The 90th edition of the annual Tournament starts Thursday morning at Augusta National Golf Club.
“I’ll have the little app or leaderboard thing on my phone, where I can check and see who’s leading it and stuff like that,” Smart said. “But I don’t even know who’s playing in it from UGA, that’s how out of touch I am. All the guys my age are all too old, don’t play anymore. I have to track all these young guys to see who’s playing. But I’m excited for them.”
Georgia has not had a winner since 2014, but the university will be well-represented at the tournament. Six former, current or future Bulldogs will compete, the most of any school.
So enjoy watching, and check out the rest of our coverage below.
Trivia time
Who is the last Georgia Bulldog to win the Masters?
Answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.
Future Georgia Bulldog Mason Howell to play Masters with Rory McIlroy
In 2016, Rory McIlroy handed a golf ball to a 9-year-old boy at the Tour Championship at East Lake.
Mason Howell kept the ball in his bedroom for years.
This week, the 18-year-old from Thomasville brought it with him to Augusta National, carrying it in his bag during practice rounds ahead of his Masters debut.
Howell and McIlroy will tee off together in Thursday’s opening round, following the tradition of grouping the defending Masters champion with the reigning U.S. Amateur winner. Howell plans to use McIlroy’s ball to break the tension.
“I’m going to say, ‘I’m going to play the first hole with a Nike,’ which I’m not,” he said. “It says ‘Rors’ on the side. That would be a power move.”
When asked about playing with Howell, McIlroy reflected on his experience playing two rounds at the 2010 U.S. Open with eight-time major winner Tom Watson.
“I think that’s the incredible thing about our game,” McIlroy said, “is because our careers are long, so many generations overlap.”
McIlroy defeated Justin Rose last year in a playoff to secure his first green jacket and complete the career Grand Slam of winning all four majors.
NFL scout says NFL teams ‘are afraid’ of this Georgia draft prospect
Offensive lineman Micah Morris is one of the many Georgia prospects hoping to hear his name called in this month’s NFL draft.
Morris was a multiyear starter at Georgia, manning the left guard position for the Bulldogs in 2025. He was the only player on Georgia’s offensive line to start every game last season, in addition to being regularly regarded as the strongest player on Georgia’s 2025 team.
After an impressive showing at the NFL combine, Morris seemed to have positioned himself well for being selected.
But ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler notes that NFL teams are on alert when it comes to Morris. After polling anonymous scouts and executives, Fowler shared that there are specific concerns with Morris when it comes to his work ethic.
“I’ll be curious where he goes because there are not many guards and he’s got a lot of ability,” one scout told Fowler. “But people are afraid of him.”
Georgia offensive linemen Monroe Freeling (left) and Micah Morris run a drill during Georgia's NFL proday at Payne Indoor Athletic Facility on March 18, 2026, in Athens. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
“These O-linemen come in and none of them are, like, a finished product, and he got to go against a lot of good players. He got to compete against a really good offensive line group. When you think of the seven or eight starters that are starting in the National Football League that were ahead of him, there’s a reason why he took his time to start and play.”
Which Georgia transfer additions are standing out
No group of players is under a bigger microscope this spring than the nine-man transfer class that Georgia welcomed into the program.
While the Bulldogs signed a strong high school recruiting class, they were more frugal when it came to adding players via the transfer portal.
Georgia didn’t spend as lavishly as LSU or Texas, with Smart conceding as much this week. While the transfer class didn’t command as much money, they have earned plenty of practice reps.
“I don’t know that we have the best players or the most talented players or the highest-paid players,” Smart said. “But we will have the players that get the most reps and get the most improvement and the most coaching and most development.”
Not every transfer that Georgia brought in arrives with the same clock in terms of eligibility. Safety Khalil Barnes and running back Dante Dowdell have just one season of college football remaining. Cornerback Braylon Conley has three and quarterback Bryson Beaver has five years to play four seasons of college football.
