performance.
Fellow Canadians Nick Taylor and Corey Conners are also in the field.
“Weir’s victory in 2003 remains the best result by a Canadian at the Masters,” wrote the Golf Canada website.
Finau’s impressive streak comes to an end
Finau has played in 33 consecutive majors dating back to the 2017 U.S. Open and needed a win in last week’s Valero Texas Open to prolong the streak. He was tied for the lead after shooting a 66 in the first round, but faded as the tournament wore on and tied for 49th to earn $24,676.
Needing to win “gives me an extra piece of motivation, for sure,” Finau said after that opening round. “Winning always takes care of everything, no matter what. I’ve got one last opportunity to add to that major count. We will give it our best shot this week.”
Alas, it didn’t happen.
Finau has struggled to contend for more than a year now; his last top-10 finish was in the Genesis Invitational in February 2025.
At the Masters last year, Finau failed to make the cut for the first time in eight appearances. He missed the cut by two shots in the event that Rory McIlroy won in a playoff over Justin Rose to complete the career grand slam.
In the 2024 Masters won by Scottie Scheffler, Finau closed with a disappointing round of 80 to finish T55.
Scheffler is a significant favorite (+550) to win this week, followed by Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, McIlroy and Xander Schauffele.
Obviously, Finau is heartbroken that he won’t be there to give them a run for their money.
“It’s a golf course when I first played it and got on the grounds (that) was just one of those places that give you almost like a holy spiritual experience,” he told ABC 4 Utah’s Wesley Ruff in 2024. “It really is like one of the holy grails of golf, and so I feel that every time I am there it is just a special, special feeling that I will never take for granted.”
